Cards at Pay at Pump in France

Steve101uk

Steve101uk

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Ten years I started visiting France and after all that time they still don't accept my UK cards at pay at the pump at Petrol stations. Infuriated me yesterday as Carrefour had diesel at 1.27 a litre, but no attendant and as usual pay at pump not accepting my card. ended up paying 1.36 at the total. We use our caxton card everywhere in France and have no problems at all until we try the pumps. Does anyone know the explanation?

cheers

Steve
 
I have no idea what is wrong, but have used Caxton and Nationwide CC in pumps and tolls in Spain and France for the last 6 months with no problems whatsoever. Caxton was refused at one toll in France, but it excepted my CC.
 
we had a similar issue last year at the aire at Ouistreham, the machine would only accept French cards, none of the Dutch Germans or UK could pay to stay. so we all had a night for free.

In the past I have found none of my UK cards work at the supermarket petrol pumps. This year I have only tried with caxton, once at a super U and yesterday at Carrefour.

What gets me is if there is an attendant then I can pay at the booth and it accepts the card no problem?
 
Used our Tesco credit card (points for 'Le Tunnel' :thumb:) for fuel at the Intermarche at St Pol sur Ternoise last week with no problems.
 
Some pre pay pumps require you to pay a figure before you draw fuel. For instance, you have to put the card in and pay 100 Euros. If for example you can only get 80 Euros in, it just takes the 80 Euros.

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Cards

We had problems with the caxton at some tolls and card operated fuel pumps.
It seems the caxton card needs to know the final amount of the sale. We had no trouble where there was a person in a kiosk etc. shops supermarkets and so on where the final cost was known before entering your PIN number .
I hope this helps but a call to caxton will help they will explain it much better than I can . Apart from this slight problem I still find it a good safe system
Regards Dave
 
We only use a Barclay card or a Barclay card direct debit card and never yet found anywhere that does not accept it in France, Spain or Portugal as of yet
 
we had this problem recently in the UK....changed banks a few month ago and tried to use the new card at a ASDA pre pay petrol pump, wouldnt accept it

So had a major rant at the bank to be told the card has to be enabled to do that...news to us as weve never had a problem with the last banks card

So...may be you need to contact the card issuer and ask for that facility to be added to the card
 
Greetings,

Can I ask, is the Caxton card a preloaded type card (Fx do one as well)

The reason I ask is that some time ago I read a thread on another forum where it was ascertained that the French pumps remove a fixed amount (think it was 100 €) regardless of the amount of fuel obtained and then repay the difference a short time later. It has something to do with removing the opportunity for fiddling. Don't understand that bit.

On the thread I had read this put the used of the card in an embarrassing position as the 100€ put her over the card's limit and when next she tried to use it, the card Co. had put a block on it.

I'm not saying this is happening in this case but it may be that the Caxton Card, not being either a Debit nor a Credit Card (ie not linked directly to a financial institution) may not be acceptable.

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There is little (if any) consistency in French card machines in our experience, even with cards authorised for foreign use. Luck of the draw - we carry three different cards with us and usually one of them will work. Some automated aire ticket machines refuse foreign cards point blank, but there's usually a cash option.

We steer clear of 24/7 petrol pumps if we possibly can, and always go for the 'Caisse' pumps.
 
Have had the same issues . Seems like caxton prepaid cards require a merchant to seek authorisation before they provide the goods or services. unmanned fuel stations ( some ?) dont have that facility for accepting payments from cards . Same with European toll roads and bridges ( again , some ?)

The following is lifted directly from caxton web site >>>

http://www.caxtonfx.com/currency-cards/currency-cards-for-you/#top-travel-tips


Avoid using your prepaid card at automated petrol stations

Automated petrol stations on the continent usually take a security deposit when you first swipe your card. No money actually leaves your account at this point, but your available balance is reduced. A couple of days later (it can be up to 15 days), they will process a settlement increase for €120 (for example) which will raise your available balance by €120. Simultaneously, they will process a settlement decrease where they will remove funds from your card to cover the actual amount of fuel you purchased for example €45. In the period between the two your account will appear to have been debited by €120, but it has not. Only when the settlement decrease goes through has money actually left your account. This procedure is not unique to Caxton FX cards, or indeed any prepaid card. All cards issued by any institution are treated in the same way whether they are debit, credit or prepaid cards.

Avoid using your prepaid card at Toll booths

Caxton FX prepaid cards require a merchant to seek authorisation before they provide the goods or services. The majority of European toll roads and bridges do not seek an authorisation and therefore you can't use your Caxton FX prepaid card at most toll booths.

============
Answer for us is = fuel top up at a known manned fuel station on leaving ferry , rather than being in a panic in the middle of nowhere. Plus a pile of loose euro change for tolls .
 
Last edited:
tomm2 said:
Have had the same issues . Seems like caxton prepaid cards require a merchant to seek authorisation before they provide the goods or services. unmanned fuel stations ( some ?) dont have that facility for accepting payments from cards . Same with European toll roads and bridges ( again , some ?)

