Why is it that although my credit and debit cards are accepted everywhere I cannot buy fuel with them in France?
Its OK for a manned petrol station but these are few and almost all closed on a Sunday.
So what do you do your Sunday flight check is at 4pm you have driven from your gite back to the airport and the tank is empty? With a hefty charge from the hire company for having to refuel my only other option was a supermarket unmanned petrol pump. Then having taken cash and asking very nicely for a French customer to fill up my car on their card which I paid them for with the cash. Not ideal be warned!
Anyone got any other ideas?
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I would have thought that all the stations close to the airport would be manned on a Sunday.
We had the same problem in the USA last week so filled up the night before.
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Any service station on a motorway will be manned on a Sunday afternoon, and especially those near the airport.
There are 2 inside the airport zone (both Total) and both manned on a Sunday afternoon. I have used most of the service stations around CDG on a Sunday evening returning hire cars. Usually I start looking about 10km out from the airport because the car will still be %26quot;full%26quot; when I get there
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Thanks both - I%26#39;ll be more cautious next time and fill up as soon as I get the chance.
I should have said airports generally - and La Rochelle specifically. Coming up the A10 I think my last chance (which of course I missed) was near Saintes after that all I saw was supermarket petrol.
PS do you know why the cards dont work in the automatic pumps?
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mildmum
French credit cards have an imbedded microchip for security. Any machine accepting credit card payment (toll booths, metro ticket machines, and of course gas pumps) requires this type of card.
This is becomming more and more of a problem for those of us who do not have this type of card.
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It has nothing to do with whether your card is chip and pin or not. Most credit cards in the world are chip and pin, it is only one or two slightly backwards outposts that havent gone over to the safer technology :).
It has to do with the fact that if the card isnt issued by a French Bank, it cant do the credit check thing before you fill up. This means it will not recognise your English (OK - Welsh then.) credit card even though it is chip and pin. It does the same to me at Leclerc and Intermarche, thus causing me to drive around a town I dont know for ages not being able to rejuice the car and almost missing my flight.
Luckily, unlike in the UK motorway fuel prices arent a total rip-off, so it%26#39;s safe to buy there.
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This is copied from a previous post:
%26lt;quote%26gt;Norween clarified on the %26#39;chip and pin%26#39; thread, that France is moving to the same EMV standard as the rest of Europe, but older, more complex machines (particularly those linked with petrol and ticket machines) are more difficult/expensive to replace. %26lt;unquote%26gt;
So, as I understand it, France has had a type of chip and pin for years, and has developed machines to suit, but now that the rest of the world is catching up, the common standard is not totally compatible (bit like the story of minitel).
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