Don't go abroad without your pin

Under the new chip-and-pin programme, holidaymakers will need to know their credit card Pin when shopping, writes Laura Slattery

Travellers' cheques are anachronistic. Cash is a bag-snatcher's dream. Even ATM cards can misbehave in our hour of need: no matter how many logos are on the reverse, there is always a possibility that the machine will simply spit back the card and laugh in our newly tanned faces.

Credit cards, on the other hand, have traditionally been the holidaymaker's friend.

Once they are loaded up with cash (done simply by transferring money from your current account to your credit card account), cash advance fees and interest charges can be avoided.

In the euro zone, using credit cards to make purchases can be a cashflow-saving source of finance, offering holidaymakers who have underbudgeted up to 56 days interest-free credit.

But this year is the first in which Irish holidaymakers must know the personal identification numbers (pins) on their credit cards, or risk having to put their cheap leather and bargain electronic goods back on the shelf.

The chip-and-pin programme, on schedule to be completed in the Republic by the end of this year, is designed to eliminate much of Europe's €2 billion annual card fraud problem.

More than one million chip-and-pin-enabled credit cards out of the 2.2 million credit cards in circulation in the Republic have been reissued so they carry the new technology, which requires cardholders to enter their pin into a countertop keypad terminal rather than signing their name on a receipt.

Most European countries have begun or are planning to implement the new system but its patchy introduction could lead to some confusion among holidaymakers this summer.

"My advice is that people should know what their pin is so, if they're asked for it, they're not flummoxed. But if they're not asked for it they shouldn't be surprised either," says Barry O'Mahony, chip-and-pin programme manager for the Irish Payment Services Organisation (Ipso).

However, the purchase process could vary between different shops on the same street, he says.

"The difficulty is that, even within the same country abroad, not all the terminals will have upgraded to chip and pin. For example, in France they have a million terminals to change over."

Irish cardholders who have not yet received their chip-and-pin-enabled credit card should still be able to pay for goods using their chipless cards, however.

The chip-and-pin programme in the Republic is now shifting to the upgrading of the 1.1 million debit cards in circulation, and anyone who has received a chip-enabled debit card will need to memorise the pin on this card too, O'Mahony points out.

"But they must remember to keep their card safe and not have their pin written down on a piece of paper kept in their wallet or purse," he adds.

Other basic good rules for handling money abroad tend to get forgotten in the packing rush.

For example, people travelling outside the euro zone may need to order their currencies up to five working days before departure, as bureaux de change only stock the most popular currencies on site. Consumers should also avoid bureaux de change that charge commission of more than 1 per cent.

Outside the euro zone, currency conversion fees of 1.5-2.65 per cent will apply to credit card purchases and cash withdrawals from both the credit card and current accounts. However, these fees are subject to maximum limits, meaning it makes financial sense to take out cash in decent chunks rather than dribs and drabs.

Within the euro zone, cross-border regulations mean that it should cost the same to withdraw cash from your current account at an ATM in Dresden as it does in Dublin.

And, no matter where you are heading, it helps to be organised.

The queue for the departure level ATMs and bureaux de change at Dublin airport, while not quite as long and winding as that for the security checkpoints, is still not somewhere to be stuck when your boarding time is fast approaching.