Paying For Fuel In France (3 Viewers)

[Welsh girl]

Same here, as everyone had posted. We Don't use Caxton fx for fuel, just forgetting cash out of ATM. BOTH visa and Mastercard work in unmanned stations.

 

[bhs]

My Caxton card used to be Mastercard when we lived in France and I used it everywhere, for some reason it changed (or I changed it) to Visa I wonder if that is something to do with the problem?

 

[bhs]

Just looked at post office cc, it has to be platinum to get fee free foreign purchase use, the exchange rate is set by mastercard but I can't see what that is, PO link doesn't work, as their exchange rates are always poor I wonder if anyone knows how to check it? (I have rung post office and got fed up with being on hold 15 mins in)

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[Clickem]

My Caxton card used to be Mastercard when we lived in France and I used it everywhere, for some reason it changed (or I changed it) to Visa I wonder if that is something to do with the problem?

My Caxton card has changed the other way. I had several CaxtonVisa cards for different currencies, Euro, Dollar and Global. I now have one card, a Mastercard, that can be loaded with about 8 different currencies on the same card

 

[GeriatricWanderer]

The reason why cash cards are declined at pumps is that when using most pumps, except in Spain, you are not entering a specific amount but the card only has a specific amount on it (possibly less than you spend at the pump) whereas credit cards are..... well, credit cards.
If you present your cash card at the kiosk it will be accepted if there is enough cash on it.

 

[Stroppy Bird]

Just looked at post office cc, it has to be platinum to get fee free foreign purchase use, the exchange rate is set by mastercard but I can't see what that is, PO link doesn't work, as their exchange rates are always poor I wonder if anyone knows how to check it? (I have rung post office and got fed up with being on hold 15 mins in)

I think it's just the standard master card business exchange rate that they use - it's not connected to the PO currency exchange rates.

If you're going to get one go through quidco and you get £25 cashback just for getting it.

You can also use it to pay for currency online from the post office without any fees (better exchange rate than instore) and again if you go through quidco you get £3 cashback.

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[dabhand]

Don't press the "do you require a receipt" button till after you've got the fuel, took me ages to get fuel at one fuel station in France recently, also noticed on one occasion certain supermarket pumps only take their own loyalty card which was none to clear at the time!

 

[Larby]

Just looked at post office cc, it has to be platinum to get fee free foreign purchase use, the exchange rate is set by mastercard but I can't see what that is, PO link doesn't work, as their exchange rates are always poor I wonder if anyone knows how to check it? (I have rung post office and got fed up with being on hold 15 mins in)

The PO credit card is provided by The Bank of Ireland.
No charges for use abroad and no transaction fees either. Mine is set so they take whatever the balance so no need to worry about paying statement.
The direct number to them is 0845 607 6500

0800 169 2000

8am-10pm, Mon-Fri
8am-6pm, Sat
10am-5pm, Sun

 

[peterc10]

Several cards boast that they don't take transactions fees, but instead use bloody awful exchange rates - I reckon that practice should be made illegal. I get a better deal on my Amex card which has a fee than I do with my other cards which say they don't.

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[icantremember]

Caxton appear to be changing all their cards over to Mastercard from Visa and as I understand it the reason they don't work at auto pumps and tolls is that these machines have no facility to put in your PIN numbers which Caxton insist on.

 

[peterc10]

the reason they don't work at auto pumps and tolls is that these machines have no facility to put in your PIN numbers which Caxton insist on.

Unlikely - all the auto pumps we used in France asked for our PIN AFAIK. I think it is more to do with the fact that there is no way to limit the amount of fuel to the amount you have left on the card.

 

[tjay]

Never had any problem with our visa debit cards !! use my own when going to Spain and then use the wives on the return trip.
However it did refuse my visa credit card once so never tried it again !!

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[Barts]

Very few automatic pumps take Caxton fx cards our tesco credit card seems okay

 

[Lenny HB]

Very few automatic pumps take Caxton fx cards our tesco credit card seems okay

You really want to get away from a Tesco CC their exchange rate is one of the worst, used to use one until we found out.

 

[gus-lopez]

To the best of my knowledge only the bank knows they've authorised my card for foreign use. They don't put the details on Facebook. .

& not everyone who works for a bank is as honest as the day is long ?

