No Chip, No Bike In Paris

Interesting thing about those cool, new rental bikes in Paris. Turns out, you can't use your standard American credit cards to rent them. As Budget Travel Online points out, the rental bike kiosks accept only credit cards with microchips. These are common in Europe, but not in the United States. This is becoming an increasing problem for Americans trying to use unattended machines to buy gasoline, train tickets and other services in some parts of Europe.