Smart Chip Credit Card
 

For anyone who has suffered from a "swipe" credit card at parking garages, gas stations, toll booths, etc Hyatt now has a smart chip card with Chase, and also no transaction fees.

British Air - 100,000 miles, chip, no int fee but $100 per year.

nice, but the Hyatt Chase card has a annual fee as well.
any smart chip cards without annual fees?
but its nice to see that smart chip cards are gradually being propagated

It's important to note, though, that often what you need is "chip and PIN", while the US chip cards are chip and signature. There are sporadic reports of chip and sig cards working if you enter "0000" or perhaps "1234". There's more discussion of it on flyer talk.com

Just for the sake of clarification, several of these Chase cards have the "Chip And Sign" technology. They don't have the "Chip and Pin" method that places such as kiosks, some parking machines, or some gas stations require. IIRC, there is unfortunately no card available in the US that has the "Chip and Pin" technology.
With that said, I assume most places that did not 'swipe' before due to a lack of a chip (e.g. restaurants) would be easier to work with this technology.

Chip and Pin
 

Just returned three days ago from my ED. I used an ANDREW's Federal Credit Union Chip and PIN VISA.

While at most places, such as restaurants, it worked as chip and signature, it worked very well as a CHIP and PIN in parking garages and train/subway stations. Saved my butt a couple of times.

I did have to open a checking account with them, but I just put in $25.00 and then fill out credit app and become "member". Just a bunch of paper work.

Not sure why a signature was required at restaurants/stores, but worked fine for me with PIN at unattended parking garage and a subway station.

Wow that's great news... :thumbup:

Yup, at this point this appears to be the *only* US-based credit card that is true chip & PIN. Others (like Chase, US Bank Flexperks, JP Morgan Signature, etc. are chip & sign). The process to get an Andrews FCU card is a bit of a pain, you should allow about a month to get one - but worth it if you want to use automated kiosks at toll booths & train stations.

As another poster mentioned there's a very long thread about this on flyertalk if you want to learn more.

There must be more choices than that - for example, the credit unions which server our European based military must surely have chip-and-pin cards.. :dunno:

You're right, the Andrews credit union is intended for military personnel or civilians who work on the base, but there's a way for us normal folk to get an account too. I just checked back on the Flyertalk thread and it looks like there's a State Department FCU card that is also chip & pin (added plus, zero foreign transaction fees). It appears the Andrews card may not be the only (or even the best) option any more.

Now, YMMV on this as I've heard mixed reports... and the exchange rate isn't great to be honest but I got the Travelex Cash Passport card when I did my ED. It's a debit card, so you just put cash on it (which you can do during your trip as well) and then spend it using the chip & pin system. I actually ended up using my regular debit card a lot of the time (restaurants and the like) but had 500 Euros on the Cash Passport for everything else. Found it damned useful at the U-Bahn in Munich, gas stations and the like that wouldn't take my US debit card.

Many stores in Germany just aren't set up for signature cards any more... I ended up using it more than I thought I would (and ended up "charging" it at least once) but because of the not-too-favourable exchange rate I elected to just stick with my regular card most of the time. There are no annual fees or anything, and I still have the card sitting on my desk for the next european trip I take.

Worst case, it's probably worth it to get one of these and stick a couple hundred dollars on it just as an emergency fall-back.

Didn't Chase bank have cards like this at one time?
I know some of my banking cards have "blink" technology. Is that the same type of chip?

Sent from a HTC EVO

Just got a chip and PIN card from Citibank, had to ask for it, but it's been working fine in the UK last week, and this week here in Munich.

You would definitely think that, but not even USAA offers Chip & PIN cards for their banking customers who might be deployed overseas.

-MrB

:stupid:

At least their mobile app works so you can deposit USD checks over there.

That's good to know; since I get tons of Germans and Italians to pay me for stuff with personal checks denominated in USD. :rolleyes:

-MrB

I was in Zurich a few years back and looking for a "manned" gas station to fill up to use my non-chip credit card since all the "unmanned" stations required either cash in their automatic machines or a credit card with a chip.

After driving around I found a "manned" station. I was disappointed because the attendant told me I still needed a credit card with a chip, or an AMEX card without a chip would work. I did have a USAA AMEX card, and much to my surprise, it worked.

Not sure if the same would apply in Italy or other countries.

I have traveled throughout Europe...3-4 times per year...and have never had an issue with my non-chip cards at any restaurant, hotel, shop or gas station.

here's the google docs (of compiled US chip cards) link from the flyer talks forum guys

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...vTUMxdUE#gid=0

and the thread
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...signature.html

What's the benefit of chip and pin?

For the most part you're right. I'm there every month and my corporate swipe-only card works for almost every transaction I make. But it won't work at automated kiosks in train stations, motorway tollbooths, etc. You must have chip & pin to use those.

You cannot compare a swipe only card to any of the EMV chip cards, which are either chip & pin or chip and signature. The chip and pin work on any type of automated machine while the chip and signature will alway work on an automated machine with on line verification, but not on all automated machines that can only verify from a pin # embedded in the chip. The new cards from Chase, such as the Hyatt and British Airway cards are chip and signature. There are disadvantages to both. See FlyerTalk.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...ussion-20.html

Never had a problem at an automated tollbooth in Austria or Italy with my AMEX. If you're going to France, you can buy a "Télépéage" or basically a French EZ-Pass before you go. You'll be glad you did, since the traffic at the frequent tollbooths is frequently awful.

Only U/S Bahn ticket readers gave me a problem, and that was a 50/50 success rate. The biggest problem I had were merchants who insisted that they had to stick it in the reader, and had no clue their machines were capable to swipe.

I would be interested to know if the geo-restriction on a Square actually works. I got one after returning to the US and haven't tested it out.

Is it confirmed to be chip and pin ? the google doc spreadsheet in this thread lists is as chip and signature. If it works fine with pin I can just ask them to send me one since I already have a citi platinum select ?