USA Chip/Signature Cards for Gas & Tolls in France?
 

Please, if anyone has been successful, will you report?

Thank you!

Last June sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Successful on all toll booths. Successful on all "manned" gas stations. Not successful for all unmanned gas stations (except 1).

Stu Dudley

1)Unsuccessful for tolls, for me.

2)Unsuccessful for gas on a Sunday (no attendant)....I have to pantomine to a French driver (holding card while shaking head, then offering a 20 euro note to him while pointing to gas tank...he caught on, fueled it on his (chip) card, took the 20

Successful at all tolls; unsuccessful at gas stations that were unmanned (from central to southern France). Someone in your hotel can direct you to manned stations. Otherwise dont wait till night or a Sunday to fill-er-up!

We NEVER wait until Sunday to purchase gas. Always Friday or first thing on Saturday. Autoroutes have manned gas stations open - but we seldom travel on autoroutes on Sundays. Autoroute gas stations are normally open 24/7.

Stu Dudley

My PenFed chip/pin/signature credit card has not worked anywhere in france on 2 different trips.... Grocery store, gas, tolls, etc. with either pin or signature. It just does not pick up the network at all, doesn't even get so far as to deny the transaction.... No communication with the network at all. Hotel clerks could not even get it to accept my hotel charges,

PenFed has no explanation, says it should work. It does not!

Worked at signature required sites in US when I got it a few years ago.

Don't get a PenFed card. We spend 2 months in France every year, and my Cap One card works fine.

Stu Dudley

If it's any consolation, my French cards do not always work at the gas pumps in the United States.

Funny that Kerouac - our always work except when they require a zip code as well. No getting around that stupid requirement.

It is of course against visa/mc regs for any merchant not to honor all valid cards and it is against their rules to refuse to honor a card just because it lacks pins in its cvm embedded on the chip. Of course I understand that if you try to use the card at a petrol station in France on a Sunday afternoon and it doesn't work that's little consolation. Also the problem on French toll roads is not new and pre dates the whole question of chip and signature vs. chip and pin. From what I understand, French autoroutes are run by different companies and have varying policies regarding foreign credit cards whether pin or not and have so for years.

Now having said that, the reality is that it is what it is. The majority of American banks do not issue chip and pin cards and have opted for chip and signature. A few do have provisions for pins at places like automated gas pumps. In theory, Pen FCU is one but as one of the posters has noted, that doesn't always work.

As far as I know, the only financial institutions in the USA offering what might be termed true chip and pin cards are United Nations FCU, First Tech FCU and State Department FCU (upon request). All are open to all comers but one might have to join some auxiliary organization even if not employed or otherwise eligible for membership. But still, that does not guarantee their cards will always work on autoroutes or unpersonneled automated petrol pumps. But they should.

Actually it is not the gas stations or toll booths that decide whether or not to honor your card. It is your own bank's decision about what level of risk it is willing to take for a transaction without a PIN or signature to authenticate the transaction.

On a similar subject, contactless transactions are currently limited to 20 euros in France, but they are apparently satisfied that the system is working well, because the amount is being raised to 30 euros later this year on all new cards issued.

hetismij2, the "zip code" pumps are the ones I was alluding to.

Kerouac...in all due respect, I disagree. As far as I understand, and I am not a geek, all US banks have as part of their cvm's (card verification methods) no cvm. I think when there is a problem, it is on the part of the merchant and if in general they choose not to honor cards where no cvm is a higher priority than pin that transaction never reaches your bank. But again, I'm not a geek on this and there are others who are far more knowledgeable than I am about these things.

If an unmanned fuel pump does not have an internet or some other connection to very the PIN for those using online PIN cards, the card will never be accepted.

My PenFed Visa has been accepted anywhere I have tried it to include unmanned fuel pumps. However, French online merchants will regularly refuse to accept any US credit card, including my PenFed Visa. If a merchant advertises that they use <i>Verified by Visa<i/>, I have had 100% acceptance for on line purchases.

What Visa may say about general acceptance is very misleading.

Thank you, everyone, for your replies.

sarastro...but the pumps you refer to should be able to accept emv compliant cards with a cvm of no cvm. Visa does not guarantee every merchant will take every valid visa card; it says they are supposed to. They certainly don't make much of an effort to enforce their own regs, I would agree with you.

xyz123 - That´s an interesting idea but can there not be a dollar/euro threshold on a no cvm purchase? As gas purchases are authorized in advance and any sale could potentially exceed the no cvm limit, it might be understandable that only cards with offline PINs would be accepted.

Mine did NOT work at any toll booths. And I even have a chip and pin card as well as a chip and signature card.

It did work at almost all the gas stations.

Also worked at train/metro kiosks.

As the USA has transitioned to chip and signature, no cvm is more or less the norm in most supermarkets, fast food places and many of the drug/convenience stores for purchases under either $25 for fast food and $50 in most other places. Some places that use pins on those cards which are pin preferred asked for pins on all purchases but many have backed off. Of course in the USA, signatures are very rarely checked. Yesterday at the supermarket, the shopper in front of my on the queue bought $200 worth of groceries, inserted the card and signed the signature pad. Do you think the cashier even glanced? Of course not. I had a friend visit me from the UK, he used his UK card at a supermarket (it was before emv so he had to swipe), signed the signature pad and nobody looked. He asked me what kind of security we have for credit cards in the USA and the answer of course was little if any.

My big pet peeve with US signature preferred cards and it happens a lot in London which is where I visit the most is when using a chip and signature card at a self check out say at Boots, the message flashes seek assistance, a light goes off as it I had hit a jackpot in Vegas and I have to wait for somebody to get off their rear end to come over, enter a code, print a signature slip, maybe or maybe not check it against my card and place it in a slot on the machine. All this for a silly £2 charge! Certainly no cvm for small purchases and signature pads would help the situatin greatly1

I have not yet used my chip and signature card out of the US but will be doing so in Paris next month. When you give a merchant the card, do they know you don't have a pin? Does a machine ask for a pin? Just wondering what the procedure is for those who have used them.