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hi

yes just come back from france.my wife has hsbc maestro.well in credit,atm ok but a lot of shops not accepted. asked bank said should work every where. then told some of europe operate different system to uk.why arent we all the same. europe gets it right again.

HSBC do not use Maestro now, our new cards are Visa debit-the chap in the bank told me they were changing because it is more widely used.We were sent a letter telling us that new cards would be issued.

 We had no problems in France in June.

Our Abbey (Santander!) account cards are also now Visa debit.

 I did not use any of the automatic fuel stations as we have had problems in the past.

 Supermarkets and autoroute tolls were fine.I seem to recall that  the Post Office Mastercard did work in the unmanned fuel station, last year.

Incidentally some autoroute péages (the smaller exits) are not manned, the machine takes debit/credit cards or cash . They are easy to use, put in your ticket and it tells you the cost, pay the toll, and if you want a receipt push the button and it prints one.

Could be a problem if they don't work!

They look the same as the pay and display machines in our town centre.

France had a different chip and pin technology to ours and many of the automated petrol pumps will only accept the French chip and pin. These are gradually being phased out with more and more UKCS members reporting petrol stations that will now accept our chip and pin, mainly around the ports and popular tourist areas. I think the problem is only with automated petrol pumps. We have used different types of cards in peage machines and ATM's with no problems.

Carol

 Rayduff has it right - sometimed you will be OK sometimes not.

The facts are simple.

French chip and pin was initially a different technology, therefore as long as some card readers of the old type exist - eg 24 hour petrol pump, small rural supermarket etc, you may find your UK card (of whichever brand) does not work. Sometimes you can still use the swipe instead, sometimes nothing will work. In my experience, after hours petrol stations are still the least likley machines to accept UK cards, but you can just move on (hopefully!). In the case of supermarket, I have in the past had to pay by cash instead. In one case, I had no alternative cash so simply apologised, left my full trolley at the checkout and left!