I have received a reply from my first hotel for next month. They said "don't worry, everything is confirmed, have a safe trip"...this may be the case for all the places where I am staying as they each have had credit card information since I made the reservations. I will have my credit cards along with plenty of euros with me to take care of everything else. I imagine I will receive the same message from the others.
Joan

Yes to "puce"...carte puce for your chip card.

Are you saying that the merchant rejected your card, or the machine did ?

I've discovered over the years that oftentimes the merchant doesn't know which direction to swipe am American card... the machines all work differently - in some the card must be swiped left to right, slowly, quickly. It's like a game figuring out how to do it....

PB

"If you do not want to be stranded, TAKE LOTS OF CASH with you!"

Just don't take it in $100 bills...French banks won't exchange them over the counter due to the high number of forgeries in circulation. They require a fifteen day verification....your cash is sent to Paris, examined, accepted, and only THEN may you go down to the bank to pick up your Euros. They do, I understand, accept other demoninations...just not Franklins.

Hi
We just returned from a month in the South of France and had a similar problem using our American Visa cards BUT only on the first day. After that we got it figured out.
-The first day that we had the probelm was at a Casino grocery store. The clerk tried to run our card through the way she does all cards I guess and could not get the card read. She tried a few times, said she was sorry, we paid cash and left. I then called my bank thinking it was something that I did not do prior to leaving the US. My bank assured me everything was in order and I could use my card in France. By the way the ATM portion was working no problem.
-Next day we tried our card at a large department type store and the clerk tried to run our card through but could not. She then savily said "oh, I have to do it this way" and she proceeded to run it through a different machine I believe and Voila it worked. She must have had more experience with international cards and knew just what to do. After that day whenever a clerk had a problem I explained that they had to run it through differently?? and some knew what I meant and others had to call over a manager but we were always able to use the card once I knew that there was another option if they did not know. Bit of a hassle but just one of those things.
- The one glitch was at the self service gas stations where you can pump gas even when the station is closed. We could not use our American Visa in these machines, only the attendant could process it during normal busness hours.
-So after trial and error in most cases we were able to use our cards.
-One place we never had a problem was in restaurants where they generally use the wireless card reader they bring to the table. These always seemed to work.
-Also, I have a feeling that in Paris and large cities geared to International tourist the clerks are more savy about how to process the credit cards and we travellers are not ever made aware of the differen way they are processing our cards. The area I was in was much less geared to American tourists so the clerks may not have ever learned the different ways to process the cards.

we just returned from a two week trip to Paris. We had no trouble using our Visa card or our ATM card.

Just returned from a week in Paris.

Used a Bank of America Visa debit card, a MasterCard credit card, and a Visa credit card, none with chips. The only place I had trouble was at SOME of the train station automated machines, and at two little shops, where the clerks then used a different code to enter my number.

None of them was ever rejected.

Places like hotels will always accept non-chip cards because their debit terminals are programmed to accept manual entry of the card number for a debit -- like any product that you buy over the phone by giving your card number. This is coded as "VAD" - (vente à distance) on the receipt. Obviously, restaurants and supermarkets do not have this facility.

We were in France the first 2 weeks of July. Did a driving trip from Calis, up to Bruges, down to Normandy and St Malo and on into Paris.

I had read about some card problems on another post right befor we left. We use American Express and Master Card if Amex isn't accepted. Our cards are the swipe kind.

We stopped only at manned gas staions and paid cash for tolls. Where we charged things, they always got a small machine out to run our card and we didn't have any problems in that department. We did have trouble several times in France with ATM machines both in the countryside and in Paris.

I would suggest that one be aware that this can be a problem in some places. So be sure you always have some extra cash and don't run low on gas for that matter. In the rual areas gas is harder to find.

The good news are that the ATM will continue to accept non chipped ATM cards until end 2009 : for those cards, the PIN is written on the magnetic stripe and can be controlled, this was a solution tested some 15 years ago and still existing in many automats types (it was discontinued since the magnetic stripe is too fragile - and too easy to read)

About Visa "educating" the vendors, i have a question : how will they "educate" the card reader ? (the new ones don't have a stripe reader)

My hotels have responded that there is not a problem. They already have my credit card information.

