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Cheque Printing / Debit Cards


lesphil

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We have now reached that stage where we spend most of our holiday in either Brico Depot /Mr Bricolage. We normally pay cash but having a French Bank Account , should pay by cheque. For those of you that spend even more time at these places , do you know if the cheque is printed or do you need to write the amount out ? My french needs to be improved.

Have any of you had any problems in using you British Visa Debit card in France ? I have yet to try and would like somebody else to have theirs rejected first.

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if they have to ring for authorisation they just give you the card back and say no has they dont have telephones at the cash points to ring

we now ring our card provider before we go to France and give the dates we are in France.

Since doing this we have had no problems. 

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"Have any of you had any problems in using you British Visa Debit card in France ? I have yet to try and would like somebody else to have theirs rejected first."

I can answer the above part of your question, that there are no problems using an UK Visa debit card. However, few people realise the huge charges levied by the card companies for using UK cards overseas of between 2.5%-2.75% and also some poor exchange rates. If one is regulary paying with UK cards why not consider a card that does not levy these charges. Cards worth considering are Nationwide Debit and Credit, but you need to have a Nationwide Bank account, or possibly the best in Europe is a Saga Visa credit card but you need to be over 50 to get it. The others with no Europe loading are Liverpool Victoria Credit card, Lombard Direct credit card and Amex Gold credit card.

To give some examples of the costs of using UK cards in Europe, I have copied this chart from Moneysaving Expert.

Overseas Saving.  
Spending £1,750 worth of Euros

Card Details

Purchases worth £1,000 of Euros

Withdraw £750 worth of Euros cash (A)

TOTAL

Name


  • Hi

    I would agree with everyone re Visa etc cards - tell the card providers that you are going wherever and it is then fine.

    Re the cheque - as we spend most of our time in Castorama and LeRoy Merlin at the moment I can say that they ask you NOT to fill in the cheque but let them print it  - then when you are happy with it they ask you to sign it.

    Sue

    Edit: re the cheques - because of so much cheque fraud you are usually asked for at least one piece of identity as well.

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