Cards at fuel stations

[P]

Do the new style UK chip and pin debit and credit cards work at the pumps in France or is it just French issued one that do.

Also are the fuel stations on the Autoroutes manned 24 hours a day, i.e. can I pay cash for fuel during the night?

The reason for asking is - can I travel overnight from Calais to the South during which time I will need to refuel, with either a UK card or cash.

Thanks

Paul

[CBC]

Not sure about petrol stations, but I have successfully and easily used UK chip and pin in supermarkets (your instructions even come up on the machine in English ......), so would hope that it should be the same for fuel. 

[Dotty0]

I think I'm correct in saying (sure I will be pulled up if wrong), that you CANNOT use a British chip and pin card in French petrol stations.  Only French issued cards will work.

Most petrol stations on the Autoroutes stay open 24 hours a day, but sometimes you can find service aires are closed due to maintenance or road works.  My advice would be to carry extra fuel and don't let you car get too low before refilling. 

The AA map of France is great for listing petrol stations, so you may be able to plan your fuel stops in advance.  Just make sure you have a back up plan if all goes wrong.

Dotty

[Alcazar]

And depending which way you're going, you'll be able to buy, and pay for fuel at the kiosk, or inside the services. The ones I've used stay open all night.

I regularly go Calais to Limoges,[ A16, A28, (Rouen) A13, A154, N154 (Chartres), A10, A71, A20, overnight], and have done it both with, and without a  big box-trailer, in both a petrol, and a diesel car. I have had no problems getting fuel, just be aware that the service stations are IT as far as fuel is concerned at that time of night, (unless you want to search out a hypermarket in the wee small hours, which will probably be deserted, apart from the muggers just waiting for YOU........) so if your tank is less than half full, refill when you see one.

The only downside is that diesel, for example, can be €1.18 a litre on the motorway, and only €1.03 at hypermarkets. You pays your money................

Alcazar

BTW: last time I came back, I worked out that I would have paid about €7.50 MORE by buying diesel on the motorway, (I got it at the supermarket in St Mathieu, then at Auchan Boulogne), so about £5.50, not a lot, in the scheme of things.

[Dotty0]

Alcazar

We always try to buy our fuel in the supermarkets, however, sometimes it can often work out more expensive.  Like the time we were in our 8 mpg American motorhome.  My darling husband decides to pull off the autoroute in search of cheaper fuel.  Both tanks full is very expensive, so every little helps.  However, because of the height restrictions into most supremarket stations we could not get through.  After adding 45 mins to the journey time, getting lost, stuck, unable to turn round easily, this thing is 27 feet long, I worked it out we saved 5 euros in fuel, but it must have cost us all of that driving round.  Plus of course the divorce.

[Albert the infopikey]

"Do the new style UK chip and pin debit and credit cards work at the pumps in France or is it just French issued one that do?"

Haven't had much joy with our UK cards in pumps, even though the same card sometimes works at the kiosk! Must admit, though,  that usually the attendant takes one look & switches to paper signature.

 

[Baz]

[quote user="Albert the infopikey"]

"Do the new style UK chip and pin debit and credit cards work at the pumps in France or is it just French issued one that do?"

Haven't had much joy with our UK cards in pumps, even though the same card sometimes works at the kiosk! Must admit, though,  that usually the attendant takes one look & switches to paper signature.

[/quote]

The only cards that work on the pumps in French Petrol stations are those issued in France. However, if kiosk is open then there should be no problems using UK cards.

Baz

[Alcazar]

DottyO: yep, been there, nearly done that[:D]

I always find that the supermarket pay kiosk is just that bit TOO tight to get a car and caravan combination round, and the kerbs are that bit too high to risk it riding up over one.

Once, when running on fumes, I unhitched the 'van in a  supermarket parking space, fuelled up, rehitched and away we went, much to the amusement of the French.

You DO have to be aware of the height restrictions though, don't you?

Alcazar

[Tony F Dordogne]

We have used a couple of Leclerc petrol stations recently that have no staff, all card - there's one on the N154 I think up near Evreaux.

It is 24 hour, excellent and easy to use including instructions in English if you need them, brilliantly lit and cheap - but it only takes French cards and makes it clear on the pumps that it doesn't take English cards.

