Travelex, the currency purveyor ubiquitous in airports around the world, is doing its part to get the world to adopt more advanced payments platforms, particularly here in the US.

Travelex is literally evangelizing chip-and-PIN payments to the US market through a product it introduced way under the radar last October called Cash Passport.

Cash Passport addresses a very real – and, in some ways, unfortunate – reality. The US payments market is so far behind Europe’s the US cards are simply not working. Much of Europe is rapidly migrating away from the magnetic strip to chip-and-PIN NFC payments. And even the mag strips we use here in the US are becoming so outdated that US consumers visiting, say, London are having a tough go. For example, a mag-strip credit card simply cannot be used for the London Underground, and that’s a big problem if you’re visiting the British capital.

Travelex devised a solution. Cash Passport lets US consumers score a chip-and-PIN MasterCard debit card stocked with money for use in Europe. Travelers can even top up the card via mobile phone. The cards come denominated in Euros or British pounds. Travelex is selling Cash Passport online and from its shops in US airports with availability in a wider array of airports happening only now. According to the report I got from a Travelex staffer, Cash Passport is finding significant demand; the company is extremely pleased with the product’s launch. Could you imagine if more travelers actually had heard of it?

In a backhanded way, the more people use Cash Passport, the more likely it might create chip-and-PIN fans among Americans. There is certainly nothing wrong with such a path to contactless payments. Whatever works, as they say. But I can’t help seeing what’s wrong with this picture: US payments are so backward that Americans need payments help so they can walk into Victoria Station in London to get to St. John’s Wood station. I shouldn’t have to frame Travelex’s product as gee-whiz, but considering the current stock of payment options, it is. Right now, Cash Passport works in one direction: from the US to Europe. One day, it’ll occupy a two-way street. By then, chip-and-PIN will be on everyone’s radar.