Mine worked quite nicely in Canada - and I'll know about Europe in July. I've been an Andrews member since 1980, so that wasn't an issue for me. Glad you got it sorted.
Note: the State Department Credit Union is advertising chip-pin cards on WTOP (a local DC radio station). You have to be a member, of course, but the radio ads indicate that all are welcome.
IanJ, I am glad I stumbled upon your post, because otherwise I would not think about getting one. I actually called Bank of America, where I have a credit card and they said they will just send me a chip and pin card. By the way I will be picking up my bike from Wheatwhacker in June:)
Take some cash. A bit more than you need. I travel a lot in France. And have about five different kind's of plastic to use. One of them is the pre payed card that you load up with Euro's. So far on the un-maned card payment system I've not found one that work's. The ATM's do, but petrol and hotel booking un-maned don't. How to solve the problem is to wait until a French man come's along, explane the problem. Show him your money. And six to four he will buy what you want on his card and you give him the money. So far I have never found that to fail. John933
Got my Bank of America card and it's a Pin and Signature. So really useless for unmanned kiosks. I will need to look into another option.
I'm not sure that's true. We have unmanned kiosks in the states for the mag-stripe-and-signature. Seems to me that the important bit is that the unmanned doodad is equipped to read the info on your card so as to charge the right account. I just arrived outside of paris with a BoA chip-and-signature card. I can try to find an unmanned kiosk and let you know how it goes. Maybe I'll go up into the city to go see something this weekend.
My understanding is that chip and PIN is the accepted standard in Europe, and chip and signature systems are less common, particularly among the unmanned systems like 24 hour gas stations. Give me 6 months, and I'll tell you if that's really true or not.
I'm Swedish, and I lived in a few different European countries except my own, and the only place I've seen chip+signature was the Mercadona supermarket chain in Spain. Then again, chip+signature seems like a rather worthless system anyway. I can't imagine "writing" with a stylus on a slippery plastic surface at an odd angle with no wrist support makes my signature anything like what it would look like otherwise. As an aside, in the Netherlands, most places don't accept foreign credit cards at all, it has to be issued by a Dutch bank. Completely retarded.
Go to BA.com and get the Chase British Airways card. No foreign transaction fees, great service, 50,000 Avios (BA frequent flyer miles. Took me less than 5 minutes to sign up and get approval (I already have a Chase Preferred card). It'll be here in time for our April-May Baja ride (to avoid those pesky fees) and then we'll use it for our July-August European ride (where the chip is a benefit). Downside: the card costs $95/yr. and the interest rates are high. Upside: BA Avios are one of the best deals for frequent flyer mile travel and we pay it off every month so no interst payments. 1.25 Avios per dollar spent is a good deal, too.
Try this one. Fairfx.com. This is a cash card that you load with euros, and Fairfx give you the best exchange rate, that I have found in the UK and you don't pay the usual foreign exchange fee of 3% that a UK based crd charges when I am in the euro zone. It's also useful for buying stuff from the eurozone. Last year my Fairfx card was skimmed and the account emptied, I got all the money back after about 2 weeks, so always a good idea to have a back up card! I used Travelex card in south Africa in December, same principal worked well
Plenty of credit cards have no foreign transaction fees. Get the one that provides things like frequent flyer miles that benefit you when travelling.The best deal is often to cash in those "miles" for dollars and charge your flight on the card to get more miles that you swap for credit to pay whatever you have charged. It's a game. If done carefully you don't lose. Be careful, very careful.....
