Question about ATM machines in Europe

[Landshark44]

My son is in Europe playing soccer. He's 14 years old, traveling with his team, my wife and I are not with him. Most of his expenses are already paid for.

I sent him with $200 cash, and gave him a TDBank connect card with another $200 on it. I thought this was a good idea as I could monitor the card and add funds if needed. They assured me at the bank he could use it in England, Spain, and Italy.. I called and told them he would be overseas (so, as not to raise the "suspicious activity" flag)...

He told me through text, that he has been unable to use the card. I found out through an internet search that Europe has moved to a chip-based card and the one that my son has is a magnetic strip. He says that places are not accepting the card.

He will be at Heathrow Airport tonight, flying to Barcelona. Will he be able to find an ATM in the airport that will accept his magnetic strip card? Any help on this is much appreciated.. I'm thinking he will have the same issues in Spain.

I wish someone at TDbank or Visa would have told me, as I made it very clear what I was using the card for....

[JPhillips]

I was in France last summer and I could use the card at most ATMs and shops. They do use chip based cards, but ATMs worked fine with a PIN and most shops could accept both. Are you sure it isn't a problem with that card in specific? Have you called the bank?

[Landshark44]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I was in France last summer and I could use the card at most ATMs and shops. They do use chip based cards, but ATMs worked fine with a PIN and most shops could accept both. Are you sure it isn't a problem with that card in specific? Have you called the bank?

We used the card in the US before he left to test it.. . It's been hard to text him and find out what exactly is going on. I know that he is in good hands, and there are people there he can get money from if needed... I just thought the ATM thing may be worth a try...

[Groundhog]

TDBank gave you bad advice... I'm sure different countries have their own quirks, but for either technological reasons or good business sense a lot of vendors require a chip+PIN, as it's a lot harder to rip off.

ATMs will be a mixed bag with no chip. I would think that, given it's a VISA card, he should not have too many trouble withdrawing money from within a bank with the proper ID.

[CraigSca]

So many places in Europe and China where I couldn't use my non-chipped card. Pain in the rear.

[Bisbo]

We were in Japan recently, and the only place I could use my non-chip ATM card was at ATMs in 7-11.

[britrock88]

Srsly, 'Murica, c'mon with this.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, when I was back home (UK) in January for the first time I couldn't buy something at one of the larger department stores in the UK, they literally wouldn't/couldn't accept anything other than chip and pin.

That being said, all the ATM's I used in a two week span still accepted cards with magnetic strips, I find it very hard to believe that has changed in 6 months. And I definitely took money out at Heathrow on the way through. I would be absolutely stunned if he couldn't find one at Heathrow and even if he couldn't, he could go to one of the currency stores and use it there.

FWIW, pretty sure chip and pin is coming to the States real soon. We are having to make changes at work to accept it.

[stevew]

God, this is timely and a pain in the ass. I guess I'm going to get her a prepaid card at AAA but if it's not chipped I'm not sure it's worth it.

[Solecismic]

I wish it were good news. American banks are starting to go to chip and signature, but that's not going to be all that useful in the rest of the world.

I've found that most places with humans behind a counter still take our credit cards, but gas stations and train stations are chip-and-pin or nothing. With ATMs, I usually had luck with my Mastercard debit card, which I don't like to use. But my American Express was almost useless. I remember a two-hour adventure in a small town in France trying to refuel our rental car - me with my extremely limited French vocabulary. Zut allors.

In the bigger cities, your son will find a way to find someone. And if he's traveling with the team, at least the toughest hurdle - transportation - is already covered. Just warn him that getting on the subways at small stations may be tricky. Cash is useless.

Oh, and if some phone rep in America tries to convince you that a debit card with a pin is the same thing as chip-and-pin, hang up. Completely different.

[Landshark44]

It doesn't look like he was able to withdraw funds.., I just checked the account

Maybe he will have some luck in Spain with it..

[Logan]

I don't remember Europe using the "and pin" piece of that. They would just stick my card in the front of the machine, chip first, and run the card.

[lungs]

I never had a problem with my debit card (Mastercard I think?) in Germany last October. Also ran my Visa credit card at a few restaurants without problems.

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I've found that most places with humans behind a counter still take our credit cards, but gas stations and train stations are chip-and-pin or nothing.

Yep - was in Copenhagen a few years ago and the automatic train ticket dispenser would not accept ANY of my cards or cash. I had no way to pay for a ticket back to our hotel, but the entire time I was there, no one on the train checked for a ticket. I get on with my colleagues and, of course, there's a train cop on this train. They checked me for a ticket and I explained the situation, but they made me get off at the next stop (which was miles away from nowhere). Eventually, I was able to find someone who would swipe their card for me in exchange for cash (at a 10:1 ratio of value - argh).

[Neuqua]

Most banks here are starting to switch over to the Chip and Pin technology, about half of my credit cards now have the chip in them. This is the one piece of technology that America is woefully behind the rest of the world on.

[Toddiec]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I was in France last summer and I could use the card at most ATMs and shops. They do use chip based cards, but ATMs worked fine with a PIN and most shops could accept both. Are you sure it isn't a problem with that card in specific? Have you called the bank?

I just want to follow up on what JPhillips said about calling the bank. I know the bank I work for has some built in fraud protection that will lock a card down if you use it in an 'out of the ordinary' manner. Geographic location is the big one and using it in the US and then trying to use it in a foreign country soon after that would most likely trigger ours. I am not sure what your bank does, but worth a check. Granted, the fraud prevention company does try to call the owner when a card is locked but we run into problems with old phone numbers on the system, people not answering because they think it is a spam call from an unknown number, etc. that sometimes hinder that.

