[jamesatfish]

G'day all,

Can anyone with an AMEX card provide any experiences with the use of their cards overseas (particularly in the UK) where chip cards seem to be required these days?

I'm interested in swapping from an existing Mastercard to one of the AMEX charge cards but I had heaps of problems in the UK recently with a Mastercard where the chip PIN was not correctly set.

Given that AMEX cards don't have a chip at all, I'm curious as to whether anyone has had problems using their cards overseas where chip + PIN is now the standard way of processing credit card payments?

The nice woman I spoke to at the AMEX call centre this morning told me that they didn't offer chip cards but had never encountered issues with customers using their cards overseas.

Any advice would be most appreciated!

[benhadi]

Had the same problem in Asia. Seems the banking system in Aussie is behind...not too many have chip cards. My Westpac Altitude has them, but that's it. None on my AMEX, none on Citibank.

Just a note, AMEX in Asia (in Malaysia particularly) have chip cards. MOST card readers in retails stores only read chipcards there, so i could only use my Westpac MC during my entire trip there.

Considering Australia has only just introduced the use of PIN for credit card purchases, i won't expect chip cards to be introduced across the board for AUssie-issued cards anytime soon. FYI the use of PIN for credit card purchases was first introduced many many years ago...including in NZ.

BenHadi

[opusman]

In the UK at least a lot of merchants look at you funny but do still have the ability to do it the "old-fashioned" way. Sometimes they will want photo ID at the same time, but I've never had a card declined simply because it didn't have a chip.

( Now in machines it's a different story - I have constant issues using my Australian cards in machines overseas. )

[MelUser]

I queried AMEX about the same thing and they assured me that AMEX cards a slightly different (implying a cut above) other credit cards and that a signature was all that was necessary to process an American Express transaction.

[oz_mark]

I don't know when Amex cards will get the chip in Australia, but Citibank have said that they will be re-issuing cards over the next few months with the chip.

[mistado]

Hi guys, i have had this problem for the past 2 years whenever i visit malaysia in particular, but each time i tell them that it is an overseas card and they generally just swipe it as per normal..probably one out of every 10 places i might not be able to get this done..these places just dont get my business..

[jamesatfish]

Hmm, so it seems that the AMEX will only run me into trouble in places that need chip cards.

I'm not so worried about the bigger stores/purchases (as mistado mentioned, those places can often fall back on the swipe/signature/photo ID method) but most of the issues I encountered were for small but essential purchases (like food outlets in motorway services, or petrol stations). A couple of times I held up the queue for a few minutes whilst they struggled to find a swipe-machine and a pen, but on several occasions they just refused outright to accept the card without a chip.

Interestingly Westpac seem to be the most advanced (they actually re-issued our cards with chip versions without being prompted) and were familiar with the process of setting up the PIN on the chip and magnetic stripe.

Commonwealth would only issue a chip card if we reported our old card as 'damaged', and even then they didn't set the chip PIN correctly so it was useless overseas anyway.

MelUser - I felt the same tone when I called AMEX this morning - they seemed genuinely shocked that anyone would reject an AMEX card for not having a chip.

Seems like switching from CommBank to AMEX (which is what I planned to do) might be a bad option given that I make overseas transactions reasonably regularly.

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by MelUser

I queried AMEX about the same thing and they assured me that AMEX cards a slightly different (implying a cut above) other credit cards and that a signature was all that was necessary to process an American Express transaction.

Hmm, so how do they explain their chip and pin use in the UK. UK Amex has a chip

Dave

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by jamesatfish

G'day all,

Can anyone with an AMEX card provide any experiences with the use of their cards overseas (particularly in the UK) where chip cards seem to be required these days?

I'm interested in swapping from an existing Mastercard to one of the AMEX charge cards but I had heaps of problems in the UK recently with a Mastercard where the chip PIN was not correctly set.

Given that AMEX cards don't have a chip at all, I'm curious as to whether anyone has had problems using their cards overseas where chip + PIN is now the standard way of processing credit card payments?

I have had one retailer in the UK that didn't want to accept my non-chip visa card , but I had a copy of the visa document that details their obligation to accept non-chip cards

The UK rules are that if a card has a chip, then the chip and pin feature must be used; if a card has no chip, then swipe and sign

I would not be expecting an issue with use of the AU AMEX

Dave

[NM]

Originally Posted by mistado

Hi guys, i have had this problem for the past 2 years whenever i visit malaysia in particular, but each time i tell them that it is an overseas card and they generally just swipe it as per normal..probably one out of every 10 places i might not be able to get this done..these places just dont get my business..

I have never had any problems in Malaysia, including my last visit in June. However, I only use my credit cards (Comm Bank Visa, Amex, Diners Club) at places like major department stores (e.g. Justco), Hotels, large restaurants and government services like KLIA Ekspress. The rest is all cash.

I don't think its a case of Australian banks being backwards. I think its a case of risk vs cost. There is a cost involved in issuing new cards with chips, and CC fraud in Australia is low, especially the type that would be curtailed with chipped cards. So the cost is not justified and people are looking for lower cost cards and not wanting to pay higher CC fees for the "benefit" of chips.

But in some countries where CC fraud is higher, the cost of providing chipped cards is more justified by the reduction in fraudulent use.