Toll road/Gas station/credit card incidents

No, but I misplaced our ticket going on a toll road in Croatia and we had to pay the full price, which was $80 at the time. It should have been about $12. The second, and I mean the second we left the toll booth, I found it. I went on line and read that I could send in my receipt with the ticket and get a refund. It worked, but the refund was a check in Kunas. Gave it to a cousin, he was happy.

The $120 amount you saw was not a charge, it was a preauthorization limit placed upon your pending gas purchase. You could think of it as a hold against your credit limit. It is perfectly normal and occurs, whether you see it or not, anytime your final purchase amount is undetermined, such as at restaurants and hotels.

There are a number of toll roads in the world with segment charges just like the one you describe. There are a number along highways in the south of France.

Tocard is correct, it was an authorisation hold on your card to make sure that you have sufficient funds to fill up a tank. The UK has a £99 charge on 'pay at the pump' machines which is released once payment has gone through.

As for toll roads I don't ever recall being issued with a ticket. When reaching a toll booth I simply pay the required amount and the barrier raises, this has been the case throughout Europe including France.

That toll road near Cassis does not issue tickets, you pay at each barrier, so all good!

yup, just a pre-authorization hold. Just like you have a hold on your card when you rent a car.

I use AMEX to buy all my car fuel so instead of the £99 hold the system puts on most cards getting fuel I only have a £1- hold for a couple of days.

Many thanks for the informative responses! My mind is at ease.

On the toll roads, we had to take a ticket soon after entering. And then later, encountered a toll area in which we inserted our ticket and paid the appropriate amount, based, I would assume, on our usage of the road. I’m used to that sort of system but the Cassis situation was a bit befuddling since it had a slot to insert a ticket that I did not have.

Hi from Wisconsin,

I fueled up minutes before I returned the car to the rental agency in Bordeaux. I returned the car and we walked to our hotel. We checked in and tried the internet service. It worked and there was a message from my credit card. "Did I make this purchase for", and it was a weird amount, like $76.13. I replied no. Then my credit card asked if I would like to freeze my account.
Now, they used the word freeze, which implied to me it could be thawed later on. Oops, freeze meant cancel.

Good news we had two cards each from different banks. Turns out the odd amount was a 'deposit' from the gas station.
Later to be changed to the correct amount.

wayne iNWI

You don't need to freeze your account, just dispute the one charge.

when it is just an authorization you don't need to dispute it

That slot in Cassis might have been for the receipts, since there are definitely no tickets on the A50 between Marseille and Toulon.
The A13 between Paris and Rouen and the A63 between north of Bayonne and the Spanish border work the same way, by the way - and possibly other motorways I have never used.

Thanks, all. So glad I just fretted a bit and waited for the credit charge situation to clear up on its own.

And now trying to clear up repeat charges with Vodafone - topped up and got message that charge could not be processed. Tried again, same message. Tried again with a different card. Same message. And all my attempts are now posted as charges to my credit card. Sigh.

I had a scare today while headed back to Avignon Gare TGV to return my rental car before taking train to Paris. I was about 15 KM or so from gare and pulled over when I saw gas station (sorry not sure of name). First, I couldn’t get gas cap off. I figured out I had to insert key but nothing worked. A trucker had pulled in so, with my mediocre French, I asked for help. He also struggled for a few minutes but finally got cap unlocked. Then, the pump wouldn’t accept my Citi CC, or my debit card with PIN. The trucker tried several times with my cards - nothing. The man was a life saver! He said he’d pay with his card, and I luckily had cash then to reimburse him. What a sweetheart of a man.

Wow! There are good people everywhere.