The bank should also be able to look at the specific rejection codes for the transactions on their system and can usually hunt down a cause from that.

[Groundhog]

Do people actually try to use US cash in Europe? I would be very surprised if people accepted it. In Australia it definitely wouldn't fly.

[Landshark44]

Originally Posted by Toddiec

I just want to follow up on what JPhillips said about calling the bank. I know the bank I work for has some built in fraud protection that will lock a card down if you use it in an 'out of the ordinary' manner. Geographic location is the big one and using it in the US and then trying to use it in a foreign country soon after that would most likely trigger ours. I am not sure what your bank does, but worth a check. Granted, the fraud prevention company does try to call the owner when a card is locked but we run into problems with old phone numbers on the system, people not answering because they think it is a spam call from an unknown number, etc. that sometimes hinder that.

The bank should also be able to look at the specific rejection codes for the transactions on their system and can usually hunt down a cause from that.

i called ahead of time, and told them specifically (sp?) that my son would be using the card in europe. i did this to avoid any "suspicious activity" flags. at no point did they mention that my son would have trouble using the card. i called customer service last night and after getting through 4 supervisors, was told the equivilant of "our bad, sorry we can't help you"....

i'm so ticked off. i wish i could take some sort of legal action... if it wasn't for a few friends I have on the team.. my 14 year old would have 10 days left with no cash. i guess maybe i should have known, but...

i was assured that the card was good "wherever VISA is accepted" throughout the world. I think they misrepresented the card...

[bhlloy]

I'm sure most U.S. banks have no idea where their cards are accepted beyond the Visa tag line BS. I've had truly hilarious conversations with my banks trying to get the information needed to get some money transferred from the UK to the U.S., which is something you would think a bank would know

[miked]

I am in Ireland right now and it's chip or nothing. Luckily Wells Fargo sent me a new chip card a few weeks ago without me asking, I had no idea. My AMEX is useless, but few places here take it. I have found that a lot of stores in Ireland seem to be cash only, which is odd. I haven't tried to pay in dollars yet but I'm 99% certain they would not take it...people don't seem to be in a rush to figure the conversion.

[stevew]

How do you tell if a card has pin and chip?

[Groundhog]

TBH, again, I'm a bit shocked that people seem to expect European countries to accept US$. First thing I do when I go to any country is exchange money for the local currency. There's a few exceptions - obviously central America, but some parts of SE Asia too.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by stevew

How do you tell if a card has pin and chip?

There's no way to tell if it has a PIN outside of the knowledge of you setting one at some point, but the chip is visible on the card.

[Solecismic]

Just remember that chip-and-PIN is a different technology from the PIN you have with your ATM card. Don't let any customer service rep give you the wrong idea - spend some time researching online before concluding that your card will work everywhere in Europe.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

TBH, again, I'm a bit shocked that people seem to expect European countries to accept US$. First thing I do when I go to any country is exchange money for the local currency. There's a few exceptions - obviously central America, but some parts of SE Asia too.

I don't think anyone in this thread is assuming that, the OP is talking about a pre-paid card you can load money on in US dollars and then take out money or use as a card in the local currency the other end. My dad does this every time he comes over to the US and swears by it (the other way around of course)

A chip and PIN card has a really visible half inch square chip on the front that looks kinda like a little circuit board. If you aren't sure if your card has it, it doesn't. It's not something you could miss.

[stevew]

So I went out looking tonight and nothing has a chip.

Any thoughts on the AAA Prepaid Visa?

http://www.aaa.com/AAA/FinancialSvcs...ravelMoney.pdf

It seems like it should work, but now I'm all wary that I'll be stuck in a similar situation to Landshark. And if that's the case, I'd rather just moneygram some cash to her if it's necessary later on during her trip.

[miked]

Most of my students this summer have been getting Western Union for cash. Not sure about the charges and conversions, but even most prepaid VISAs will charge up to 3% per transaction overseas. I think there are a few, but the only way to do it would be to open an actual account and put money in it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

A chip and PIN card has a really visible half inch square chip on the front that looks kinda like a little circuit board. If you aren't sure if your card has it, it doesn't. It's not something you could miss.

Nope, you couldn't. Got my first one in the mail a couple of days ago and was like "well, that's ... obvious".

[nilodor]

It's been funny travelling the US the last few years. I think we got chip cards 6 or 7 years ago and when we went to the US people thought the cards were messed up. It's crazy that the US seems to be one of the last major countries to go this way.

[Toddiec]

Originally Posted by Landshark44

i called ahead of time, and told them specifically (sp?) that my son would be using the card in europe. i did this to avoid any "suspicious activity" flags. at no point did they mention that my son would have trouble using the card. i called customer service last night and after getting through 4 supervisors, was told the equivilant of "our bad, sorry we can't help you"....

i'm so ticked off. i wish i could take some sort of legal action... if it wasn't for a few friends I have on the team.. my 14 year old would have 10 days left with no cash. i guess maybe i should have known, but...

i was assured that the card was good "wherever VISA is accepted" throughout the world. I think they misrepresented the card...

Ah, gotcha. You made the call beforehand which is exactly what you should have done. I should have prefaced my comments by saying that my experience is from a smaller institution so my advice may not be the same for larger banks. When a customer calls in and tells us they are going overseas we usually can rely on past experiences with other customers to say 'it will work here, it won't work there', etc. But at the end of the day, bhlloy is correct in saying that if we don't have that experience we pass on the information from VISA which is the best info we have. I would have the same angry feelings you are currently having if I were in your situation, especially because you were proactive in informing the bank.

Keep in good spirits and I hope your son is enjoying the trip because other than the money issues it sounds like it is a 'once-in-a-lifetime' experience.