It's becoming more difficult for U.S. travelers to use their credit or debit cards abroad.

U.S. cardholders are having trouble using the cards in countries that use chip-and-PIN bank cards. This occurs mainly in Europe and parts of Asia. A 2009 survey of 1,000 U.S. cardholders who had traveled outside of the United States showed that two-thirds had experienced some form of difficulty using their cards while abroad.

It is most prevalent at unattended payment terminals such as ticketing kiosks in train stations, parking garages, highway tolls, parking meters and the like.

Chip-and-PIN cards, used worldwide, contain computer chips that make transactions safer and prevent counterfeiting of cards. U.S.-issued magnetic-stripe payment cards do not have chips.

Chip payment cards also are called EMV chip cards, named for the standard that's been adopted by 22 countries, including much of Europe, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. About 50 other countries are in various stages of migrating to the technology in the next two years, including China, India and Latin America.

Get Fluent-C (www.get fluentc.com) is a resource for people to learn more and to take action. Archived on the site is a webcast about what you need to know about your credit card before traveling abroad. You also can comment on the site; share your story and give feedback that might be used to drive industry research to make traveling abroad more convenient and secure. By doing this, you will also receive updates as the technology unfolds.

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