Fuel from 24/7 Debit/credit cad machines in France

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petery

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Just spent 2 months sailing on West Coast of France. While our chip and pin debit & credit cards were accepted in shops and ATM machines, not one 24/7 marina fuel pump accepted them. We tried four different cards from three different UK banks; all were unlocked to work with chip and pin. The cards also didn't work in any shore-based garage. We were reduced to asking French people to use their cards and let us re-imburse them with cash

Long-term ex-pats living in France told us their was a 'generic problem' with UK cards, but my bank, Lloyds, /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif appear not t be aware of the problem.

Taking cash is no solution as 24/7 in France appears to mean 'unmanned'

Were we alone in findng this problem? As we are going back next month, any advice?
 
No you are not alone, French fuel pumps will ONLY take French credit/debit cards. Motorists have been caught on that before, including assistance from the police !!
 
AFAIK,no UK cards work in unmanned sites in France,I have been told that the only solution is to open French Bank account for which apparently you need a French address.If anybody knows any different I'd be pleased to know too.
 
it is not only a uk cards problem: most (at least all I have seen here as a resident) petrol stations have a sign "Cartes etrangeres non acceptees", even where there is a manned desk


next time I stop at a station I will ask the reason
 
um, it is not the actual case that you ned a french address, cos i have one and have no french address. They do want money on deposit tho. The french certainly don't like cheques etc drawn on non-french banks accounts cos a french cheque is like money - it's illegal to "bounce" it. Others who live in france will doubtless know more.
 
UK Banks & Cards

Not only are UK Visa (credit and debit) cards of little use in automatic machines in France you also get taken to the cleaners every time you use them.

For the last 12 months they've extended the charge on drawing cash from ATMS abroard to every transaction you make.

Additional to your injury of being charged for your own money, they further insult you by a hefty bid/offer differential.

I would therefore suggest you leave all your UK cards at home (unless it's Nationwide, who refund the charge) and open a French bank account with a debit card.

This is not without cost as they charge you every time they cash one of your £sterling cheques into €, but it is a reasonable €9 flat + 0.5% of the value. They also change at the median interbank rate.

In comparison, if you purchase on a UK Visa card you're paying about 10% which goes up for cash to about 12%. (If you include hidden bid/offer charges as well as the reported surcharge).
 
French bank accounts

Credit Agricole, and most other French banks, are quite happy to open a compte etranger.

You may be, quite naturally, confused by the requirement (in all countries) to be able to prove you're not a money launderer - for this you need to have:-

1. An official proof of ID (passport, driving licence etc.)
2. Anutilities bill to prove you are a resident.
3. A bank statement or some other financial document to prove you are of sound financial standing.

The way to get round all these is, having chosen the branch at which you're going to open the account, to get a letter of introduction from your UK bank.

there is one thing, going unofficially overdrawn, is in France a criminal not civil offence.
 
I believe this is not restricted to UK cards but all non-French cards. I have however never had a problem buying road fuel from attended filling stations on credit card and have used Visa and Mastercard, even Amex. We have always found marine fuel available during normal hours and always paid by credit card, either to the attendant or the Capitanerie who sent someone to serve us. We have obtained fuel without difficulty in Benodet, Morgat, Crousty and have friends who used credit cards in L'Aberwrac'h (needs the Capitanerie) and Concarneau.

I also used credit card for store purchases in France last month (Barclaycard Mastercard) and the effective exchange rate from the statement I'm now looking at was 1.43/£1 which included a commission charge that was separately itemised. The effective rate therefore is about the quoted 'tourist' rate for currency and acceptable for short term use at least.

However we DID have a problem 3-4 years back when none of the ATMs would accept our cards for cash withdrawals. The banks all told us to use the machine outside in the wall.... Eventually we found a helpful bank (the 5th we tried) who gave us cash against a Mastercard. Later back in the we had major 'discussions' with our card providers and had the cards re-issued, they later worked OK but why I know not.

