One Cruiser's Experience with Credit Cards

We just got back from a cruise that began in Southampton and ended in Copenhagen. We added five days of independent travel in London pre-cruise and three days in Copenhagen post-cruise. Since none of our ports were Italian ports, what I'm about to say may have some limited usefulness. However, I thought CC members would still appreciate hearing a first hand report about the state of credit cards in at least one region of Europe.

Do not make yourself crazy worrying about the kind of credit card you'll be bringing to Europe! The standard advice is you'll be fine making purchases processed by a human even if your credit cards are the old swipe and sign cards, the least technologically sophisticated. The standard advice goes on to say, for purchases at machines, you'll need both a chip credit card and PIN. Not quite!

I visited ten countries in Northern Europe (The Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Poland, and the UK), on the Baltic Sea (Estonia and Lithuania) and Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden, and Denmark). I was carrying new credit cards, full European-style Chip and PIN cards. Of the dozens of purchases I made, including two at machines, I only used my PIN once!

Every time, I used my card, instead of the hand-held charge device asking for my PIN, the machine would spit out a printed receipt for me to sign. The lone exception was charging our admission to the VASA ship museum in Stockholm using the un-manned machines. (That had the extra layer of challenge since there was no option to ask for instructions in English. I just used my instinct and hoped I was putting my PIN in at the right time. It worked.) Using a machine in the Underground in London, I should have been required to use my PIN based on the standard advice, but I wasn't asked.

Before we left, there had been a thread on the UK board that basically said US banks have been inflexible about change, claiming that their customers want the convenience of signature rather than PIN. Therefore, they won't be switching to a full chip and PIN card. In the near future, their new cards will include a chip for added security, but they won't be offering PINs. As a result of this stone-walling, the charge devices in Europe are set up to generate a receipt for signature every time the machine detects a US bank. It doesn't matter whether you actually have a PIN. If you're using a US credit card, you'll rarely -- if ever -- be offered the opportunity to use your PIN.

So don't spend a lot of time phoning banks to ask about their best-for-Europe credit cards. Don't spend a lot of time stressing over your credit card. Our experience suggests that for the moment, all US credit cards are acceptable without a problem.

(I'm going to be re-posting this on the other boards.)

Ditto Pet Nit Noy's comments about "chip and pin" cards in the Baltics. We just got back from our Baltic cruise and although our U.S. bank had long ago issued us chip-and-pin cards, not one place we went to in the Baltics required usage of a pin--we signed a receipt for everything. (We bought our ticket at the Vasa Museum from a "live person", not the machine.)

So, don't sweat it.

In general it is much more important that your credit/debit card is either Visa or Mastercard than then weather it is chip+pin. Visa and Mastercard are accepted virtually everywhere in Scandinavia and in many places elsewhere in Northern Europe. Amex and Diners are not as widely accepted.

Only places where you really need a credit/debit card with a are chip unmanned machines. Every manned establishment should be able to process a magnetic stripe payment technically. Store policies might prevent this, but this is not common. Just be prepared to prove your identity with an official photo ID such as your passport (not a photocopy) if paying with a magnetic stripe credit card. If you are trying to pay with your card and cannot prove your identity the store clerk can in the worst case scenario take your card away and will be awarded by the credit card company at your expense for doing so. Previously identification was asked for only large purchases, but as chip+pin is nowadays the standard, identification is asked relatively often if paying with a credit card without a pin.

Typically a chip+signature card will work fine in automated machines for small purchases (I have seen my chip+pin credit card defaulting to working without the pin in ticket machines in Germany for purchases of 50 or so euros).

You can still find places which accepts swipe cards, however it is on the way out and pin will be the only accepted card type.

Just be prepared to prove your identity with an official photo ID such as your passport (not a photocopy) if paying with a magnetic stripe credit card. If you are trying to pay with your card and cannot prove your identity the store clerk can in the worst case scenario take your card away and will be awarded by the credit card company at your expense for doing so. Previously identification was asked for only large purchases, but as chip+pin is nowadays the standard, identification is asked relatively often if paying with a credit card without a pin.

I'm sure what you've written is standard for credit cards issued by European banks, but chip and PIN is not standard in the US. The point I made in my original post is that the charge card devices are set to produce a receipt requiring a signature whenever a US card is used, even when the actual card has a PIN.

