Tolls in France

Yep, carry a lot of cash for the tolls -- but they DO make change so you don't need it all in coins.

I have a télépéage transponder on my UK car, but this is through a UK branch of one of the toll companies. The French companies currently do not appear to issue to people with out a French bank account. There are a couple of site outwith France that rent them out, but might not be able to if you live outwith the European Union.

You can do it with 'Liber-t', but there's a ten percent toll premium, daily use charge, basic transponder charge, and something else. It goes on your credit card monthly and you have to give the gizmo back or get stiffed another forty bucks or so.

It's probably not worth the trouble or expense.

I just got back. Using an American credit card is like playing Russian roulette--you never know what's going to happen when you try the card--and the consequences can be dramatic. Always take cash and use lanes that have a green arrow. You'll find that most of the autoroute cash machines also have a slot for a credit card, so you can try your card first if you want. While the machines give change, they don't like large bills such as a 50 euro bill, so be sure to have plenty of 20s to pay the toll.

Liber-T is the marketing name for the telepeage system in France. Each motorway company has has different offers some with good discounts, but these do seem at the moment for holders of French bank accounts only. Our Liber-T tag is through a UK affiliate of SANEF who operate the motorways in much of North and North East France. We pay an annual fee, a small monthly fee for the months we use it, but the tolls are the same tolls everyone else pays with a a transaction charge to convert from euros to pounds. The badge can be used on all motorways in France irrespective of the company that issued it.

Our Liber-T was free, we pay the same toll rate, and the charge is two or three euros any month we use it. The Liber-T pass is tied to our US based American Express account. Visa didn't work when we signed up, but Amex is accepted for the pass. We've been using ours for three years.

I used my Amex card on most tolls while in France last year, but it did not work on all... then I just switched to Visa...they had no answer as to why it worked on some and not others, but I was surprised that it worked on most.

Off to France!!! Thank you all very much!!!!

When we were in France a couple of years ago, we had read about the "chip and pin" credit card, which many people said wasn't necessary, but it was on the toll roads. We put our regular credit card in - no luck. Put the chip and pin card from Andrews Federal credit union - and voila ! It saved us many times - at the unmanned metro stations, too. I would suggest to anyone that they get the Andrews card - no foreign transaction fees, etc. Worked great for us.