When we were France recently we could not use our credit cards in MACHINES for bus tickets, train tickets or tolls on the A8.

I assume there is a special "chip" one must have. Perhaps someone on the forum with more knowledge can explain this for those going to France.

Otherwise, our credit cards from the USA worked fine in restaurants and grocery stores.

Our debit cards worked fine at ATM cash machines, but not for train/bus tickets or toll machines.

Cameron

There's a thread here about the two types of cards, search this forum for the word "puce."

The basic idea is that there are now two types of cards: one with a dark magnetic strip that runs the length of the card (American and old European styles) and one with a little fingernail size gold colored chip near one end (or side, see?) of the card (new European style). The problem is the reading mechanism in the machines. For the former, the entire strip needs to be swiped past a reading sensor, but the latter just needs to be put near the sensor. So for the chip style, your card gets inserted into a slot, chip "end" first, but usually not all the way. That's about the only way to know what kind of machine you're dealing with: if you try to insert your card and it bottoms out without going all the way in, the machine is a chip reader, and won't take a mag stripe card.

Cameron, I can't remembered where you traveled in France. When you get a chance to reply, it would be nice to know! If you happen to remember which bank's ATM you used, I have been trying to track them.

While we were able to use our debit card in ATMs in larger cities (Paris & Avignon), we had a much different experience in smaller towns. In Apt, for example, there was only one ATM out of over a dozen, that accepted magnetic strip cards. There is a growing trend in French banking and finance (for the best of security reasons) to limit ATMs to puce-only cards. We've found that only certain banks appear to be keeping magnetic strip accepting ATM machines. In Apt, it is the Credit Lyonnais on Place de la Bouquerie.

After our experience, my DH (the banking technology fan that he is) wrote an extensive blog post about this trend for travelers on our blog. You can find it directly, here.

This latest trip was May 1-10, 2008 (just got back). We covered the coast from Menton down to St. Tropez.

The name of the bank isn't on our bank statement. My husband has already compared the receipts and shredded those, so I don't have the exact bank name for each withdrawal.

However the city is listed and we used the card at ATMs in Nice, St. Tropez (along the harbor front), St. Paul de Vence (inside the entry to the post office), Frejus (one steet up from the port).

I think Societe Generale and Credit Agricole were two of the banks.

Citi Cards charged us a total of $35 for foreign transaction fees on our CREDIT card.

Our debit card is with our credit union with minimal fees.

Cameron

We've never had any kind of problems using our US ATM/Debit card in France. We really only use 1 card (0 fees) We were there 8 weeks last year, about 7 the year before, and 9 weeks in '05.

We used it once at a toll road and it worked. Next time we tried, it ate our toll ticket and the card would not work. Cars were lined up behind us honking their horns. Toll booth person from another booth finally had to come over & take our cash & let us through. That was the last time we tried to use the CC at a toll booth.

Can't use your US card at an automated gas pump. At groceries, your card is processed differently than a French chip card - but it has always worked (in approx 50 different groceries).

We just had the experience of trying to find a staffed gas station on a Sunday--we couldn't use any of the automated ones with our US credit card, but most stations aren't staffed on Sundays! So fill up on Saturdays...