Tolls and US credit cards

I have not seen rental cars with télépéage included by the rental company. The systems with which I am familiar all use direct debit from a French bank account.

There are a dozen or so companies operating the French auto-route system and payment systems vary greatly. Some tollbooths accept US credit cards, others may not. I remember one stretch of auto-route near Arles which only accepts coin; no credit cards, no bills.

Using cash is the only way to be sure you will not have problems at a toll booth.

We are in France now and drove from Geneva to Paris about a week ago. Our experience:

Europcar does not provide either Telepeage or the Swiss vignette. We had no trouble using our credit card, but we made sure that it had a chip (this is the historic problem with cards at tolls; the American cc companies were slow in adopting the chip system). We never had to put in a PIN or even use cash, but we were also very careful to choose lanes marked with card/cash and avoid the "T" lanes, even if it meant getting in a (usually short) line.

Other tips:

1. Be aware that you don't pay at some toll stations, they are there for you to pick up a ticket for a later payment, kind of like a lot of American turnpikes. Sorry I don't know which ones.

2. The default is to get no receipt, probably to keep the lines moving. If you want a receipt after using your card at the booth, there's a button you punch to get it. The whole transaction takes just seconds.

3. Gas stations, we found, often don't take even chipped American credit cards. If your cc that worked on a toll 10 minutes ago, but doesn't work at the pump now, you'll have to go inside to the attendant, if there is one, and run the card directly. Many stations are fully automated, which makes this impossible, but we found more attended stations near the large A routes.

I have also never seen a French rental car with Telepeage. I also have not seen any French toll stations in the last several years that don't have one or more booths with a card machine. As to whether your American card will be useable, that's another question. For a couple of years my card never worked, then this year the same card worked everywhere I tried it, on autoroutes run by several different companies.. As was said, it probably depends on the company operating that particular stretch of the Autoroute. To be safe, always have cash.

Two years ago we spent a month driving around France including from Paris to the Riviera and back. Most toll booths are unstaffed. Some take cash (we also carry a purse of coins and small bills) but it is important to enter the rows marked for cash. Some toll booths take US credit cards and some don't. Ones just south of Paris didn't for us but the same cards worked fine in the south. The joys of privatization -- different toll booths are operated by different companies. Once we held up the long long line as none of our cards worked and there was no staff. The emergency button did get us a voice that told us to put the exact change in a box on the pillar (not a money slot just into this lidded box). The bill was 19.60 or thereabouts and so we put in a 20 and he lifted the bar remotely. After that we tried to always be sure we were in a money line but did find cards worked at some of the booths. In the Riviera where you get tolled about every 5 KM in some areas, the cards worked fine luckily.

The "money line" is marked with a green arrow. Usually the machine also has a slot for credit cards, so you can try that first. Always have a cash backup and remember that the cash machines do not take 50-euro bills.

We had similar experiences as the above posters a few years ago in France, chiefly inconsistent acceptance of our Chase Bank credit card. In addition to keeping currency handy, we turned on our car's emergency flashing lights as we entered the toll lane so drivers behind us wouldn't be delayed as we fumbled with cards, coins and bills.

We had more success with Barclays Bank Lufthansa Miles and More card this May in Provence -- maybe the toll roads saw it as more "local" ??

Thank you all so much for the info!!