Chip/pin cards in Canada?

[dixieagle]

We'll be cruising from Montreal to Quebec City, Charlottetown, Sydney and Halifax soon. Will we be fine with our Visa debit card, with no chip but for which we have a PIN, and our American Express? I know that my husband had a hard time in England last year without a chip/PIN card. We will have some American cash with us for starters.

 

Thanks much!

[Acey-SJ]

We'll be cruising from Montreal to Quebec City, Charlottetown, Sydney and Halifax soon. Will we be fine with our Visa debit card, with no chip but for which we have a PIN, and our American Express? I know that my husband had a hard time in England last year without a chip/PIN card. We will have some American cash with us for starters.

 

Thanks much!

 

Any machine I ever used in the last year still had the "swipe" option for cards that don't have a chip. I think you will be OK.

[martincath]

Chip & Pin is definitely the new norm across Canada, but we have a couple of cards without a chip - and sometimes the chips fail. The swipe option is not going away soon. Where you might have an issue is if you don't have a PIN for your Amex - I have seen a couple of signs posted in smaller stores that they will no longer verify credit cards by signature, only by PIN, so if you don't have one for that you better hope they take your VISA!

[dixieagle]

Chip & Pin is definitely the new norm across Canada, but we have a couple of cards without a chip - and sometimes the chips fail. The swipe option is not going away soon. Where you might have an issue is if you don't have a PIN for your Amex - I have seen a couple of signs posted in smaller stores that they will no longer verify credit cards by signature, only by PIN, so if you don't have one for that you better hope they take your VISA!

 

I didn't even know you could use a PIN for AmEx!!! Will check with them ASAP!!! Thanks.

[martincath]

Sorry - my reply was poorly worded above, should have said *since* rather than *if* (regular Amex cards don't get PINs issued - although that's changing now in Canada, new cards will be Chip & PIN enabled). You can request a PIN for cash advances through ATMs, this may also enable the swipe & PIN method of payment.

 

If you want to cover all your bases (ever since a Borneo trip years ago where we paid for 3/4 of our tour group at a jungle lodge which only accepted MC, no VISA or Amex, we've ensured that we have all 3 major cards for travel) pick up a Mastercard with Chip & PIN enabled. You can get prepaid ones in the US from Cash Passport and probably several other companies if you don't want to deal with applications, credit checks etc.