Like many Americans who have tried to use their credit cards in Europe, Elliot E. Porter, a historian at San Francisco, has encountered its share of headaches payment. Perhaps the most aggravating circumstances occurred some months ago in Amsterdam Centraal Station, where he learned after the queue to buy train tickets than any of his credit cards, including MasterCard, Visa and American Express is accepted. The problem? They rely on technology rather than magnetic stripe embedded microprocessors, which are increasingly common outside the United States.
"It's a big deal when traveling," said Porter, who traveled back to his hotel for the money, which then had to exchange local currency before returning to the station to wait in a long line of pay for his tickets. He has encountered similar problems in railway stations in Belgium and Great Britain. "I just got super frustrating," he said.
There may be some good news on the horizon for Americans like Mr. Elliot. Some banks have begun experimenting with smart cards and newer technology, known as EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) and are beginning to offer cards to select customers. Wells Fargo has issued cards with embedded chips to about 15,000 customers in the United States-based international travel, which in a test program. JPMorgan Chase offers maps of some of its customers with high net worth this month. Meanwhile, Travelex, a currency exchange company major, began selling a year preloaded EMV debit cards last. Some credit unions have also begun offering credit cards or debit with chips, including agents of the State Credit Union in Raleigh, NC, and the United Nations Federal Credit Union in New York.
It was time. During the last decade, such cards (commonly known as smart cards and PIN-because users punch in a personal identification number instead of signing for purchases) have been widely adopted in Europe as a way to reduce credit card fraud, the information stored in magnetic tapes used in traditional maps can be easily stolen. EMV smart cards, which requires a PIN for authentication, are more difficult to counterfeit and are becoming the norm in other regions, including Canada, Latin America and Asia Pacific. More than a third of payment cards in the world (about 1.2 billion) are EMV capable, with about two-thirds of the terminal box (18.7 million), according to EMVCo, the standards body owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa.
"It's a big deal when traveling," said Porter, who traveled back to his hotel for the money, which then had to exchange local currency before returning to the station to wait in a long line of pay for his tickets. He has encountered similar problems in railway stations in Belgium and Great Britain. "I just got super frustrating," he said.
There may be some good news on the horizon for Americans like Mr. Elliot. Some banks have begun experimenting with smart cards and newer technology, known as EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) and are beginning to offer cards to select customers. Wells Fargo has issued cards with embedded chips to about 15,000 customers in the United States-based international travel, which in a test program. JPMorgan Chase offers maps of some of its customers with high net worth this month. Meanwhile, Travelex, a currency exchange company major, began selling a year preloaded EMV debit cards last. Some credit unions have also begun offering credit cards or debit with chips, including agents of the State Credit Union in Raleigh, NC, and the United Nations Federal Credit Union in New York.
It was time. During the last decade, such cards (commonly known as smart cards and PIN-because users punch in a personal identification number instead of signing for purchases) have been widely adopted in Europe as a way to reduce credit card fraud, the information stored in magnetic tapes used in traditional maps can be easily stolen. EMV smart cards, which requires a PIN for authentication, are more difficult to counterfeit and are becoming the norm in other regions, including Canada, Latin America and Asia Pacific. More than a third of payment cards in the world (about 1.2 billion) are EMV capable, with about two-thirds of the terminal box (18.7 million), according to EMVCo, the standards body owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa.
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