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Toll booths take visa?

Driving from Antibes to Chamonix via Italy/Tunnel tomorrow. Used cash today while in Monaco. Do the booths take visa?

Posted by
9110 posts

It varies by the company that has the concession to run that section of the highway.

Don't accept an anecdotal answer about what somebody did in Normandy or Aquitaine.

I'd have cash ready. I haven't even tried a mag strip card for years.

Posted by
4 posts

Have plenty of cash but not 150 euro in loose change. All the booths I saw today looked like no euro bills. Fingers crossed

Posted by
1005 posts

Many of the cash toll machines also have a credit card slot, so you can try your card first if you want to test it out. But always carry enough cash--because it really is Russian roulette out there using credit cards on the autoroute.

Posted by
388 posts

As mentioned, I wouldn't expect a toll booth to take cards. Use change. Try to keep about 10-20 euros in change in the car for situations like that.

Posted by
3150 posts

If you have a chip and pin card, some of them might. Play it safe and use cash.

Posted by
9110 posts

If you have a chip and pin card, some of them might.

Not true by a long shot. All have credit card slots. A chip and pin will always work.

Also, many tolls are more than ten euro and I'm pretty sure I've seen twenty plus a couple of times.

Manned lanes will take bills.

Posted by
4020 posts

Sure, Abe, I've seen Italian toll booths take credit cards. Look sharp for the symbols to pick the appropriate lane. You make it sound as if you were guessing, hardly an authoritative approach for an RS representative.

Posted by
9110 posts

Just remembered my record for a day of French tolls. On a miserable run from Dunkerque to Bordeaux the toll trolls got more than a hundred bucks and I doubt we ever left the autoroute. There was one over thirty euro along there.

On the run from Lattes to Roissy there's a couple that are over twenty.

Posted by
3585 posts

We were in France in May, and I'm pretty sure I remember that the toll booths took 10 and 20 euro bills and gave change. Be prepared for them not taking your card unless it's chip and pin. Keep a supply of cash handy.

Posted by
10344 posts

Talking about moments that do not enhance the esthetic quality of your European Odyssey: You're at the toll booth, it's not personned, and it won't take your credit card. Meanwhile, a number of cars driven by impatient French drivers are piling up behind you.
Do you get out and try to explain, in French, that you're an idiot and have no idea what is going on, or what?

Posted by
9110 posts

Not a big problem. The guy behind you will pay your toll, you hand him cash, everybody laughs, life continues.

Posted by
10116 posts

You make it sound as if you were guessing, hardly an authoritative approach for an RS representative.

Actually Abe's answer was absolutely accurate for France. It's a crap shoot there whether your card will work.
We got the equivalent of an ez pass for France years ago that we bring back with use every year to avoid this problem.

Posted by
2916 posts

On my last trip I had a chip and PIN card that worked everywhere (such as SNCF machines) except at some toll booths. I gave up after awhile.