Chip & PIN in the UK

Chip & PIN in the UK

I am currently in England and to my surprise my Tesco Visa card required my PIN here instead of my Signature.

My PTSB Visa card however did not want to work with PIN and required signature.

Should a VISA card in England require my PIN (I thought that PIN is not working outside Ireland)? It never works in France or Scandinavia.

Or is this because Tesco is Royal Bank of Scotland?

Anybody?

I was in the UK last week and a lot of places had chip & pin, however you should be allowed to sign instead if you want. There's a dual period when either is acceptable.

-Rd

I have no problem with PIN but I wonder why my Tesco card does it but my PTSB card does not. With the PTSB card I was not even asked for a PIN.

I have no problem with PIN but I wonder why my Tesco card does it but my PTSB card does not. With the PTSB card I was not even asked for a PIN.

Depends on how the card is configured; the configured rules for domestic (UK in this case) and international cards (Irish in this case); the acquirer; the merchant rules and the terminal / integrated point of sale supplier.

Also depends on how the Irish card issuer is progressing with their domestic (Irish) Chip & PIN programme.

So, there is no way of knowing in advance which you will be asked for. Over time, PIN will win out.

Irish credit card with Chip & pin works over the continent. I travel regularly to France and Uk and I have use many times my code in shops including hotel/petrol station etc... Only in a few shops, they had to swipe the card because they haven't upgraded their terminal but overall I had to enter the pin.

Its weird but

It seems that nobody in England wants to know my PIN while I was asked for it once here.

Re: Charge and See

So in summary:

Charge and See if they ask for PIN

Funny enough in France I never was asked for PIN, mostly they try unsuccessfully and than run away to get the "foreigners" terminal.

I had a merchant just this morning who told me, that he will not accept my chip card of PTSB if I can't provide my PIN, which I can, but the terminal does not read the chip. I tried to tell him "Irish" card but he was going on that that was part of the UK PIN/CHIP so my card was faulty and he would not accept it because if the card has a chip he can not allow me to sign. Something about coverage for fraud. I took out my US card which has CHIP and passport picture and believe it or not, that CHIP/PIN worked. 1st time ever it worked in Europe.