Payment methods for French Toll Roads

[Robtel]

A recent request for route advice to the Dordogne promted a number of responses amongst which was a mention of a toll which only accepted credit cards. Is this a common occurrence in France now and are U.K cards accepted in the toll machines? I'm sure I remember reading about our cards not being readily accepted in continental machines.

We have holidayed in France for several years now but have been used to paying cash at toll booths manned by a real person. Last year was our first experience of unmanned booths. We arrived at a small toll booth that we had used in previous years to find it had been automated and initially appeared unmanned. After the initial surprise we found out what we were supposed to do and started to insert coins and notes only for the machine to spit one of the notes back out. I don't know where she appeared from but a lady with hi-vis vest came and helped us out. We moved on quite confident that at the next unmanned booth we would be o.k. However on the return journey to the ferry,different toll booth, we managed to get in the lane for what turned out to be a card only machine. Not wanting to lose my credit card in a machine in the middle of France I was at a loss when the attendant from the manned booth next door came, took my cash and let me through, no doubt with some mumblings about silly British drivers.

So are uk cards readily accepted in toll machines? how common now are unmanned toll booths? Are the booths totally unmanned or do they have at least one person there for the likes of me?

As before any information, thoughts, advice on tolls and methods of payment gratefully received.

Thanks

Robert

 

[Guest]

Rob

Most of France seems to have converted to machines which accept our chips now As reecently as 18 months ago we would have been waiting hours for a fuel station to open as the automated pumps would not accept our card luckily a French couple helped us with thier card and we gave them cash.

Last year in September both at toll booths and at the pumps our card was accepted all the way to the South and back

 

[Queenie1]

We came across quite a few unmanned tolls when we travelled through France last year. Even the unmanned tolls will still take cash and give change and they are easy to use (English instructions if you need them). But we never had a problem using the credit card at either fuel stations or toll booths. Sometimes at the bigger toll booths, the queue for the credit card toll will be shorter than the one taking cash. The unmanned booths will issue a receipt if you use a credit card.

Helen

 

[Guest]

Yes, there are soem unmanned toll booths but they tend to be on the less used exits, or out of daytime hours, naturally enough. This does usually mean that you have some time to figure out what to do and I have occasionally parked before the booth and had a look see before commiting to a lane. Again , if it is quiet you can do this without problem. On a couple of occasions we managed to enter the lane where the machine was 'out of order' and had to reverse back, good fun if someone has followed you in.

However, as mentioned they all usually take cash somewhere and we have never used a credit card. As the maximum toll we have ever paid in a single trip was _40 we usually managed to scrape this up between us.

 

[ValA.]

Helen, some unmanned booths in rural locations DON'T take cash - and if you don't have a card you can get really stuck. They do take Credit and Debit cards though - and you don't have to enter a PIN number.

Do beware, as well, if you're towing, because sometimes the card only booths have a height restriction, if they're not set up for other than Class 1 vehicles. Watch out for the signs above each kiosk at those toll barrriers with multiple booths and try to get into the right lane, even if you have to take it slowly whilst everyone else is hurtling about changing lanes.

 

[DavidKlyne]

We have used credit cards at toll booths for year and more recently at unmanned booths without a problem. I suspect there is a difference between toll booths and fuel stations in as much as I think toll booth transactions may not requite autorisation at point of use in order to speed the through put of traffic. They don't require a signature or pin unlike a service station. Could be wrong but it might explain it.

David

 

[Robtel]

My thanks to all who have taken the time to respond. Very helpful.

Robert

 

[WiltshirePete]

The last time I came back as passenger from my mates house in France I spent the trip gathering up all the loose change that was rattling round in his people carrier. As he does the trip often he knows the toll rates, and we managed to find enough coppers to cover the Pont Du Normadie bridge toll.

Of course as the man in the left hand seat I had to hand over the yoghurt pot containing the change to the man in the booth, the only one open as it was lunchtime. I apologised in my bestest French as the traffic backed up, and he replied "They pay me just the same whether I process lots of cars or sit here and count your monnaie"

I don't think that the cars behind were quite as relaxed though.

Pete

 

[JimF]

Careful if you are using a large outfit (my mate had a LR Discovery + huge caravan) and got charged as an HGV (100s of Euro) the first time he used a card peage, after that he was careful to see what category was showing on the meter, if it was group 3(HGV), not group 2(Car/Caravan)he just pressed the 'help' button, and got it sorted!, apparently with no probs!