In fact, we ate lunch at a restaurant in Ghent that had a sign reading, "We only accept cards with chip and PIN." I was so excited to read that sign. This would be our first opportunity to use the PIN after five days in London with no opportunity. Delicious lunch and the excitement builds. Finally the credit card device gets brought to the table. I put my card in the slot and wait for the prompt to punch in my PIN. Whoops! Despite their inflexible sign, I'm not asked for my PIN. The machine spits out a conventional receipt and I sign as always.

We spent 22 days in Northern Europe in June and only used our chip and pin three times - to buy metro tickets and hot dogs in Copenhagen and to buy Vasa tickets in Stockholm.

The mag cards are phasing out, but some merchants are slow in adopting the newer card readers. The risk of using an old style card is being stuck with no cash and not able to access a ATM. I have seen that many times this summer. In fact one family was in a big argument with a tour operator who refused to let them join their group because they had no way of paying. A fellow cruise passenger came by and paid for them. When traveling in another country I make it a point of having positive access to funds, by having 2 or more different types of cards, to advise the issuers of the foreign travel, and carry enough cash to assure basic needs can be taken care of without the cards. This year, in Russia, do not depend on cards. They may work or they might not with out of system cards because a lot of western banks are not approving transactions.

This is more of a problem for land visitors since they need to interact with many more merchants. A cruise might only require one transaction per port, if that., so following rules of thumb based on very limited use of cards is risky.

The mag cards are phasing out, but some merchants are slow in adopting the newer card readers. The risk of using an old style card is being stuck with no cash and not able to access a ATM. I have seen that many times this summer. In fact one family was in a big argument with a tour operator who refused to let them join their group because they had no way of paying. A fellow cruise passenger came by and paid for them. When traveling in another country I make it a point of having positive access to funds, by having 2 or more different types of cards, to advise the issuers of the foreign travel, and carry enough cash to assure basic needs can be taken care of without the cards. This year, in Russia, do not depend on cards. They may work or they might not with out of system cards because a lot of western banks are not approving transactions.

This is more of a problem for land visitors since they need to interact with many more merchants. A cruise might only require one transaction per port, if that., so following rules of thumb based on very limited use of cards is risky.

The warning and advice you've shared is really useful. Since Chip and Signature cards are becoming increasingly easy to get, hopefully all US tourists will head to Europe with at least one Chip card.

My post was intended to help tourists relax about their credit cards as long as the cards have a Chip. The worried posts we regularly see on these boards about not having a Chip and PIN turn out be much less of an issue that we'd be led to believe. Our experience -- confirmed by a handful of other posters -- is that the card readers are not asking for our PINs, even when we have them.

When those of you with experience using credit cards in Northern Europe say "CHIP" cards, do you mean cards with the brass/gold colored chip in the upper left hand portion of the card?

What do you mean by a "PIN" card? Is this an ATM (Debit) card?

And to clarify...are both VISA and MASTERCARD universally accepted in Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic states and Russia?

Thanks, I just want to be sure I am not misunderstanding.

When those of you with experience using credit cards in Northern Europe say "CHIP" cards, do you mean cards with the brass/gold colored chip in the upper left hand portion of the card?

 

What do you mean by a "PIN" card? Is this an ATM (Debit) card?

 

And to clarify...are both VISA and MASTERCARD universally accepted in Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic states and Russia?

 

Thanks, I just want to be sure I am not misunderstanding.

A chip credit card includes a metallic implant -- one of mine looks silver and one looks gold or silver depending on the light -- about a 1/4 inch square. There are fine black lines inside the metallic square. The location of this chip varies by card; there's no standard location. However, the metallic square is constant regardless of card.

A PIN card is a card that requires a personal code punched into a credit card device for purchases, not cash withdrawals. The PIN takes the place of a signature. If you are already using a cash card that requires you to punch in a personal code before you can take money out of an ATM, you're familiar with the concept. Again, we're talking about ordinary purchases not cash withdrawals. It is standard for European bank credit cards, but is rare in the US.

