The solution: Pay in cash (some machines only accept coins, while others accept bills) or go to one

Why? Because best day to buy airline tickets the RER (regional train) and Paris Metro ticket machines only accept EC credit cards that are security-chip enabled. American credit cards are not equipped with this technology and, for the most part, don t work.
I think that the easiest (and most economical) best day to buy airline tickets way into Paris from Charles de Gaulle is the city s regional train, the RER. The train departs several times an hour from train stations in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at CDG. The trip takes between 25-35 minutes to central Paris, depending on whether it s running express or making local stops along the way.
RER tickets cost €8.20 per person, each way. Dozens of ticket machines are located in the airport terminals, best day to buy airline tickets making it (hypothetically) easy to grab a ticket and hop onto a train. However, the machines only accept EC credit cards. When we ve tried to purchase a ticket with an American-issued card, the screen simply states Card not valid.
best day to buy airline tickets Machines best day to buy airline tickets also take euro notes and coins, but if you ve just arrived in Europe, you may not be arriving with any euro currency. Of course, you could first swing by an airport ATM, although lines can be long and ATMs often dispense bills in high denominations, not exactly handy for an 8 euro ticket.
One solution is to buy your ticket from the ticket counter. I have resorted to this in the past—which is never fun, as it usually involves waiting in a long line. However, the ticket agents do accept American credit cards. Many American tourists, faced with this solution, get in line.
During my trip to Paris this month, I went through all the motions: I tried my MasterCard on two machines and was rejected by both. I then turned and gazed at the line snaking out from the ticket best day to buy airline tickets office. I was certain to spend the first 45 minutes best day to buy airline tickets of my time in Paris waiting to pay for a regional train ticket. Sad.
This might not work, but there s one machine over here that sometimes takes American cards, she said, and led me past several clusters of ticket machines to one particular, inconspicuous machine, which appeared to me to be just like the others.
Over the past several years, Paris has closed down Metro ticket booths in many stations and replaced them with automated vending machines. (In many cases, the ticket booths have been replaced with information booths. But they won t sell you tickets.)
The solution: Pay in cash (some machines only accept best day to buy airline tickets coins, while others accept bills) or go to one of the Metro stations that still actually has a ticket counter (these can be found in the most-popular stations in central Paris).
Have you had any issues with using an American (or any other) credit card in Paris or other French cities like Marseille or Lyon ? Have you been able to use your card? Do you have another creative solution? Tell us about it!
About the author: Tom Meyers created and launched EuroCheapo from his Berlin apartment in 2001. He returned to New York in 2002, set up office, and has led the EuroCheapo team from the Big Apple ever since. He travels to Europe several times a year to update EuroCheapo's hotel reviews. Tom is also a co-host of the New York City history podcast, The Bowery Boys. Email Tom
I had the same issue a couple of months ago but trying to use a Canadian credit card to buy a RER ticket going in the opposite direction: gare du nord to CDG. The ticket machines only took coins, and I only had bills.
I ve had similar problems at gas stations in France, particularly the ones affiliated with supermarket chains. It seems they re often unattended at night and on Sundays, and the pumps will only accept the security-chip cards.
Curt Excellent point about gas stations. We encountered this situation at a gas station in Normandy on a Sunday afternoon. We were running on empty, and the only open station that we found (part of a supermarket that was closed on Sunday), was only open for pay-at-the-pump credit card customers. After all of our cards were rejected, we had to rely on the kindness of strangers. We paid cash to a man in the car next to us, and he paid with his EC card. After that, we made sure our tank was filled up on Saturday!
The interchange fees for non-european cards are usually a lot higher than the predominantly issued debit cards in europe. A credit card charge of €8.20 would cost RER much more than when it accepts EMV (predominantly debit) cards. It wouldn best day to buy airline tickets t surprise me if this is one reason why RER does not accept non-european cards.
I m an american but have been living in France since 2000. The best is to use your card to withdraw money in ATMs that you can find in CDG, use the cash to buy the RER ticket or to pay for small-ticket best day to buy airline tickets items. best day to buy airline tickets RER machines usually do accept euro bills.
