ATM problems in France

All ATMs accept our magnetic strip cards.

Rene,

I used ATM cards with the older magnetic stripe technology last year when I was in Paris and other parts of France, and had no problems at all. One point to mention is that your travel funds usually must be in a chequing account with a four-number PIN.

Many of the new "chip & PIN" cards are provided both with a chip as well as a magnetic stripe during the transition (my "chip & PIN" cards are configured that way). That way they will operate with just about any ATM or other automated payment device.

As mentioned in the previous post, automated ticket Kiosks in France (such as at CDG) will ONLY operate with "chip & PIN" cards. They seem to work reasonably well (although the first machine I tried to purchase my RER ticket wouldn't work, but the second machine worked fine).

You shouldn't have any problems with ATM's using your present card.

Happy travels!

At CDG, t took three different ATM machines before we found one that worked. We never had trouble again anywhere in France, Italy or Switzerland. The ATM's aren't real plentiful so it used up a lot of time from our first day.

I occasionally run into an ATM in Europe that will not accept my card (for what reasons, I don´t claim to understand), but it is never a show-stopper. You should be fine.

ATM cards work fine in ATM machines with your PIN. It is true that sometimes an ATM won't accept your card. No worries, just move on to another one.

Should be no problem to withdraw money from a default checking account using a 4 digit numeric pin number.

Will have problems in France if trying to make a purchase, having an alpha-numeric or non-4 digit pin, or if there is no default account or if the default account is not a checking account.

Edwin

We used to find that our card would be rejected the first time used in a Paris ATM. The next day, same macine, it worked. And it continued to work just fine from that point on. We guessed this was the banks needing a day to establish a handshake for our account. So if an ATM doesn't work you might simply need to try later.

Be sure to let your bank and credit card company know you are traveling and check to be sure whether your card is Cirrus or something else. More likely to have your transactions accepted if you use your bank's partner ATM network and they know you will be overseas.