There's no universally accepted credit card in existence!!! When you travel you should have at least one back-up card -- and preferably two -- in case you encounter problems with your usual card. Over the course of many trips, we've experienced problems ranging from ATM machines running out of money at the end of a weekend, or loss of connection between a restaurant and the restaurant's bank. (No one was using any credit card to do any transaction.) In Russia, in particular, the political climate often results in some Russian banks refusing to do business with some US banks. You just never know! (Note: do not travel with all your credit cards in your wallet. Keep only one in your wallet at any time in case of pickpocketing or simply loss. Keep the back ups in a neck wallet or other security wallet.)

In Russia, I'd much rather pay by credit card -- in advance -- as long as I'm using the well regarded names in St. Petersburg tourism. Alla, SPB, White Nights, etc don't get their reputation by doing funny things with credit cards. I HATE when I have to bring cash for St. Petersburg tours. This involves going to my local bank and getting super crisp money and then hauling it around until the day of the tour. (Note: My local bank said the US Mint only prints money once a year, around Christmas. That's when new bills primarily come into circulation for people to give as holiday gifts. Now, not all the money comes into the economy at once, but the chance of finding crisp new bills goes down as the months go past.)

A chip credit card includes a metallic implant -- one of mine looks silver and one looks gold or silver depending on the light -- about a 1/4 inch square. There are fine black lines inside the metallic square. The location of this chip varies by card; there's no standard location. However, the metallic square is constant regardless of card.

 

A PIN card is a card that requires a personal code punched into a credit card device for purchases, not cash withdrawals. The PIN takes the place of a signature. If you are already using a cash card that requires you to punch in a personal code before you can take money out of an ATM, you're familiar with the concept. Again, we're talking about ordinary purchases not cash withdrawals. It is standard for European bank credit cards, but is rare in the US.

 

There's no universally accepted credit card in existence!!! When you travel you should have at least one back-up card -- and preferably two -- in case you encounter problems with your usual card. Over the course of many trips, we've experienced problems ranging from ATM machines running out of money at the end of a weekend, or loss of connection between a restaurant and the restaurant's bank. (No one was using any credit card to do any transaction.) In Russia, in particular, the political climate often results in some Russian banks refusing to do business with some US banks. You just never know! (Note: do not travel with all your credit cards in your wallet. Keep only one in your wallet at any time in case of pickpocketing or simply loss. Keep the back ups in a neck wallet or other security wallet.)

 

In Russia, I'd much rather pay by credit card -- in advance -- as long as I'm using the well regarded names in St. Petersburg tourism. Alla, SPB, White Nights, etc don't get their reputation by doing funny things with credit cards. I HATE when I have to bring cash for St. Petersburg tours. This involves going to my local bank and getting super crisp money and then hauling it around until the day of the tour. (Note: My local bank said the US Mint only prints money once a year, around Christmas. That's when new bill come into circulation for people to give as holiday gifts. Now, not all the money comes into the economy at once, but the chance of finding crisp new bills goes down as the months go past.)

Thanks! I appreciate the information! I guess between now and next year, I will have to do some careful planning regarding my spending on the trip!

In Russia, I'd much rather pay by credit card -- in advance -- as long as I'm using the well regarded names in St. Petersburg tourism. Alla, SPB, White Nights, etc don't get their reputation by doing funny things with credit cards. I HATE when I have to bring cash for St. Petersburg tours. This involves going to my local bank and getting super crisp money and then hauling it around until the day of the tour. (Note: My local bank said the US Mint only prints money once a year, around Christmas. That's when new bills primarily come into circulation for people to give as holiday gifts. Now, not all the money comes into the economy at once, but the chance of finding crisp new bills goes down as the months go past.)

Not that the correction I'm about to make changes the basic point I made about the availability of crisp money, but my mistake bothered me. The US Bureau of Engraving and Printing makes the bills and the Mint make the coins.

We spent 22 days in Northern Europe in June and only used our chip and pin three times - to buy metro tickets and hot dogs in Copenhagen and to buy Vasa tickets in Stockholm.

I am leaving soon for the Baltic cruise but also very concerned about bring too DKK for Copenhagen. Can you please tell me whether the ticket machines at the metro stations accept credit card with no pin and are there any attendants around in case my card does not work. Mine has the chip but no pin. Also for the Copenhagen pass with free museum entrance, where can we buy that and is it from a machine with chip and pin only? Don't want to carry too much cash around since I am not sure how much we will spend but at the same time worried we don't have enough in case some places won't accept our credit cards. Thanks!