Everything else can be taken care of with my credit cards, where they do work, or with euros that I will be tking with me. Guess it will not be a problem.

We will all feel more comfortable when all cards are with the "chip" and acceptable all over.

I have lived in France for 7 years and use my american credit cards every day.

Amex is not often accepted, Monoprix takes it for example but ATAC does not. Small restaurants or shops rarely accept it.

My Visa is accepted everywhere. On rare occassion it wont go through when the authorization network is down. Merchants in non tourist areas may not be used to the card. If they shove it in to the machine, I suggest that you tell them it is a foreign card and that perhaps they might want to swip it instead. It only works when swiped.

I use my Visa ALL the time on tollroads and have had ZERO problems. Amex on tollroads is hit or miss. I use the automated lanes and manned booths.

Withdrawing cash from ATMS works fine, however, again the network for foreign cards can be down from time to time so you could get a false rejected transaction. Wait a couple of hours and try again or go to a different ATM.

Foreign credit cards do not work in automatic pumps, period. You must go when the station is open to do a manual pay.

Telling people that they cannot rely on a Visa in France is alarmist.

I just came back from two weeks in France. We went to Paris, Aix en Provence, and Rosnay, and we never had a problem with our US visa credit card. It was never rejected.

I am an American living in Germany and I have had no problems using my American Visa card to charge anything anywhere. Where were you in France because all my American friends go and have no problem in France. Don't forget we are not very liked in Europe do to our own faults with Europe.

I completely agree.....you can not depend on Visa. I travel internationally extensively. Visa was always turning my card off when I was traveling (security issues). Then I started calling Visa before each trip and telling them which cities, countries and dates I would be traveling. Inevitably, they screw up and turn off my card at some point during the trip. Lucky for me, also carry my AMEX card as a backup. Good old AMEX works everytime and thankfully so. I could have had some very bad situations if I did not have the AMEX as a back up. Visa needs to get their act together. I am switching over to only use AMEX now.

<<<Good old AMEX works everytime<<<
Not in Europe, maybe 50% (maximum) of the merchants will accept AMEX (7% fees for the merchant instead of 2 or 3% for Visa or Master Card)

Sounds like a French problem!!
We recently returned from 3 weeks in Italy, primarily small towns. Used 2 visa cards extensively, Never any problem anywhere.
Merchants ARE contractually obligate to honor all visa cards. I realize that didn't help, but I would notify Visa with all details available.

To echo what Morgan said: French self-service pumps do not accept ANY foreign credit card, not just the US magnetic strip ones. We live in Belgium, we have a chip Master card as well as a chip debit card and these do not work at the self-serve gas pumps in France either. We almost got to spend the night on the side of a country road in Normandy because we hadn't read THAT line in the guide book!! :)

Living in a very small village in Belgium, I encountered a lot of trouble with my US credit card before we got our bank account set up here. I agree taht the main problem is a lack of experience with foreign "old fashioned" credit cards; the places I had trouble with were usually very small mom and pop type stores in the country who had never seen a credit card like mine. Doesn't mean they don't have the necessary equipment to accept it, but they sure didn't have a clue how to do it. And I don't know about France but in Belgium the typical attitude is "It's not possible." NEVER "I don't know how to do this." :)

Carrie

Why would you say it is a French problem?

Credit cards are headed towards the "chip" for safety reasons..we all know that. Eventually they will all go that way. Until they are all the same problems will occur.

Amex is not accepted in the US at a great many plces due to their greater charge to the "seller"..the same is true for its use in Europe.

There are also outage problems due to storms etc. Copperdog might have been unlucky and ran into that problem. One of my hotels told me that earlier this year there was that problem for a period of time.

Someday (maybe) the free world may have credit cards and passports that will make travel easier for all. The US has created a horrible problem for many Europeans to travel in the US, only because they didn't check with how it would work with other countries. A real nightmare!! So, don't be so quick in saying that the "other" country must be at fault..that it couldn't possibly be the USA!!

Happy travels..........