daniela

My sister and her husband were in Paris last October and were not able to use their ATM card. Their pin had 4 digits as advised by the bank and still did not work. All the French cards have a thumb print on them and they assumed that it was the reason. We count on the ATM to take us to most of out trips, so any info is greatly appreciated.

topper

This one needs an answer for many of us!!

dfc

I had no problems using my regular US ATM card while in Paris last year and plan to do so again this year. I took no foreign currency with me but my first stop after clearing customs was the ATM machine at CDG. I also used them within Paris with no problems at all.

MBrown

I live in Paris and use ATM cards issued on two american banks on a regular basis and with problem. It is true that you must have a 4 digit pin.<BR><BR>Your bank ATM must be part of a major network such as pulse or cirrus to function in France. Look on the back of your ATM for their logos.<BR><BR>French cards do not have thumb prints on them. They contain a small computer chip that is visible on the front of the card. However, even though American cards do not have this chip they still work. <BR><BR>If your ATM card doesnt work in a machine simply go to another bank and try again. Many ATMs in France will recognize that the card is foreign and give you a choice of languages when you insert the card.

Nancy

We were in Paris in Feb. and used our ATM card everywhere. No problems.

mBrown

Correction.. the first sentence was suppose to read that i use my ATM card WITHOUT problem rather than with problem... sorry LOL

Phil

I've used my Citibank ATM card all over France without any problems. MBrown is right, you automatically get a multilingual menu. And the exchange rates are not bad at all. Forget travellers cheques and cash advances.<BR>The problem is most likely due to your sister's card not being of the major networks.

Christina

If it does belong to the correct network, believe it or not, sometimes they just don't work. ATMs are not foolproof and for no good reason whatsoever, my card hasn't worked in France (several times in Paris). The exact same card would work a day or two later even in the same ATM or maybe somewhere else. It was not a matter of incorrect PIN, wrong network, overwithdrawal or anything like that. I really don't know the reason, but I don't count on only one source of money where traveling abroad, so I have alternative resources (travelers checks). I would never assume my ATM card is going to work perfectly wherever I go and have no backup plan.

greg

Daniela,<BR>There are many reasons why ATM cards do not work. For many, it JUST so happen that their setup allow them to get cash in Europe, so they are surprised when someone else says the ATM cards do not work. Your sister or her husband need to bug their bank why it did not work. Unless the transaction was rejected outright at the bank in France, their bank does have the record of WHY it failed. Trust me, they do.<BR><BR>It is unlikely that their card was not part of the Cirrus or PLUS.<BR><BR>Here are some common problems. <BR><BR>- The account to which ATM was linked was a wrong type: what is the right type? It is an elusive question. Since run of the mill ATM in France does NOT ask which account to draw money from, it is commonly thought that it can only access primary account. So does it mean if it is connected to one account only, would it work? Not so, apparently, the European ATM does certain type of transaction and your account, even it is the only one liked to ATM, must accept that type of transaction. The odd is BETTER if the account is a plain checking account. The odd is WORSE if it is more of a saving type of account. The bank customer reps usually do not know what is the correct type of account. They can surely tell you, after the fact, that the account they created for you which they promised SHOULD WORK, did not work because French ATM did different kind of transaction than what the account allowed.<BR><BR>- Communication problem: The ATM authorization request to US and back must be completed within certain time limit. There are several reasons why this fails:<BR>1. Your bank is not accepting any tranaction because it is maintenance time in the US in the middle of the night, which unfortunately for you is early evening when you need cash for your dinner.<BR>2. There is lots of communication traffic across and the ATM machine did not receive OK to dispense cash from your bank in time. In this case, not only you don't get money, your account gets debitted which you have to complain to get fixed later.<BR><BR>- You have reached the daily withdrawl limit. The day is defined as the time in home country, not in Europe. <BR><BR>- Other problem common with any ATM, machine problem, out of cash, etc.<BR><BR>I always take two cards per bank, from two different banks, 4 cards total. I had to use a back up card for one reason for another about once a week.

phil

Christina: you're right re the backup plan. I meant "forget" referring to primary cash source. It is also true that - because the French use ATM's intensively - the machines sometimes simply run out of cash, especially on weekends. I have the feeling though that, since the ATM's now also have 50 Euro bills (iso the 200 FF bills previously), this may improve. <BR>What I find more annoying is the fact that Visa or MC sometimes get rejected, simply because they're foreign (even from other European countries). This is because merchants get an automatic payment guarantee for French cards, but for foreign cards their terminal has to call in, and if the central authorizing system is busy or there's a line problem, or someone in the kitchen is on the phone with his girlfriend, you may have to wait a while (or go the ATM next door and pay cash). <BR>The only place where I've never had problems is at the -manned- toll booths (p&eacute;age). They take any credit card, they always work, and in seconds! But then again, they probably have dedicated phone lines for processing.

amy

Greg, that was a fabulous explanation.<BR><BR>We only had one problem with ATMs in Europe, and that was in Rome (we have yet to be rejected in Paris; in fact, my husband likes it that he can keep taking money beyond our home limit out there). In Rome, we averaged one rejection on one machine per day. We'd walk across the street to another and it would work. The same one that rejected us might work the next day. Greg's explanation probably was our actual scenario.<BR><BR>Even with this experience, we have yet to resort to traveler's checks. We carry four major credit cards between us, two ATM cards, and two different personal checks. We've been to Europe 12 times in the past two years, and believe me, we have survived. My mother, a traveler's check fanatic, was finally a convert when we took her to Paris. She could not get over how easy everything was. When we explained that if we got our credit card stolen, we would visit the American Express office just as we would if the traveler's checks had been stolen, she said, "Why in the world is anyone using these things then?"<BR><BR>My question exactly.

gbindenver

Also, I found quite a few ATM's were out of money on a Sunday night.