The following is lifted directly from caxton web site >>>

http://www.caxtonfx.com/currency-cards/currency-cards-for-you/#top-travel-tips


Avoid using your prepaid card at automated petrol stations

Automated petrol stations on the continent usually take a security deposit when you first swipe your card. No money actually leaves your account at this point, but your available balance is reduced. A couple of days later (it can be up to 15 days), they will process a settlement increase for €120 (for example) which will raise your available balance by €120. Simultaneously, they will process a settlement decrease where they will remove funds from your card to cover the actual amount of fuel you purchased for example €45. In the period between the two your account will appear to have been debited by €120, but it has not. Only when the settlement decrease goes through has money actually left your account. This procedure is not unique to Caxton FX cards, or indeed any prepaid card. All cards issued by any institution are treated in the same way whether they are debit, credit or prepaid cards.

Avoid using your prepaid card at Toll booths

Caxton FX prepaid cards require a merchant to seek authorisation before they provide the goods or services. The majority of European toll roads and bridges do not seek an authorisation and therefore you can't use your Caxton FX prepaid card at most toll booths.

============
Answer for us is = fuel top up at a known manned fuel station on leaving ferry , rather than being in a panic in the middle of nowhere. Plus a pile of loose euro change for tolls .
Click to expand...

Hi Again,

Thanks Tomm2.

You have proved that my 'Long Term' Memory is good.
Now to address the..................what were we talking about:Rofl1:
 
Have used a Caxton card in France and Spain for the last two years and the pay pumps have always accepted payment even in the remote unmanned areas of France.
Maybe your card provider isn't liked in Europe. Good luck in the future.
 
Postoffice Mastercard has always worked so far, its the perfect exchange rate like Halifax clarity. We use the Caxton just for cash withdrawals, havent tried it at petrol pumps. The old Visa cashpassport prepaid cards did not work but they did not have a chip.

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We used the Halifax clarity card for the first time last winter , on our France , Spain , Morocco trip , it worked everywhere no problem and with only a very small interest charge for the cash we took out in Morocco , :Cool:
 
I know a couple of the cards I carry need authorising for EU travel - its just a simple phone call to the card company and they will generally log a mobile phone number on the system so if they do have a query they can easily contact you. Failure to do this will automatically mean it is declined as the system takes it as fraudulent use.
 
I travelled up from Santander to Calais last week and paid all tolls with the Caxton card. Only one short toll would not except it. Maybe I was lucky, not before time I admit.
 
In two years I have never managed to obtain fuel from an unmanned station in France with a credit card or prepay card. They work in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland etc just not France! I like to pay cash for most things anyway but it is annoying, I start looking for a station with a decent fuel price when i have a quarter of a tank left, just in case. I normally find that when there are 2-3 garages near each other the prices are competitive.

I use an euro dispenser as below (from Amazon) to store my loose change and pay tolls, it clips nicely into the cab door storage area. It shortens the time the other ever-so-patient drivers spend sounding their horns as I slide across to pay. Bless them...

Ps. I have loads of small change cent coins, any ideas what I can do with them? Can't find a Coinstar machine anywhere, would give them to charity somewhere, but where? (in Sicily now)
 

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I just went to a super u and used the 24hr pumps, no problem with my visa credit card, even offered instructions in English, €1.27 / litre for diesel.
It did have a €100 limit on card transactions.

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I use Halifax Clarity too as there is no charge for using it abroad and I haven't had any problems using the automated petrol pumps :thumb:
 
never had a problem with my visa card either. Not in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, German or Switzerland.
 
I reckon our cards work at unmanned pumps abroad about 50 percent of the time and fail to work the same amount. Had less failures riding across China than Europe especially France and Spain. :Wink:
 
I haven't had any problems for some years though a few years ago nothing seemed to work. I prefer the 24/7 pumps as they are usually the cheapest. We carry Visa debit, visa credit, mastercard credit and Caxton. Something usually works.
We normally avoid tolls but if we have to, then only credit cards or cash seem to work.
 
topped up diesel at Intermarche, somewhere in Spain, last week. Think it came to around 67 euro and they wouldn't accept payment by Credit card at all (it was a manned station) just pointed me towards a cash machine. Luckily I had enough cash in the van as I don't use CC to draw cash. Some supermarkets in Portugal won't accept card payment for shopping less than 20 euro, once again they point you to the machine.

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We had a bigger problem in Germany with a variety of places not accepting ANY uk card,(MasterCard, visa, visa debit, Amex) even caxton. It had to be a german card, german cheque or cash
 
We have had no problems at fuel stations, shops, toll stations etc. All accepted cards of all kinds although I have to say I normally used debit card or post office money card.

Kath
 
cards-pay-pump-france

Never had a problem with Nationwide debit in France last year. One machine in Italy would not take it but still issued a ticket and we paid at the next staffed toll booth.
 
stonflo said:
Never had a problem with Nationwide debit in France last year. One machine in Italy would not take it but still issued a ticket and we paid at the next staffed toll booth.
Click to expand...
I only use my Nationwide Debit card to withdraw cash from machines as they charge a handling fee of 2% + £1 (check your statement). I normally use their Credit card for all transactions including buying food etc as there is NO CHARGE and you get the current exchange rate shown on your statement (recently 1.22 to the £).
When using cards at unmanned fuel stations you normally register your card details before getting the fuel. Just put card in slot, enter PIN, retrieve card and finally take fuel. (There is often a limit on the amount of credit/fuel you can get and this is often shown as a maximum amount or number of litres you can have ie the 100 euro previously mentioned)
I used to use my spare HSBC credit card for automated machine payments but they now charge for all their transactions.
On my way back into France now so hope my card still accepted!

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