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When the chip and pin standard started to get rolled out across the world back in 2004 it promised tighter security for people making purchases, and in general, it does. Prior to this shops asked you to produce ID, often photo ID, and checked your signature against your card. Most countries have stopped doing this along with the need to sign the botom of the credit card slip. In Spain however this is not the case.

Chip and pin machines exist in Spain but the Spanish tend to have cards with no chip in them. As a result shoppers there are asked to produce photo ID and are asked to sign the slip after a transaction. For tourists this can lead to problems. With the chip and pin technology there is no need to sign the slip and in fact the slip actually asks that you do not sign, doing so reduces the security that chip and pin offers. If you are a tourist with a chip and pin card and purchase in a shop in Spain you will still be asked to provide ID. After an experience there yesterday we have discovered that the shops there no longer accept photo drivers licenses as ID; you must produce either a Spanish ID card (impossible unless you are Spanish) or a passport. They will also ask you to still sign the receipt.

You can refuse to sign the receipt, as we have done, but depending on where you are you could have problems and they could refuse the transaction to you. if your Spanish is up to scratch ask to see the manager or supervisor and explain just why you are refusing to sign. They are still sticking to the old process; they have upgraded their machines in many cases but not their practices with regards to chip and pin. It is still quite ‘foreign’ to the Spanish you see as they don’t have chips in their cards. Yet.

If you are visiting Spain for a holiday and intend to shop using a credit card I advise you take your passport to the shops with you everytime as this is the only form of ID they are accepting now from foreigners. Until they catch up with the times anyway.

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