Wasnt Me Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Why do none of the Camping car service points in France accept my cards? We tried 4 cards and couldn't get out of the Aire a Lac du Der. It's quite frustrating. Any suggestions? We now have a rancid Poo tank we can't rinse properly. :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Wasn't Me - 2018-08-17 9:38 AM Why do none of the Camping car service points in France accept my cards? :-( Some have others Haven't for us have to find a friendly french man to pay and give him the cash. When paying for fuel our cards have been refused at the pay at pump but accepted at the kiosk. Credit card more accepted than debit card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandy Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 I used to have similar problems when I was with Natwest, but since changing to Nationwide a couple of years ago I've only once had a card refused (at an aire in Belgium). Though the instructions on the barrier mentioned only credit cards, it would not accept mine but did accept my debit card. I have no idea whether it is merely coincidence, as both Natwest and Nationwide cards were Visa, but it might be worth looking into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasnt Me Posted August 17, 2018 Author Share Posted August 17, 2018 We tried our First Direct Visa credit and debit cards and out Natwest visa. Unfortunately our French is not good enough yet to ask a friendly Frenchman. We need to work on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Yep its an issue. I also find if my Halifax Clarity card doesnt work my Nationwide flex card usually does but not always. best to have two or three cards to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jak Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 The idea of paying solely to empty the waste goes against the grain with me. Spent the last month in France and inevitably managed to find a municipal located free service point whilst touring. More often than not they seem to be located in the smaller less popular towns who are keen to promote visitor associated business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandy Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 jak - 2018-08-17 11:30 AM The idea of paying solely to empty the waste goes against the grain with me. Why? There is a cost involved in providing and maintaining the facility, so it seems reasonable that the user should contribute towards that cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 It used to be the norm in France that all card machine operated facilities (pay-at-the-pump etc) would only work with French cards but in recent years that simply hasn't been a problem - until last year when pumps at a supermarket we'd used many times suddenly stopped accepting our, while the cashier's booth (when open) would. We had a similar problem with the barrier at a pay-as-you-enter Aire which we solved by using the adjacent campsite, which as it happens was just a cheap and better.These are probably temporary/transitional problems except I suppose after Brexit we'll be back to the bad old days and our foreign cards won't work at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandy Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 StuartO - 2018-08-17 11:52 AM after Brexit we'll be back to the bad old days and our foreign cards won't work at all!I wouldn't be too pessimistic. I've used my cards outside of the EU without any problems, as I'm sure many of us have, and when volunteering in a local museum have had no difficulties taking card payments from US visitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 That's probably because, as members of the eu, we have reciprocal arrangements with these other countries. When we leave these will, according to the banking authorities and the government's Brexit no deal preparation documents, have to be re-negotiated. With each individual country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandy Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Billggski - 2018-08-17 12:15 PM That's probably because, as members of the eu, we have reciprocal arrangements with these other countries. When we leave these will, according to the banking authorities and the government's Brexit no deal preparation documents, have to be re-negotiated. With each individual country. You may be right, but I'd be surprised if our banking arrangements with the US were reliant on the EU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Wasn't Me - 2018-08-17 10:42 AM We tried our First Direct Visa credit and debit cards and out Natwest visa. Unfortunately our French is not good enough yet to ask a friendly Frenchman. We need to work on it. I’ve looked at Lac du Der on the campingcar-infos website and there seem to be 4 non-campsite ‘aires’. Two of these apparently use jetons, while the other two use credit/debit cards and the ’take-a-ticket-on-entry’ system that’s found elsewhere (eg. at Ouistreham) and can cause confusion for anyone unfamiliar with that set-up. So - assuming you were on a Lac du Der aire with the ticket system - it might not have been your UK-issued cards that were causing the problem. (if your cards weren’t accepted at that aire, how did you manage to get out?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 jak - 2018-08-17 11:30 AM The idea of paying solely to empty the waste goes against the grain with me... It’s relatively unusual in France for waste-emptying to be charged for at a non-campsite motorhome service-point. It’s increasingly common though for water provision to replenish a motorhome’s fresh-water tank to incur a charge and this normally also applies to provision of water to rinse WC cassettes. The latter practice deters use of an aire by ‘travellers’ and deters general exploitation of a ‘free’ water supply. (I remember seeing a family watering their vegetable garden with a long hose connected to an aire’s water-tap that had been jammed open.) Jetons are a nuisance and coinage is vulnerable to theft - hence the attractiveness of using debit/credit cards for payment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 I dont think I have ever paid to empty the loo. A bit of a tip though if your good at multi tasking. Empty the grey on the service point at the same time you empty your loo and use the grey water to rinse the cassette. