Travelers keep reporting cases where American credit cards don’t work in Europe. European cards use chip-and-PIN EMV technology, while our cards have a magnetic stripe. What’s a traveler to do?

We caught up with Janna Herron, an expert on credit cards for Bankrate.com, to ask how the cards work and how to get one.

Q: The problem for travelers is that American credit card companies have not offered EMV chip cards. Is that still true?

A: Since April, we’ve seen more activity. Several major U.S. issuers have come out with EMV-enabled cards, including the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Visa card, the Citi Corporate card, the Chase JP Morgan Select Visa Signature and Chase JP Morgan Palladium card. Bank of America just announced it is switching its corporate cards over next year. Wells Fargo is testing one.

Q: Do you have to ask for an EMV chip card, or will your issuer just send you one?

A: They are rolling these out. Call the issuer to find out if it is available yet. I don’t know if they’ll just be sending out new cards across the board. The cards being offered now are either business/corporate cards or higher-end travel cards.

Q: Do the cards have both an embedded chip and a magnetic stripe?

A: Yes. Most cards worldwide have both of these features so they can be used everywhere.

Q: What does EMV stand for?

A: Europay-MasterCard-Visa. This technology is widely used, except in the United States, which has been a little bit slower to adopt the technology.

Q: Why?

A: Our card payment infrastructure is much older. IBM came up with the magnetic stripe about 40 years ago. Changing that infrastructure over is very expensive.

Q: I had trouble using my American credit card at a train ticket machine in Munich, but nowhere else in Germany. Why?

A: That experience is typical. The unmanned ticket station, gas stations and toll booths are where travelers might run into problems. Europe is the No. 1 place we are seeing this problem. But Latin America is adopting EMV and so are Africa and Asia. It doesn’t mean you can’t use your credit card, but have some cash on hand as a backup.

Q: Why is the EMV card more secure? Does it require you to punch in a PIN number when used?

A: Some cards do, but some don’t. The difference between a magnetic stripe card and an EMV card is that the microprocessor in the EMV card encodes the transaction data differently each time and can’t be replicated. EMV cards reduce counterfeiting.

Q: Do travelers from Europe have trouble using their cards in America?

A: Not usually, because most have the magnetic stripe as well on their cards. But I have heard that some people have had problems.

Q: What signs are you seeing that EMV technology will become widespread in the United States?

A: In August, Visa announced several initiatives to encourage retailers to change over terminals to accept the EMV cards. The carrot is they waive a fee if the retailers change their terminals to accept EMV. The stick is they will no longer be liable for fraud protection by 2013 if a retailer is still not accepting the EMV then. They have to change over by 2015.

Q: So your advice to travelers is …

A: It’s something worth watching. For people who are traveling overseas, they might want to check out what their credit card company might offer.