I am leaving soon for the Baltic cruise but also very concerned about bring too DKK for Copenhagen. Can you please tell me whether the ticket machines at the metro stations accept credit card with no pin and are there any attendants around in case my card does not work. Mine has the chip but no pin. Also for the Copenhagen pass with free museum entrance, where can we buy that and is it from a machine with chip and pin only? Don't want to carry too much cash around since I am not sure how much we will spend but at the same time worried we don't have enough in case some places won't accept our credit cards. Thanks!

Sorry, despite spending three days in Copenhagen, I can't answer your specific questions about Metro or Copenhagen Pass. We walked everywhere except for two nights when we took a taxi. (And taxis typically allow you to charge your ride. Some even let you put a tip on the fare.) And we didn't buy a Copenhagen Pass.

Your post makes it seem as if you'll be staying several days in Copenhagen. If that's true, you have an escape valve. We took our un-used DKK and handed them to the cashier when checking out of our hotel. We then, paid the remainder of our hotel bill with our credit card.

You would be able to use your credit card to pay for the ride from your hotel to the port and depart the city with zero DKK in your wallet. However, I will point out that there's a yellow charity box for Amnesty International in Terminal Three, the terminal used by Lufthansa/United, just past the point there the duty free shopping ends and concourses A & B split off from C & D.

The metro tickets were only used to go from the airport to our airbnb rental. If you are planning to take a cab, you don't have to worry about it. The rest of our 4 days in the city, we walked everywhere and then took a cab to the ship. The cabs take credit cards with signature.

Not sure about the Copenhagen card as we didn't buy them.

Check Free Tours Copengahen. We took 2 of their tours and they were great! If you take the Christianhavn tour, they will take you inside Christiana, although not officially ;)

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Out of 3 credit cards, the metro machine took 1. The 1 was a chip w/ no pin. We totally came out ahead using the 72-hour Copenhagen card. I was never at that airport, but at the Stockholm airport there was a human at the info desk who sold metro tickets and the Stockholm card.

The metro tickets were only used to go from the airport to our airbnb rental. If you are planning to take a cab, you don't have to worry about it. The rest of our 4 days in the city, we walked everywhere and then took a cab to the ship. The cabs take credit cards with signature.

 

Not sure about the Copenhagen card as we didn't buy them.

 

Check Free Tours Copengahen. We took 2 of their tours and they were great! If you take the Christianhavn tour, they will take you inside Christiana, although not officially ;)

 

 

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Thanks for the response.

At the airport metro, were there no live agent that you can buy the tickets from? We are planning to take the metro from the airport to the hotel and then back to the airport when we depart. We plan to buy the 24 hour pass.

I imagine that option exists, but we bought our tickets from a single machine near the luggage carousels. I would bet that if you continued to the arrivals hall there is an information center that could help you.

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Maybe ask in the Copenhagen topic - there is a local there who helps answer questions :)

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Out of 3 credit cards, the metro machine took 1. The 1 was a chip w/ no pin. We totally came out ahead using the 72-hour Copenhagen card. I was never at that airport, but at the Stockholm airport there was a human at the info desk who sold metro tickets and the Stockholm card.

The pattern that seems to be emerging is that the US banks have been so oppositional to switching to chip and PIN technology that European banks have had to accommodate this reality.

I'm sensing that purchases made by chip and SIGNATURE cards will work in unmanned situations as long as they are in places lots of tourists are likely to visit. In poster Kryssa's example, her card worked near the luggage carousels, certainly a spot guaranteed to have lots of tourist customers. In the Green Park Underground station (London), I used a chip and PIN card but the machine processed my purchase without asking for my PIN. Again, a location with lots of US tourists.

We still continue to hear stories from posters who rent cars and travel to places where few tourists venture and absolutely, definitely need a chip and PIN card. But the situation in Europe using a chip and SIGNATURE card is not as limited or stressful as many of us had feared

Rick Steve suggests finding a local ATM and paying cash for everything. By-and-large I followed that advice. Sometimes it was infeasible, but it worked out fine, and I was constantly doing math in my head comparing prices in the different currencies everywhere I went. I've still got rubles, euros, and kroner now.