We have not had problems with cards anywhere else in Europe or in the USA and Canada.
 
IIRC, the whole world is out of step on the chip/pin standard except for la belle France, so there are problems using chip/pin cards except in the more enlightened shops.

Other places will do a voucher, but of course, that requires a Homo (more or less) sapiens.
 
Credit Agricole operate a branch in France called Britline. You do not need to have an address in France to openan account with them. It is staffed by English speaking staff who are extremely helpful. Their web address is www.britline.com
Also you can transfer money into the account by sending the a personal cheque drawn on your UK bank account.
You will be able to have a French Debit Card which will the work in all French machines together with a cheque book. You do not have a cheque guarantee card in France as the penalties for writing a bounced cheque are severe. Also French bank accounts do not have overdraft facilities
 
Last year I did the Gumball 3000 Rally from Paris to Marrakech and back to Cannes.

On the first night we drove into a small village some 100 K's South of Paris to get petrol. The unmanned petrol station had around seventy Porches, Lambourginis, Ferrari's, Aston's Hummer's and sundry other supercars all trying to get their cards to work.

Americans, Germans, Brits, Chinese - you name, they were there - and none could get money, even with the help of the local Gendarmerie who came to investigate the sudden appearance of all these mad people in the early hours of the morning.

Eventually one Gumballer found a working card and he ended up with a few thousand pounds worth of petrol on his bill!

I am not sure I understand why foriegn credit cards will not work in an unmanned petrol station, but are perfectly good in hotel/restaurant/bordello.
 
France set up its chip & pin credit/debit card system first, and it is different from that used by all other countries. (now there's a surprise) Supermarkets etc. can accept UK chip and pin cards, so there is no technical problem. The real reason you cannot buy fuel is simple. The next time there is a fuel shortage in France, only the French will be able to buy any, everybody else will be stranded.
 
Thanks for that I've been on the phone to them this afternoon,and you're right they are very helpful!
Strange though that I was told that I needed an address in France by Credit Agricole in Bayeux!
Once again the Forum comes up trumps.
 
I've worked out that Debit cards should be used for cash and Credit cards for purchases.
Use a Credit card for cash and you pay interest for ever 'cos it keeps accruing even if you clear your account and if you use a Debit card for purchases there's a £1.50 charge each time.
The above applies to HBOS and if they are nickel and diming like that so probably are the rest.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I've worked out that Debit cards should be used for cash and Credit cards for purchases.
Use a Credit card for cash and you pay interest for ever 'cos it keeps accruing even if you clear your account and if you use a Debit card for purchases there's a £1.50 charge each time.
The above applies to HBOS and if they are nickel and diming like that so probably are the rest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dead right. Combine that with using Nationwide (manageable on line) and you have a very good and cheap system, for long term travel abroad. No charges for cash withdrawals via the debit card, no charges for purchases on the credit card and a very good rate of exchange, much better than the tourist rate
 
My understanding is that there are two types of chips put on cards: those which simply store readable information and those which contain a self-programming micro-processor which can react and adapt to outside information, otherwise known as a smart card.
These were invented at the end of the 70's by (fellow golf club member) Michel Ugon and were introduced for common use in the 80's. French credit cards (we don't use debit cards here , or if so, they are extremely rare) have smart chips.

With respect to cheques you can only oppose a payment in one of two circumstances : if they are lost or if they are stolen. It is illegal to stop a payment on the grounds that you do not consider you have received value for your money - for whatever reason.

John
 
Credit Agricole Britline issue a bank card which they state is not a credit card. The card is also accepted where Mastercard is accepted. In my experience when I lived in France, until 6 months ago, this was the standard card issued by Credit Agricole. Also similar cards were issued by other banks. When it was used the amount came out of your account within 1/2 days afterwards. There were other cards issued by banks which took one payment each month for the total amounts accrued to it during that month, in the same way as acharge card would operate, but they were required to be paid in full and thus are not strictly credit cards.
 
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