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 We always used to carry a couple of 2 litre plastic bottles full of eau de tap for cassette rinsing when water was not available. Worked well cost nowt! We too found jetons, or rather getting them, to be a pain in the cassette, and we too sometimes had problems with credit cards abroad with Nationwide being the least worst of the bunch. It seemed to matter not between Mastercard or Visa but we usually had two of each and almost, but not quite, always one of 'em worked - eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve928 Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Strange because I've never come across this problem in many years of credit card use at aires, aires de service, parking and all manner of fuel stations, using Barclaycard Visa and Mastercard and lately Nationwide Visa. I hope it's not a new scenario as we don't carry much cash. I did use an HGV diesel pump at a supermarket once and it pre-authorised 1000 Euros worth of fuel, which I thought might cause a problem, but it didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickt Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Going South last year the Aire at La Mailleraye sure Seine accepted my Nationwide credit card but 5 weeks later on way back it would not.Helpfull French man used his card no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasnt Me Posted August 17, 2018 Author Share Posted August 17, 2018 Derek Uzzell - 2018-08-17 1:23 PM Wasn't Me - 2018-08-17 10:42 AM We tried our First Direct Visa credit and debit cards and out Natwest visa. Unfortunately our French is not good enough yet to ask a friendly Frenchman. We need to work on it. I’ve looked at Lac du Der on the campingcar-infos website and there seem to be 4 non-campsite ‘aires’. Two of these apparently use jetons, while the other two use credit/debit cards and the ’take-a-ticket-on-entry’ system that’s found elsewhere (eg. at Ouistreham) and can cause confusion for anyone unfamiliar with that set-up. So - assuming you were on a Lac du Der aire with the ticket system - it might not have been your UK-issued cards that were causing the problem. (if your cards weren’t accepted at that aire, how did you manage to get out?) Hi we stayed on one with the take a ticket type barrier. When leaving it would not take our payment and my wife had to walk up to the tourist information centre to arrange payment. Luckily it was open and we were not in a rush. We then tried the service point and this did not like our card either. We also were unable to get water in Joinville also as all our cards were unaccepted. All a bit frustrating to be honest. Both machines refused our card payments after saying code bon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 We've experienced this problem all over France, notably with 24hr fuel stations as well as aires. We now exclusively use a Caxton fx Mastercard when in europe which can be loaded with any currency and find that this is much more widely accepted. Currently parked on a campingcarparks aire having used the Caxton card as payment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasnt Me Posted August 17, 2018 Author Share Posted August 17, 2018 It's weird as we have never has a problem with pay at pump fuel stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 Wasn't Me - 2018-08-17 5:58 PM ...Both machines refused our card payments after saying code bon! This link may interest you https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/104076/how-does-a-debit-credit-card-reader-verify-the-pin-so-quickly After a card’s PIN has been confimed as correct, a communication will be sent to the merchant’s acquiring bank to authorise the transaction. This communications-link seems to be where the problem usually lies. There has been the odd occasion when my wife’s card (after a long delay) has not been accepted, but my equivalent card has been accepted, or neither my wife’s card or mine has been accepted. In such instances we pay by cash rather than faff around, but that won’t be practicable in every instance. When travelling in France nowadays we rarely encounter card-related problems, and we tend to use a card (a Nationwide one) for purchasing pretty much everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyboyprowler Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 aandy - 2018-08-17 11:21 AM I used to have similar problems when I was with Natwest, but since changing to Nationwide a couple of years ago I've only once had a card refused (at an aire in Belgium). Though the instructions on the barrier mentioned only credit cards, it would not accept mine but did accept my debit card. I have no idea whether it is merely coincidence, as both Natwest and Nationwide cards were Visa, but it might be worth looking into. We tried to join a money transfer company and Natwest wouldn't allow us to do it. Their security is very high for on line transactions, We have the Halifax card, and that has never been refused in France and gives a really good exchange rate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jak Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 aandy - 2018-08-17 11:36 AM jak - 2018-08-17 11:30 AM The idea of paying solely to empty the waste goes against the grain with me. Why? There is a cost involved in providing and maintaining the facility, so it seems reasonable that the user should contribute towards that cost. Basicallybecause I am a tight as**d old git, who happily travels around Europe enjoying life with the rest of the travelling community. Whilst on the move I have a preference for free or near free aires either official or unofficial which I tend to find used by predominantly mainland Europeans which suits me fine. Anyway this is well off the original subject matter Andy so lets conclude this dialogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandy Posted August 18, 2018 Share Posted August 18, 2018 jak - 2018-08-18 5:02 PM aandy - 2018-08-17 11:36 AM jak - 2018-08-17 11:30 AM The idea of paying solely to empty the waste goes against the grain with me. Why? There is a cost involved in providing and maintaining the facility, so it seems reasonable that the user should contribute towards that cost. Basicallybecause I am a tight as**d old git, who happily travels around Europe enjoying life with the rest of the travelling community. Whilst on the move I have a preference for free or near free aires either official or unofficial which I tend to find used by predominantly mainland Europeans which suits me fine. Anyway this is well off the original subject matter Andy so lets conclude this dialogue. You don't tow a German caravan with a transit pick up by any chance? ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasnt Me Posted August 18, 2018 Author Share Posted August 18, 2018 I don't mind paying €2.50 to get rid of 3 days worth of toilet waste. If only the stupid machines would take my money. It's the one thing in France that is good value. We went to Annecy and the bars were charging €10 a pint. Ridiculous! Rant over! Roll on happy hour at our local. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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