James_P

Hi
We are in the last day of a trip from Barcelona to southern France and back to Barcelona. We had a chip and sign credit card and had no trouble paying tolls I France or Spain. I really liked Barcelona. We were here for 4 days and there is something interesting in every street you turn down.

Robert2533

Good to know your card worked.

Alec

While your card worked for your particular journey, there is no way of telling if it will work on other stretches of French toll roads, as they are run by different companies regionally.

kerouac

My last two experiences with foreign friends who used their cards in the toll machines:

American Target Visa card without chip worked just fine everywhere.

British NatWest chip & pin card was refused.

iris1745

My chip Visa worked perfectly.

Almost embarrassing on a toll road in southern France for .80euros.

joannyc

My Pen Fed chip and pin card didn't work anywhere in the south of France... tolls, gas, hotels, etc.

Did notify them before leaving that I would be traveling internationally.

Already discussed this further on a previous thread within the last couple of months.

DebitNM

Our Andrews FCU chip card has worked well in Provence for all uses.

James_P

My understanding is that there are no chip and pin credit cards issued in the USA. There are only chip and sign cards issued. I have a capital one card and it worked fine for all tolls In Provence and Spain.

I rented a car in Barcelona and it came with a full tank of gas that they charged me 88 euros for. They charges 1.96 euros per liter. We got gas for as little as 1.20 euros. You should consider that your rental car costs an additional 30 euros under this situation.

DebitNM

The Andrews card defaults to signature IF there is a human involved; if not, it's a chip and PIN. Works at gas stations, train kiosks and tolls. As mentioned, in France, different tolls are run by different companies, so that could a use issue. It used to for us in Provence at some tolls but the last 2 years, it's been 100% success rate.

Sarastro

<i>My Pen Fed chip and pin card didn't work anywhere in the south of France... tolls, gas, hotels, etc</i>

My PenFed card has worked anywhere in France I have ever tried it. You evidently had a separate issue, particularly if it was not accepted at a hotel.

StCirq

There are at least two, three I think, cards available in the USA that have chip and pin, so it's not true there are none. I had two before I moved to France - Andrews and PenFed. They both worked fine. I don't need them any more, but if you really want a chip and pin card, sign up for these credit unions.

As mentioned, toll booths in France are run by different companies, so there is no extrapolating from success on one autoroute to success on all autoroutes.

Sarastro

Just to be fair, both the Andrews and PenFed cards are chip & signature cards; meaning that a signature is required for the default EMV transaction (at a manned location).

The PINs for chip & signature cards are only used at unmanned locations such as kiosks. I believe that the reason why both Andrews and PenFed are widely accepted is that their PINs are burned into the cards. PIN/user authentication can be made without the need for a connection to a remote database. These are known as offline PINs.

Cards with online PINs authenticate only after the entered PIN is matched against an online database. Few, if any, of the pay-at-the-pump locations in France are setup for online authentication. This is why many US issued chip & signature cards cannot be used to purchase gas at unmanned locations.

kerouac

Automatic pumps at service stations prove they they are not online by displaying information like "120€ maximum" on the screen when the transaction is authorized. If they were online, they wouldn't have to do that.

MaineGG

Just returned last week from France. My Capital One MC (chip/signature) was accepted in all toll machines on the autoroutes north and east of Paris operated by Sanef. It was also accepted in two fuel pumps. No PIN or signature requested. The only place this card was not accepted was in the SNCF machines at the Gare du Nord when I tried to retrieve tickets purchased on line with it. Had to go to the ticket counter where there was no problem getting them.

Robert2533

>My understanding is that there are no chip and pin credit cards issued in the USA.<

Barclays Bank is now issuing chip & pin cards. Amex also uses chip & pin.

xyz123

All Amex cards issued in the USA are chip and signature not chip and pin.

The best way to describe cards such as the Andrews card and Barclaycards USA is that they are signature preferred with offline pin capabilities which should be fine almost all the time. Every so often you run into a merchant at a personneled pos location who refuses to complete a signature transaction perhaps fearing liability for such transactions increases which is not true but this is hardly a large problem and is no longer growing more wider as more and more USA chip and signature cards are encountered in most places that Americans tend to visit.

As of now, the only two USA financial institutions issuing what are best called pin preferred chipped cards are UNFCU and First Tech FCU. First Niagara Bank has announced its intention to offer such cards but hasn't started doing so to the best of my knowledge. There are several FCU's that have very restrictive membership qulifications such as one for Harvard Universsity students and graduates that issue true chip and pin cards but at not available generally.

Issues with chip and signature cards have lessened dramatically although there may still be some pockets of resistance as of 01 July 2015, visa/mc/amex regs prohibit kiosks from not completing transactions because cards lack pins. Probably not 100% true but close enough.

iris1745

My AX Starwood and Visa Marriott are both chip and signature, recently issued.