We fill up there as it's convenient both ways for us - but we also have a Casino and a Champion hypermarket near Dreux if we need them.

 

[Sunday Driver]

Sod's law says you'll keep going to the next motorway services and it'll be unmanned.  Its probably safest to take the view that all petrol stations will be unmanned (and french card only) on Sundays and at night, and take the appropriate precautions to avoid running out.

[Quillan]

It works the other way as well, my Carte Blue would not work in Asda's. The UK system is a different product. Rather than buy exisiting software the UK decided to develope it's own. Needless to say it is quite different hence UK cards do not always work in France or other EU countries. To accept UK cards they need updated machines in France, it's not a automatic update either and you have to pay for a new contract so many people just don't bother. Of course if you have had a new machine installed in the last 18 months to two years it's no problem. Machines for petrol are even harder to upgrade by the nature they are specially made to fit the machines. Somebody mentioned that not all tole booths in France take UK cards either, some do, some don't. The time you find out of course will be when there is one booth open, it's pitch dark and pouring down with rain and there is ten cars behind you and a big lorry and of course you only have pound notes.

[Teamedup]

My french CB works in the UK with the chip and pin number. Well it did everywhere I tried it.

[Wendy]

Definately they only take French cards. Theyve built a new auto filling station right opposite the airport here for tourists to fill up their rental cars but, guess what?, it only takes french cards. Explain the logic please!!!!.  Oh forgot... this is france.

[andyh4]

Quillan

I have never come across a peage toll machine that does not take a UK credit card (Visa or Mastercard).  HOWEVER they will not accept debit cards (even Visa and Mastercard).  This has something to do with the different arrangements for billing between the 2 sets of cards and the fact that credit cards are allowed to be block booked with the issueing company, whereas by definition a charge card has to be immediate.  Block booking reduces the costs to the autoroute company.

 

 

[P]

Thanks folks

Looks like a case of having some hotel numbers to hand in case we have to have an enforced stop.

Paul

[mascamps.com]

Even automated petrol stations built locally within the last few months won't accept UK cards so it's not really a matter about upgrading the software.

One other problem is that HSBC issued cards (which includes Capital One) won't work in some of the supermarkets (other UK cards are fine).

American Express won't work in the tollbooths either.

Debit cards do work in the tollbooths. What they won't accept is Visa Electron and Maestro (ie Visa Delta is OK).

 

Arnold

 

[Will]

I thought that, rather than UK developing its own software for chip & pin cards, it was the French who were out of step, having developed theirs so far in advance of all the other countries. As a result, France is still on Mark 1 while the rest of the world has version 2 or 3. I do know for sure that with the French system the pin number is embedded in the card, so cannot be changed, while elsewhere the number is linked to the card via the software, so users can choose their own numbers and change them by themselves. That's one example of the difference between systems.

France is committed to catching up, but it happens slowly, with the result that some French machines are dual standard and accept pin numbers on cards issued elsewhere but many do not, and the card readers on automatic fuel pumps - even new ones - almost universally accept only French cards. I do recall using a non-French card successfully at Cité Europe near Calais years ago, but every other pay-at-pump machine I have ever come across in France is French cards only.

The big service areas on the most popular autoroutes do tend to be manned 24hours (though there are plenty of exceptions), so you should be OK, even if it means visiting every service area and filling up where you find a manned kiosk once your tank starts getting down while travelling at night. We always managed it when I was working down south in the summer and we travelled from Calais to Baie des Anges, near Nice, in one hop, even with 3-4 people in a car, towing a boat trailer. But better to plan things to be able to fill up during opening hours or include overnight stops if you can.

[mascamps.com]

Indeed. Visa et al developed the global chip & pin standard after France had rolled it out.

I notice that on our credit card machine, most French cards are now on the new (EMV) standard. It's quite rare to find a truly French card anymore.

Has anyone tried changing the PIN on their French card in a UK machine? It would need to be a French EMV card (ie newish) as the older ones certainly wouldn't be able to do it.

