The Epic Battle Between My U.S. Debit Card and The European "Chip and Pin" system

Ever had a time when your card wasn't accepted because there was no more money in it? Well, ever had a time when your card wasn't accepted and there was still tons of money in it? They just honest-to-goodness don't like the way your card is set up? Yep, it happened to me. For almost a week now up until yesterday, I had been thinking to myself every other chance I had to figure out how to get more money or I should say more of MY money.

It is up to American in Europe to search not solely for an ATM, restaurant, or store to use a credit or debit card for that instance but to also search for one of these things to accept your American credit or debit card. I have had to learn in the challenging way how Europe's "more advanced and protected" "chip and pin system" works. Europeans no longer use a bar and signature system like we do and haven't since the late nineties, about the time the Euro came into being. A signature is no longer good enough to their eyes. To authenticate your ownership you MUST have your PIN at the ready as well as an encoded chip in the card. This thankfully isn't to say that the good ol' bar won't work here. American cards DO WORK HERE. Though it is rather like trying to download a PC program onto a Mac. Possible, but not without a little extra effort.

It is just a pain in the tuckus finding well-informed store owners/ bank-tellers who understand and know the differences and how to work with them. Pretty much all of them looked at me like they should call the insane asylum with all my strange talk of bars and "Ma carte a un bar. Est-ce qu'il y a un distributeur automatique qui peut traiter une carte avec un bar?!?!?!" They respond with "Bar? You mean like this? (shows a European card- the bar is on them by the way. I do not know why but only that the chip is what is important...and the pin number)" "Yes!" I respond, "But what I don't have is the chip!" Then they shrug their shoulders to which I can only say then, "Alors, merci, monsieur/madame. Bonne journée (walks out dejected leaving a very confused employee)."

This was until Madame asked about my day yesterday after I had got done with one of my hunts and I explained my situation to which she was also confused. Suddenly Jean-Bapiste launched in, saying, "Oh yeah, that's sounds about right. The U.S. system would definitely find some incompatibility with the European system." He then gave a lecture to his mother that I listened in on and later confirmed on the Internet about everything that I just explained essentially.

Later, Monsieur, who is an accountant and thus kind of knows a thing or two about banks to put it mildly, printed up a list of ATMs that should work for me and which so far have! So I had two miracles in one day (in case you haven't been paying attention). I can now get money with no problem and I could comprehend J.B. for once. I don't know if it was because he was speaking slower or I've been getting better. I'll go far enough to maybe say a little of both.