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[mitzimad]

weve never been able to use the fx card for anything but atms changed this year to weswap card and it worked every where weswap.com

 

[mitzimad]

Caxton appear to be changing all their cards over to Mastercard from Visa and as I understand it the reason they don't work at auto pumps and tolls is that these machines have no facility to put in your PIN numbers which Caxton insist on.

just been in france for 2 weeks and all machines wanted pin numbers

 

[bhs]

found Post office rate converter on thier site strangely enough, today a euro costs .713 caxton rate is .735 shame it doesn't buy fuel, it used to, we lived in France for three years and used it for veverything

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[peterc10]

found Post office rate converter on thier site strangely enough, today a euro costs .713 caxton rate is .735 shame it doesn't buy fuel, it used to, we lived in France for three years and used it for veverything

The more each Euro costs the worse it is for us who wants to buy them with £s. Or are you quoting the rate for buying £ with Euros?

 

[bhs]

Using the caxton example £1 buys €1.36 and €1 buys 73.5 pence, the tourist rate on post office site is more favorable than the exchange rate offered on their credit card (by over 2%)

Will still get the Post Office credit card though, cheaper than using my visa which has poor exchange rate and a fee.

 

[peterc10]

Using the caxton example £1 buys €1.36 and €1 buys 73.5 pence,.

I don't think that can be correct, because it is the same rate. Just because they sell a currency at one rate does not mean that they buy it at the same rate. There has to be a difference for them to make a profit.

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[bhs]

£1 buys €1.364 euro with caxton, have just spoken to them (miraculously) about closing my account and am being offered 72.3 pence for a euro, so you are right

 

[Jaws]

The only place we have had problems with credit card usage has been E. Leclerc ones
Tried every type of card we had ( Visa, MasterCard, debit, credit etc etc ) and not one would work..
As mentioned elsewhere,,, we just waited for someone to come along and was willing to use their card in exchange for folding stuff

 

[peterc10]

£1 buys €1.364 euro with caxton, have just spoken to them (miraculously) about closing my account and am being offered 72.3 pence for a euro, so you are right

That's quite a low spread compared with many.

A couple of years ago I happened to be up in London just before we were flying to the States, so decided to get my dollars from the small exchange booth in Covent Garden that is well known for offering really good rates over the counter for cash (can't remember the name). Found out why when I saw the rates they were selling the £ at to gullible tourists who were flocking there.

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[bhs]

Post Office card on its way with £25 Quidco cashback, thanks to poster of that info. having no foreign usage charges will make a difference as we anticipate spending several hundred euros on fuel plus the same again on living costs. And yes all my other cards work in europe but charges are all around 2.75%

 

[frogijock]

The old style UK cards did not work in France but you should not have a problem with a chip and pin card as long as it is registered for a bank ie Santander, Barclay's

 

[bhs]

Had this reply from Caxton

I have looked in to your account and can see why the card was rejected. As we advise on the website, the card should not be used in automated fuel pumps as they create an issue. They essentially set aside the maximum purchase amount at the pump, in your case it was 130 Euros earlier this year.

This then appears as a pending transaction and can take up to 20 days for the actual transaction amount to balance out against the maximum purchase. The problem being that it may set aside an amount three times your actual spend and this money cannot be touched until balanced, effectively holding back funds you have. Then when you try to use it, it will be rejected because of insufficient funds even though you do have money on the card.

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[Stroppy Bird]

Using the caxton example £1 buys €1.36 and €1 buys 73.5 pence, the tourist rate on post office site is more favorable than the exchange rate offered on their credit card (by over 2%)

Will still get the Post Office credit card though, cheaper than using my visa which has poor exchange rate and a fee.

Hi BHS - glad you went through quidco - money for nothing can't be beaten!

Out of interest you state that the tourist rate on the post office site is more favourable than the exchange rate offered on their credit card. How you have worked this out? The exchange rate on their credit card is set by mastercard and is pretty much always better than tourist exchange rates.

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/

For example the mastercard exchange rate today is 1.404 whereas the best post office exchange rate is 1.376

 

[robnchris]

We may just be plain dim but what is it with paying for fuel at French petrol stations. ?There are very few with a manned kiosk where English cards and cash are taken but fuel prices are higher. The 24 hour automated machines apparently only take locally registered cards so our English ones don't work . Tried pre loaded , credit and debit cards
Anyone know the answer to getting fuel easily we are constantly left searching for a manned kiosk and paying more

Just had a couple weeks driving round France and Belgium, never had a trouble paying for fuel at the unmanned stations, that was using both HSBC and Halifax debit cards.

 

[bhs]

Got the idea from Money Supermarket, I stand corrected, story of my life being bought to book by a stroppy bird!
If I hadn't hugged so many of them I wouldn't need to worry about the odd percentage point on exchange rates.

Caxton is still a good bet for cash though??

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