Credit Cards in France
 

A couple of questions about credit cards/cash in France...

1. . Will we find that credit cards are well accepted in restaurants and stores? Is it an issue NOT to have a microchip in the card?

2. Traditionally in our travels, we have brought minimum cash and used ATM cards to take cash out if needed (very rarely); however, from some of the posts it sounds like our ATM card may not work there?

As always, thank you for your insights.

Hi J

1: Yes and Maybe.
If you want to buy fuel on Sunday from an unmanned station, you will find that nearly all of the pumps require a pin-and-chip card.

2: It will work.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

ATM cards work just fine if you are on the appropriate network (Cirrus, Plus, etc.).

Cards without a chip do not work in most automated machines, but some of the ones with high tourist traffic will take them (the new metro ticket machines, Louvre ticket machines...).

Ira, thank you for the info on the pumps... this is good to know as we will arrive on a Sunday. Will have to make sure we get a car with a full tank and will need to make sure we fill it up on Saturday before returning the car on Sunday.

kerouac, thanks also for this info. Am I wrong to assume that the machines will take cash? Or are there ticket offices located at the metro stops?

Hi Jeanne,
Gas stations along the Autoroutes are open and attended on Sundays if you need to fill up then.

Metro ticket machines, etc. will take cash if your credit card doesn't work in them.

Some small restaurants and shops won't take American Express, but most/ almost all will take Visa and Mastercard.

Have a great trip!

The new green metro ticket machines finally take banknotes as well as coins.

We found that on the Auto routes, some toll booths took our AE and others did not. We also found that having two ATM cards, one as a back up 'just in case' of a problem with your primary ATM card. Be sure to have a Visa or M/C as others have indicated. This may sound silly, but we don't use our ATM cards, except when in Europe. When we tried to use our card at the Rome airport, the machine ate the card. We forgot to check the expiration date and it had expired. But we had a second ATM card. Anyways, you will be fine. Richard

Many US credit card issuers add an additional 3% (sometimes 1%) to each purchase as a "currency conversion fee." Capital One has no such charge. We charged over $8,000 on their VISA card during our 6.5 week travels in Italy and France a few months ago -- no extra fees and $80 back by check as their 1% cash rebate.

Out of well over 100 individual uses of the card, we had exactly one place that insisted their machine would not "swipe" the card properly. Lacking the chip, the card needed to be "swiped" through just as is done in the US. We were only in big and medium-sized cities accustomed to tourists.

<<from some of the posts it sounds like our ATM card may not work there?>>

I have never seen a post, among thousands here on Fodors, that indicated that an ATM card wouldn't work in France. It's not an issue.

There are occasionally issues with credit cards not working in certain automated machines because they don't have a chip.