Credit Card Security

Credit card security is much tighter in Europe than in the US (European credit cards have a chip in them…not sure what this chip does other than provide extra security) and many places won’t even take American credit cards because they don’t have the chip. The security is compounded here in the Netherlands in that most places don’t even take normal credit cards; Dutch cards all have pin numbers that have to be entered to authorize the purchase. Luckily, my Austrian debit card has a pin that works in some places, but I have almost exclusively used cash since being here. It’s actually kind of nice to have my bank statements be so low at the end of the month.