In message
, at
00:20:53 on Wed, 14 Sep 2011, 1506 remarked:
Chip and PIN is unknown in the United States.

Not entirely. There are booths at major airports selling pre-paid C&P
cards for travellers to use in Europe.

I was surprised how much of a hard-sell I was given when picking up some
currency at a UK-based Travelex, they wanted to give it to me on a
pre-pay card rather than as cash. But the whole point of getting cash
(as ar as I'm concerned) is to bridge over that awkward moment between
landing and finding a suitable ATM, which quite often includes needing
money for taxis/trains etc to get you off the airport.

I'll never forget landing at Gatwick several years ago, after an
extended spell away, and finding every ATM on site was out of action. I
had to get the taxi driver to stop at a motorway services so I could get
some cash (doubly irritating as they generally have quite a high fee).
--
Roland Perry