Your All Inclusive Golf Vacation

American credit cards are lacking a vital element that is likely to make them useless in many foreign countries. The vital missing ingredient is smart card technology.

Smart cards still provide a magnetic strip that makes them compatible with older terminals but they also have an embdedded microprocessor that provides the smart technology. The new Smart card technology has been successfully introduced in over 22 countries around the world including most of Europe, Braziland Mexico. It is anticipated that the next two years will see China, India and most of Latin America embrace this new, high security feature.

The embedded microprocessor means that more data can be stored on the card instead of relying upon database access. These new hi-tech cards are favoured by police and governments as they significantly reduce the risk of card fraud.

Old style magnetic strip based cards are still suitable for most shops and restaurants as these match the terminals that are are in common use in these situations. The new smart card technology is essential if you want to make use of an increasing number of automatic terminals that are commonly found at ticket kiosks and petrol station gas pumps. Americans, with their old fashioned cards, would be unable to use these facilities.

The American banks are falling behind the rest of the world in their adoption of this new fraud prevention technology. It has been observed that credit card fraud isn’t as big a problem in the United states as its in Europe and other parts of the world.

Another reason for the delay in adoption is cost. It has been estimated that it would cost around .5 billion to rollout the required technology which would mainly be spent on new terminals for merchants.

So it looks like American tourists in Europe and elsewhere will need to make certain they have cash in their pockets rather than rely on their credit cards.

****************************************
One thing you can be certain of when travelling is the need for adequate and appropriate travel insurance. If you are over 64 you should be looking at Senior travel insurance and if you have any form of medical condition you need to look at Travel Insurance for Pre-Existing medical conditions.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 7:51 pm and is filed under All Inclusive Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related Posts