>>>> I wonder, however, if someone from Europe comes to the US and tried to use their CC with a chip; will it work here?
>>
>>Yep. Tragically the chipped ones aren't that safe either: you can read the RF from at least 2 feet away using hardware bought from Ebay and use downloaded PC software to crack it in seconds. Some people now put their CC in special cases to avoid this- check out "credit card RF" on Ebay. FWIW, most of the chip public transport systems and business security systems also are compromised. Desfire EV1 still is reasonably safe because it uses AES, but only we paranoids have converted to that.
>
>I don't know about Europe but good thing that in US you are only liable for $50 of fraudulent charges (by most US bank CCs).

trouble is with banking cards - they have the same technology abd there you are only liable ;-)