Pounds Sterling at an autoroute toll booth?

[dave21478]

Had a slightly odd experience on my latest trip down....maybe its common knowledge, maybe it was a one-off?

I cant remember where it was exactly, I had come down from Paris direction on the A10, and was continuing onto the A71 / A20 southbound. It was wherever on that route you leave the last toll section before the big free section down the a20

anyway, exited the peage, pulled up to an unmanned card-payment machine and put my ticket in as normal, shoved my french bank card in..."not accepted"  gah, I noticed a sticker on the machine that said it didnt accept visa electron or maestro. I have 2 french cards and typically, they are an electron and a maestro. Damn. Ok, jammed in my uk visa card and that wasnt accepted either. uh oh.

By now a queue was forming behind me so i pressed the help button. The stunningly beautifull lady turned up and confirmed that none of my cards were accepted and asked if I had any cash. Out came the wallet.....no cash.... Id forgotten to take money out of a cash machine.

 

uh oh.

 

She asked if I had any uk money, So i whipped out my "emergency twenty" from the ashtray, which she took and went back to her booth, returning a minute later with my change. The toll had been 17 euros, I paid £20 and got 7euros and some shrapnell in change.

 

How strange.

 

[globetrotter]

Nothing strange about it, for years lorry drivers who have run out of the then local currency,could pay in another european currency. 

[AnOther]

An expensive encounter then, €24 for £20

I know the exchange rate is rubbish but that is taking the pi55 [:-))]

[LEO]

Handy to know in an emergency.

[Iceni]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

An expensive encounter then, €24 for £20

I know the exchange rate is rubbish but that is taking the pi55 [:-))]

[/quote]

Ernie

A favour pls - next time you drive back to Essex pls use € at Dartford and let us know the x-rate you get.

John

[Ron Avery]

Don't know where Ernie gets his figures from, not like him to make mistakes where money is concerned[:D]

As the tourist exchange rate is £1 to 1.27€ your £20 buys 25.40€ so if you got say 7,40€ back for your £20 you were charged 18€ for a toll currently according to Michelin of 22, 60€ from Paris.  This is the current toll from Paris to the beginning of the free section on the A20. The only other toll is when you leave the A20 and that would have to be at Montauban to be near to 17€, so if it was the big toll, you did well didn't you?

For John's information, its  2€ for a van to go through the Dartford Tunnel, did it last year when I didn't realise it was £1.80 for a van and only had £1 coin left.

[AnOther]

What's wrong with my figures Ron. Nothing was said about the toll fee demanded not being €17

Fact is dave effectively "bought" €24 and shrapnel (let's be generous and call it €25 then) for £20. That represents an exchange rate of 1.25:1 which, by any standards, is pretty poor.

My point was that by neglecting to ensure he was carrying € obtained at a sensible rate (i.e. NOT tourist) dave ended up paying expensively for his error.

Paradoxically, had the machine accepted his UK card, the hit could have been even worse though [+o(]

 

[Ron Avery]

Thought it strange you had slipped up Ernie, I can see where you got your 24€ from now.  However, that rate of £1 to 1.25€ is about right from a bureau de change on the current tourist rates.  many of us here on UK pensions have taken a 10% reduction in income in the past few months[:(]. What I cannot see is how he got from the coast to Paris with a UK debit card unless he went through Rouen and across to Orleans, which is maybe where the 17€ toll on the A71 comes from.

[Will]

Special offer of 1.30€ in Portsmouth yesterday. Which I thought was pretty good for a bureau de change.

Yes, accepting foreign currency is common practice in Europe - I've done the same in Belgium and The Netherlands before.

 

[dave21478]

I had come from zeebrugge down lille direction, skirted the east and south of paris and then down towards orleans then the a20. I had paid the tolls further up the route no problems with my french card.

Im not fussed about a potentially bum exchange rate in the slightest, i was just glad to not be stuck there.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Will"]Yes, accepting foreign currency is common practice in Europe[/quote]Except in UK that is. I understand some shops in London will accept them but god knows what rate they give.

Try offering € in your average provincial town high street though and see how far you get !

[Quillan]

If you have a French bank card it's worth paying to have it upgraded to a Visa (or MasterCard) as it's not only toll booths that can give problems.

To be honest I have now 'converted' to using my card as most often there are no or few queues at the card booths and it only takes a second or two. I believe (never tried it) UK Visa and MasterCard's work but then you don't always get a good rate.

[AnOther]

An interesting route dave, any particular reason you favoured that over the western ones ?

Did you go Meaux / Melun then down the 152 to Orleans or keep closer to Paris, timing would be everything I'd think ?

I did it once and it was a horrible nightmare and I vowed I would never go way again.

I'm sure you were just glad to get through, I wonder what they would have done if you hadn't had that emergency £20 ?

[AnOther]

PS:

The good old Telepaege doofer definately comes into it's own if you're making regular trips [;-)]

[Chancer]

The exchange rate is not an issue to me, only a little bit less than drwing it out on my Nationwide card.

What I want to know is what péage does this stunningly beautifull lady work at?

[Baz]

[quote user="Quillan"]

To be honest I have now 'converted' to using my card as most often there are no or few queues at the card booths and it only takes a second or two. I believe (never tried it) UK Visa and MasterCard's work but then you don't always get a good rate.

[/quote]

Yes UK cards are accepted at all Autoroute card booths. However, a word of warning, unless things have recently changed. All transactions on the same day for all tolls  on the entire French Autoroute system are charged as one lump total, therefore, should you wish to check the amounts make sure you get a receipt every time.

Baz

[dave21478]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

An interesting route dave, any particular reason you favoured that over the western ones ?

Did you go Meaux / Melun then down the 152 to Orleans or keep closer to Paris, timing would be everything I'd think ?

I did it once and it was a horrible nightmare and I vowed I would never go way again.

I'm sure you were just glad to get through, I wonder what they would have done if you hadn't had that emergency £20 ?

[/quote]

The exactroute is here....

http://www.viamichelin.fr/

I used to cross to Boulogne on the speedferry, then went via Rouen, Evreux, Dreux etc to Orleons, then down the a20, but since I started using the Zeebrugge ferry from Rosyth (my starting point in uk is Aberdeen, so although I pay more for the boat, I save driving the length of uk) i have taken this route. Tomtom and viamichelin reckon its the fastest, and I have no reason to doubt it, despite it taking me through the Paris peripherique. The boat gets into Zeebrugge around lunchtime, so Im usually in Paris at 3-4pm and havent had a problem yet. Maybe just been lucky? yes, traffic is heavy but flows constantly even with an overheated lorry broken down in the middle lane somewhere on the periph this time.

Its a long drive that I do in one go, so Im not fussed about scenery, I just want to get there quickly, so stick to the fastest route taking autoroute all the way to my exit at montauban. Its 1000kms, and the computers reckon 10 hours, but in the real world i take more like 12 hours by the time if got up the 30 km or so of wee roads from Albi to the house.

Id be happy to see an alternative if you have a suggestion!

 

 

[dave21478]

oh, and if I hadnt had my "emergency twenty" I have no idea what would happen. I doubt they can hold you to ransom at the toll booth. I have visions of lots of form-filling, showing identification and some kind of bond to pay the owed amount by cheque at a later date, but who knows for certain!

[chirpy]

No money then they just send you to the guillitine and save the same person making an error again. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It,s surprising how helpful some drivers behind you can be on an unmanned gate  in France or on QE11 Dartford crossing when your last £1 coin misses the bucket in the automatic lane!!!!!!!!!!!

[:)]