TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin ATM card

Hi All,
We are counting the days to March 12 when we will arrive at our favorite vacation spot. I am hoping someone has information about ATM cards. As our bank does not charge a fee to use ATM cards, we use the card to withdraw cash as we need it. However last year we found that only one bank allowed the use of a non- chipped card. Our bank has not issued a "chipped" card yet. They keep saying "soon" but it has not happened. If anyone has info/experience I would appreciate it.

Thanks to all who contribute. Such great info that adds to our vacation.

Ok...two answers neither of which may be helpful.

Last year (in SXM) we used our swipe card a few times at two different banks...no problem

This year we used our new chip/swipe card three times at two different banks. All transactions were on the Dutch side.

I will say that the ATM process and machines were the same...insert card and it reads the stripe...not partially insert so the chip can be read.

So not very helpful but I would venture a guess that the Dutch banks have not updated totally to chip tech as of 3 weeks ago anyway. My home bank still uses the swipe tech process...

I have been using a swipe card at WIB ATM's for the last 3 weeks with no issues.

Thank you all for your responses. Very helpful. We are really looking forward to our vacation. Weather forecast for this weekend is below 0 temps. Will make SXM all the better.