IF you are traveling during Christmas season

Especially if you are traveling outside the U.S. you want Chipped credit cards and Chipped ATM cards. My wife and I first noticed a problem with not having chipped cards in France in 2009 when we went to Paris and Nice and Monaco with our daughters then. It was hard to buy things (Even though everything prepaid like Airline tickets and hotels was okay. The problem was getting enough money out of ATMs converted into Euros more than anything else. But, the worst it got was when I went to South Korea to visit my son and his wife while they were still living there to visit my grandson who had just been born. Without chipped cards this was a problem too. So, after that I got shipped cards for everything to not have this problem again traveling overseas. IN fact, the worst problem I had was in Austria which was so restrictive the ONLY thing I could use in 2011 was an American Express Card because ATM cards without chips wouldn't work at all and this was also true in 1999 when I was traveling in a motor home that I rented in Munich through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and into Northern Italy where Aoste is through the Tunnels from Switzerland into Italy through the mountains there. It was amazing having entirely different climates before and after going through the mountains and tunnels with sun one place and snow and rain another place along the way.

So, to make your stay more pleasant so you aren't spending all your time going to banks so you can only take out 100 dollars at a time in local currency or ATM machines you should convert all your credit and ATM cards to chipped cards before you travel anywhere outside of the U.S.
So, if you don't have chipped credit cards and ATM cards when you travel either expect to carry a lot of cash (most places allow up to 10,000 dollars in cash in your money belt if you declare it). But, just realize you will be very limited in what you can buy without chips in your credit and ATM cards in Europe or Asia when you are traveling. The problem is most acute when you are trying to get cash in the local denomination.