OhioDi

We will be doing quite a bit of driving in France during our Sept vacation.

I have read conflicting reports concerning US credit cards to pay tolls. Do our credit cards work or should I have cash when exiting the tolls booths?

bratsandbeer

We used cash in France and don't know if they accept credit cards. If there is no attendant I would not want to take a chance on losing my credit card to a toll booth.

LN

We also used cash in Germany and Austria as some of the toll booths did not have attendants. IMHO you're better off using cash.

flanneruk

I can't begin to see why they wouldn't.

The chip and pin system isn't used at toll booths. You just stick your card in the machine and the barrier pops up. Or give it to the charming staff in the booth, who are normally slightly puzzled if they're offered cash, much as teenagers are when they meet someone who can't work a mobile phone.

Dukey

really strange..last year we used a lot of the toll roads in France, offered cash to the attendants and didn't get one "puzzled" look..

of course, we are from the New World and actually wear clothes so maybe that's it...

StuDudley

Some automated/non-attendant boths do & some only work with chip cards. Remember - US cards are "swiped" and France cards are "inserted". Not all machines can do both.

We spend 2 months in France most years, and the first time we tried it a few years ago, it worked great. About an hour later at a different toll both - we stuck our ticket in and then our card, and our card did not work. We tried different cards. Our ticket was not returned to us. By then, there were about 5 cars behind us & several were honking. An attendant at one of the manned booths had to shut down her booth & come over & rescue us. That was the last time we tried to use the card at an automated booth.

This past June we were returning from dinner on the Peage, and took the small exit that was very close to our Gite. This was about 11pm. There was no attendant at that time, and our card did not work. I got out of the car, lifted up the "arm" and my wife drove under it. To my surprise, no horns or sirens sounded and I did not break anything.

Stu Dudley

peppermintpatti

Hi Di, We used our credit cards at toll booths in France about 3 years ago, so don't know if my experience is current enough. We had trouble a few times getting our cards accepted--was on a Sunday, so no human inside the booth. But we had a few different cards, and it was the American express that was accepted. I don't really understand why this happened, because we later used the same cards at another booth and they were accepted. We always take a few different cards just in case one type is refused. Have fun on your trip! pp

marcy_

We have routinely used our credit cards to pay our tolls in France, only having the machine refuse a credit card once or twice.

When one card didn't work, we just used a different one. But the first card worked fine again at the next toll booth. Go figure!

Anyway, as a rule, you should be fine using a US credit card.

iris1745

Hi OhioDi; We are also driving quite a bit in France in September and people on this forum have suggested methods to get a 'toll pass' for France. Not as much waiting at the toll booths. Just type in on 'search this forum' EZ PASS and information from these folks may help. However, the application is in French, so I am still trying using other methods. I have e-mailed franceguide.com If they canno't help, I will try the France Tourist Office in New York 212 8387800 Iris

Cimbrone

This summer, we found ourselves holding up an irate line of French drivers when our credit card was rejected by the machine and an attendant had to come over to then take our cash. We later learned that lots of toll roads in France require the chip type credit card.

kerouac

My parents had no trouble using their American Visa cards in the automatic toll lanes of the autoroutes.

It should be pointed out that the toll machines only read the magnetic strip of even the French cards and not at all the chip. That is why they also accept American Express on the northern autoroute companies, not to mention things like Monoprix credit cards or various oil company cards that don't have a chip.

Cimbrone

We were in Savoie when ours were rejected. It was in a tourist office that it was explained to us that it was due to there not being a chip. The card worked fine everywhere else, by the way.

kerouac

Actually, I think that a lot of American users are putting their cards in the machine backwards. Even I have to think how to insert my Amex card in the machines, since there is no convenient arrow on those cards pointing the correct direction.

(Cards must be inserted by putting the left side of the card in when it is facing up.)

kerouac

<i>We were in Savoie when ours were rejected. It was in a tourist office that it was explained to us that it was due to there not being a chip. The card worked fine everywhere else, by the way.</i>

Clearly the tourist office was misinformed or thinking about the petrol station pumps instead of toll booths. I generally use my chipless Amex card or Monoprix card in the toll machines.

Cimbrone

kerouac, do you have first-hand knowledge of all of the toll booths in France? If not, I'm not sure why you think you know better than the tourist office in the region through which I was traveling.

kerouac

Yes, I have used <b>every single toll booth</b> in France. I have never had to enter a PIN code, as you do with a chip card, which is absolute proof that it is the magnetic strip being used.

Oh my god, if you only realized how many inaccuracies tourist offices can give out. They even will send you to museums that have been closed for two years.

StuDudley

I'll repeat - within 1 or 2 hours we had a card accepted and rejected on the Peage. Same card. Different Peages. We turned the rejected card around, over, backwards, sideways, blew on it - and it still didn't work. Neither did our 2 other cards. The rejected card worked everywhere else on our 5 week trip in Italy &amp; France.

It could be that some card readers work better than others or some cards can deteriorate. However, the cars in line before us had no problems, and I assume the cars behind us who were honking their horns got through OK too.

My wife works for Visa (20 years), and we spend 2 months in France every year. We aren't neophytes.

Stu Dudley

Cimbrone

LOL, kerouac.

Well, I think that since the OP is trying to find out whether to depend on credit cards for toll booths, Stu and my experiences answer the question. Have cash. Whether the chip or something else is the culprit is irrelevant. The cards are not reliable.

French-U.S. relations are tense enough as is.