xyz123
It was only a 2.50euro charge and I thought I had the correct coins. My point was that tolls in France obviously will take charges as low as a dime.

Compared to the US credit cards are not nearly so widely accepted in Europe.

There are many places in Italy and Greece where you can not use them.

The UK and the Scandinavian countries are probably the most advanced when it comes to credit card acceptance.

In places like Germany, Switzerland and Spain they are widely accepted but often refused for small purchases (this happens in the UK a lot too). You can insist on the store accepting them but they may add a small charge to cover the bank's administration/processing fee.

But in general, if you stick to the touristy places you will have few problems as they are widely accepted in these kinds of places. It is only when you get a bit of the beaten track or if you try and eat/stay in a slightly budget place that you are likely to encounter problems.

My point is that it is much easier to swipe the credit card through the machine than to start finding the proper change. As I tried to say, credit card technology is such today that it is far quicker to use a credit card than to start fumbling for cash even for 2.50 Euro.

Depends where you are going.
If the train station is a large one, they might take credit cards.
In Livorno, Italy, they would only take our cash.
In Monaco, they took our credit cards at the ticket office. The regular machines would only take our credit cards if they were FRENCH credit cards. I don't know what that means, but that's what the machine said.
Some train stations are too small for ticket offices and you can only buy the tickets with EUR at the machines.
Make sure you validate your tickets in Italy! We got fined by the train personnel for not validating. It cost us another 5 EUR!
We just did 5 countries and found that we wound up paying cash at most, even though I prefer using a credit card.

russk007! i am having to eat my words! we just came back from our third trip to italy and i guess the third time is the charm....because we had trouble with our american express the whole trip....be sure to bring more than one card and cash.....we had to pay poor exchange rates and waste a lot of time at american express offices and on the internet/phones...the card worked in zurich fine and would not in venice or florence. it was supposedly resolved on two occasions which was not the case. i think i will always bring a few travelers cheques in euros just in case from now on. also this was our first time on the cinque terre and many places took cash only! we have been to at least 20 foreign cities and this was our first problem, but it was a doozy. hope you haven't left yet and do heed this advice!

Yes, credit cards are accepted at most places, but it may not be YOUR credit card that is accepted, and there are still many places that won;t take cc's at all. Mastercard and Visa are more widely accepted than AMEX, but in smaller European towns it is much more likely that you will need to pay in cash (particularly at small B&B's, I've found).

I know for a fact that the ticket machines at the train stations in Norway, Italy and Switzerland take Visa, MC and Amex, while in some stations in Spain and Holland you're pretty much SOL--they might take a Mastercard, but that seems to vary. So always have cash backup.

Just a hint - you can make train reservations her via the internet, pay by cc, and pick up your tickets at the departure terminal in most of France Try www.sncf.com....they have an English version of the site and will provide guidance on ticket pick up.

xyz123

How can you say that it is quicker to pay with a credit card than cash.

This is simply not true. I have several credit cards and I avoid using them except for very large purchases as they take up so much time when using them. Granted - they are quicker than writing a check/cheque but cash is far quicker.

Next time you are in a shop or gas/petrol station watch whop pays more quickly. It is always the cash payers unless they are offering say a hundred dollar bill for something that costa a quarter.

As for why business owners in the UK don't mention that, despite the logos being displayed, they won't accept CCs below a given amount amount, I suppose it's for the same reason they do the same here : it's "common knowledge" that CCs aren't accepted for small purchases, and it would take a very unusual local customer (or more likely a lot of bad faith) to try paying say, a cup of coffee with a CC.


I noticed recently that here in France (at least some)large stores recently began accepting CC for any amount. As a general rule of thumb, CCC aren't accepted below 15 euros or so, but it may vary depending on the shop/restaurant. "Above which amount do you accept plastic?" or "Would you take a CC for this amount?" are usual and basic questions around here before making a small purchase.