 

Arnold

 

[Quillan]

The UK 'Chip and Pin' system was devloped by FDC in Basildon Essex which develops systems for all the credit/debit card companies in the UK and is part of the world wide First Data Corporation which in turn is owned by American Express. With the exception of Lloyds Bank  all debit and credit cards are cleared by them through eithr their Midlands or Southend centres.

All the banks and card companies in the UK paid them to develope the new system. My team were contracted to HP who in turn were responcible for the in-house system upgrades. Needless to say the project went well over in both time and money.

The ability to change your number is a feature of the French system but not used/actvated, whatever. This ability has been available on UK 'hole in the wall' cards for many, many years. In fact the first thing I did when I got my Abbey Multi Function card was to change the pin. It's much harder to do on Goldfish, BarclayCard etc even with the new cards. I'm not saying it can't be done it's just a lot of hassle.

The hand held and desk bound machines used to read cards are the same as there are only about 17 manufacturers in the whole world. It's just the software that is different. It actually makes them very easy to upgrade, you just plug them in to a laptop or even a PDA with the right software and a physical connection and the units can be reprogrammed. There are some very specialised machines like those in toll machines, ticket dispencers and in the context of the original post, petrol dispencing machines. These are specially built and not so versatile as the rest. The software is changed by actually changing the whole unit. Tye newer machines which are connect perminantly via a bridge and ADSL can be reprogrammed and their software can now be upgraded remotely.

[Baz]

[quote user="Quillan"]

The ability to change your number is a feature of the French system but not used/actvated, whatever. This ability has been available on UK 'hole in the wall' cards for many, many years. In fact the first thing I did when I got my Abbey Multi Function card was to change the pin. It's much harder to do on Goldfish, BarclayCard etc even with the new cards. I'm not saying it can't be done it's just a lot of hassle.

[/quote]

I have a fair number of both  Debit and Credit cards including Barclaycard and  the pin numbers have all been changes at UK "hole in the wall"  cash machines very easily and certainly with no hassle. All providers of UK based cards provide clear instructions on how to change pin numbers, the only tip is when you receive a new card that you should not try to change the pin number before its valid from date as in certain cases this is not possible. Maybe Quillan this is why you experienced some problems as this information is not published in the literature sent out.

Baz

[Quillan]

Sorry, when I mean hassle I mean you have to go to a Barclays machine for Barclaycard and I am not to sure who's machine you need to got to for Goldfish and Mint is Royal Bank of Scotland. If you live in France there is not much chance of coming across these banks. In fact where I lived in both London (would you believe) and Kent there was nothing local. Both required a minimum of a 20 minute bus ride.

[Alcazar]

[quote user="P"]

Thanks folks

Looks like a case of having some hotel numbers to hand in case we have to have an enforced stop.

Paul

[/quote]

Have you given any thought to opening a French bank account, and asking for a debit type card? I have one, it draws on my account at Caisse d'Epargne.

Alcazar

[mascamps.com]

I can accept that it may be more difficult to upgrade the petrol machine card readers, but that must have been done as most (all?) new French cards are on the EMV standard as are all UK cards. So, how come they can process a French EMV card but not a UK one?

 

Arnold

 

[Eslier]

I suspect that the French are just not inclined to invest money simply to make life a little easier for English tourists. It is unlikely that converting all the fuel pumps would result in enough additional business to cover the cost of such an exercise so why bother ?  Whilst it may be inconvenient for some, most Brits will find a way around the problem, even if that means staying in a hotel for the night and buying fuel the next morning. Rightly or wrongly, it seems to be a case of  "I'm alright Jaques".

It would be interesting to know whether the new American Express "Travellers Cheque Cards" will work.

[mascamps.com]

As far as I know the automated stations only take Carte Bleue (ie French Visa/Mastercards: not even French Visa Electron/Maestro as far as I know) so they won't take the Amex card (their "Travellers Cheque Card" is just a pre-paid version of their credit/charge card). Amex require all places accepting their cards to accept all of their cards and as most aren't chip & pin I imagine that they couldn't be accepted in automated stations, even if they were French Amex cards.

If you're thinking of their Travellers Cheque Card, you may as well just apply for their credit card as it's free vs about £20 for the TC card and can be used in the same places.

Note: Amex is no longer accepted in the motorway tollbooths in France (Visa Electron and Maestro aren't either).

 

Arnold