PIN code required abroad?
You now have a credit card fitted with a chip. This means that you will usually need your PIN code to make payments abroad. In most countries visited by tourists, many of the POS terminals and automatic tellers are now equipped to accept credit cards fitted with a chip.
The situation in Europe is as follows:*
|
suitable automatic tellers |
suitable POS terminals |
| Belgium |
45% |
82% |
| Luxembourg |
100% |
100% |
| France |
99% |
97% |
| Spain |
84% |
64% |
| Italy |
64% |
45% |
| Greece |
52% |
50% |
| Netherlands |
95% |
8% |
* Source: NVB at the start of Q4 2007
Paying with a credit card that has a chip and PIN code
The procedure for paying with this kind of credit card is as follows. First, you will need to insert the chip into the POS terminal. You will no longer have to swipe the magnetic strip through the card reader nor will you be required to sign anything. Instead, you will almost always be asked to enter your PIN code.
Whether or not you can use this new payment method at a particular location depends on the POS terminal at that location. After all, the POS terminals in the Netherlands and abroad will first have to be adapted to accept payment by chip and PIN code, although many POS terminals in Europe have already been adapted for this purpose. In the Netherlands, we expect that the majority of POS terminals will be adapted this year.
Since it takes time to adapt POS terminals, the new credit cards will still have a magnetic strip. Credit cards with a magnetic strip or chip can be used anywhere.
NB: The chip on the new credit card cannot be used as an e-purse/prepayment card (‘chip card’). The chip on your credit card is used in conjunction with the PIN code to replace the magnetic strip and signature that are used when making payments. The chip on your credit card is intended for data security purposes. In contrast, the chip fitted to your bank or ‘chip’ card functions as a prepayment card or e-purse (‘chipknip’) and can only be used in the Netherlands.