Marite, it s interesting to try to understand the logic of not accepting non-European credit cards. I agree that it probably has something to do with higher fees for the transactions. However, do you think that these charges are more expensive best day to buy airline tickets in France than in other European countries? After all, I have never had trouble using my credit cards in other European countries. Have you? (Or anyone else out there?) Is France just less willing than other countries to put up with those service charges?
Thomas, It could very well be somewhat best day to buy airline tickets unique to France. Afterall, France is the very first country that has gone chip and pin. One of the raison d etre of chip and pin is to enable offline authorization, which means that as long as the amount is less than the floor limit, the transaction is authorized offline (without sending an authorization request to the issuing bank). For standalone gas pumps in France, what this means is that as soon as the EMV card s pin-code is authenticated/validated, then the terminal blocks/reserves a certain amount from your card account and the gas pump allows you to pour the gas.
Foreign issued best day to buy airline tickets cards will always need online authorization. In your case, perhaps the standalone gas pump could not do a call out to your issuing bank in the States. Electron VISA cards or Mastercard Maestro cards that require online authorization, even if issued in France are also not accepted by most standalone POS (for example, gas pumps, tolls ( peage ), bicycle rental ( velib ), parking terminals) in France. These type of cards do require online authorization. If the card that you used with the standalone gas pump is a debit card, this will also be refused. Why? Another rule to know is that a standalone gas pump will block/reserve a certain best day to buy airline tickets amount (100 euros) since it cannot know beforehand how much gas you are going to pump. Merchants (terminals) are not allowed to block this money from a debit card account.
best day to buy airline tickets Another reason could also be that if the standalone best day to buy airline tickets gas pump is able to do an online authorization, then your issuing bank could have blocked the authorization. This blocking practice by issuing banks in the US is also well-known and if and when you call the issuing bank, it is usually explained to you that it s for your own security that they block the card.
Why is it that you do not experience the same difficulty in other european countries? Standalone terminals in other european countries are not as prevalent as in France. Merchants in other european countries are still used to having a human being accept the card (not a standalone machine). This, I noticed when I went to Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, etc. Another thing to point out is that although most european countries have been mandated to go chip and pin, many merchants in countries such as Belgium, Germany, Spain for example, still process the magnetic stripe. I cannot say the same of France.
Lastly, I do want to explain to you that most merchants in France do require the ticket best day to buy airline tickets amount to be over a certain amount (over 10 euros usually) before they will take the card, regardless of whether it is issued in France or elsewhere. Even with my french card, which is a VISA electron, I encounter the same difficulties (if not more) as you have. I can use my VISA electron to pay for gas for example, if I use a gas pump that will allow me to present my card (usually to a person) after I pump. I just got used to it so I know to schedule these kind of transactions with gasoline stations that would allow me to pump then pay. Unlike the way I lived in the States, here in France, I always keep a few euros handy to pay for small ticket items.
French issued debit cards are quasi-credit because they are what we call deferred debit, which means that the cardholder best day to buy airline tickets is allowed to go over the amount that his checking account has as long as there is money at the end of billing cycle (usually end of the month) to cover the card transactions. This deferred feature means that the issuing bank guarantees the payment to the merchant. So the POS terminals in france do accept the french debit cards because of this deferred feature. best day to buy airline tickets U.S. debit cards are usually not deferred.
Try leaving your card in the RER machine at CDG a few seconds longer than you normally would . then your American card should work on all the machines. There are signs posted around all the machines that instruct to do that but if you don t read French, you wouldn t know!
Marite Ferrero and others all make excellent points. We would just chip in one thought. The starting point for this discussion might not be the worry about how might one pay for train tickets with a US (or Canadian) credit card, but rather how do most Europeans buy train tickets (esp. for short hops like the run into Paris from the airport). Here is Germany, over 30 million train tickets are sold at stations every single best day to buy airline tickets working day, and credit cards are used for less than half of one per cent of those transactions. Debit cards account for about four per cent of transactions. That leaves over 95 per cent of tickets being paid for by cash.
There are vast tracts of Europe best day to buy airline tickets where no credit cards could ever be used for purchasing a train ticket even in biggish cities. Last month and this, we have travelled quite a bit through Europe by train: from