Just to chime in with another recent experience -

We just got back from a Baltic cruise as well. We travel to Europe every summer, and this is the first time we've ever had a problem with European CC machines not taking our old American mag-stripes (well, it has a chip but no pin, which is useless for this purpose).

Every time I paid I told them "this has no chip or PIN" as I presented the card, because often they have to select a special option before they run the card. Most of the time, though, they'd run it like it had a PIN, the machine would ask for the PIN, and I'd have to say "this card has no PIN", and they'd start the process over. (Very frustrating, but it's the backwards US banks that are the problem, not the cashiers).

This worked fine in every country we visited (Luxembourg, France, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Estonia, and Russia) EXCEPT in Copenhagen. For some reason, we kept encountering tellers who couldn't take mag-stripes (or didn't know how to do it). So we had to pay with cash at a grocery store and several restaurants; we had DKK with us since we were there for several days, but it really annoyed the patrons behind us since we held up the line.

The only other problems we had were when buying bus tickets from a machine in Luxembourg City and buying ride tickets from the machines in Tivoli (Copenhagen). Luckily we had a few Euro coins to cover the Lux bus; Tivoli was a lot more annoying because we had to go back to the customer service booth at the entrance, wait in a slow line, then pre-purchase all the tickets we needed. But luckily we knew that the 2nd day we went so we took care of it as soon as we came inside.

Anyway, just one traveler's recent experience. Come on, US banks, catch up with the rest of the world!!

We had that same problem in Tivoli. The machines didn't take cash. Need a card that will take.

Just to chime in with another recent experience -

 

We just got back from a Baltic cruise as well. We travel to Europe every summer, and this is the first time we've ever had a problem with European CC machines not taking our old American mag-stripes (well, it has a chip but no pin, which is useless for this purpose).

 

Every time I paid I told them "this has no chip or PIN" as I presented the card, because often they have to select a special option before they run the card. Most of the time, though, they'd run it like it had a PIN, the machine would ask for the PIN, and I'd have to say "this card has no PIN", and they'd start the process over. (Very frustrating, but it's the backwards US banks that are the problem, not the cashiers).

 

This worked fine in every country we visited (Luxembourg, France, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Estonia, and Russia) EXCEPT in Copenhagen. For some reason, we kept encountering tellers who couldn't take mag-stripes (or didn't know how to do it). So we had to pay with cash at a grocery store and several restaurants; we had DKK with us since we were there for several days, but it really annoyed the patrons behind us since we held up the line.

 

The only other problems we had were when buying bus tickets from a machine in Luxembourg City and buying ride tickets from the machines in Tivoli (Copenhagen). Luckily we had a few Euro coins to cover the Lux bus; Tivoli was a lot more annoying because we had to go back to the customer service booth at the entrance, wait in a slow line, then pre-purchase all the tickets we needed. But luckily we knew that the 2nd day we went so we took care of it as soon as we came inside.

 

Anyway, just one traveler's recent experience. Come on, US banks, catch up with the rest of the world!!

Since you just came back, what was the weather like at all the ports and also on the cruise? Were the decks chilly at night?

When we first got there it was a bit warm in Copenhagen - in the 80s (fahrenheit), which of course felt much better than the 100F temp we'd had in Paris the previous day! I'm from sweltering Texas so 80s is cool to me, but still too warm if you're outside sightseeing all day - plus the whole point of this trip was to escape hot weather, so I wasn't pleased! Luckily CPH cooled down to the 70s by the last day.

Then some rainy weather started, so we were in a bit of a downpour in Oslo - enough that we had to buy another umbrella and decided not to stay in town as long as we'd planned. It was overcast and cool (60s) in Aarhus. Kiel/Hamburg (weather kept us away from Warnemunde) was a beautiful sunny day, which I heard is rare for that area! It rained off and on in Tallinn, but not enough to thwart our fun. St. Petersburg was mostly sunny and cool; just some rain one afternoon. Helsinki was a beautiful sunny day, and Stockholm just got some light showers on/off.

Overall, temps never got above 70F, which was exactly what I wanted! I just dressed in layers (t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, light jacket) that I shed when it warmed up. I was wearing zip-off pants but never got warm enough to zip the legs off. It was warm enough a couple afternoons to soak in the pool a bit (our legs were very tired from all the walking). The decks were fairly cool and windy in the evenings, but that didn't stop us from going out there to watch the sunset or the view!