Peage for French Autoroutes
 

Most will know that the french motorways/autoroutes have a plethora of peage toll booths to collect fees for use of those "A" roads - fair enough, that is one of their ways of funding their road construction and maintenance.
Now, those booths are increasingly switching over to un-manned, automated methods of collecting the tolls.
The payment can be made by means of an automated system whereby each vehicle drives slowly through the peage station and the fee is collected automatically, or via what appear to be pre-paid cards to be entered into the machines BUT the average foreign visitor will not have these two choices to hand.
Historically, I have paid cash but this option is rapidly disappearing as the un-manning of the booths continues which leaves me with just a debit/credit card to use in the machines; the downside of this is the bank charges back at home - you can pay what amounts to a very small fee to use a short section of autoroute and end up with fixed charges by your bank that raise that fee by well over 100%.
If travelling longer distances on the A roads, the charges still accumulate on your home bank account because use of each and every toll booth incurs another standing charge for foreign exchange services.

Somewhere in another thread is discussion of the pros and cons of using pre-paid foreign exchange (forex) cards whereby you can buy what amounts to credit that is placed on a card; does anyone know if these will work in the french toll machines?

I have been all over Europe and so far I've not found one that don't take cash. Any way I have one of these pre paid card's. Mine is Fairfx, can find them on face book. Dead easy to use. And the exchange rate is dam good. New people get £5 paid in-to their account on there first card load. I usually put a £1,000 on mine. Use it when I have to. Another thing I use is one of them snap open purses. You know the thing, a bag with a couple of spring clip's to open it. Load that up with a 10 euro note and some change. Slip that in the map holder. Come to pay. You can get the purse out with your gloves on, pass it over and the lady usually knows what to do. Ask her to put the ticket in side. That way you can work out how much you have paid on tolls.
Hope that helps
John933

If you're on a bike, you should go through the manned ones wherever possible - I'm pretty sure if you go through the automated ones you just get charged at the car rate rather than the lower bike rate.

Moto's are Class 5. If the automated booth does not recognise you as such, press the help button and tell them you are a moto. Can create quite a tailback at peak times:D

For info: Prix des péages en France - WikiSara

John

I have managed to avoid peage on the bike for the past 20 years but use them a lot in the car. More often than not there is no manned booth and only occassionally have I seen one of those baskets for throwing coins into. I'm always conscious of causing a delay but then I always seem to be the one in the credit card channel who gets behind the car whose card doesn't work.

If you are in a high top van you also need to be careful that you don't get charged the commercial vehicle rate at automatic booths. Like John says push the help button - they always speak English in my experience.

Ah! That is more or less what I was trying to describe in a long-winded kind of way!
I was last over there about 2 weeks ago and I don't recall seeing a single cash basket between Calais and Toulouse.
At one of those unmanned toll booth machines I may have even paid as a truck because the bottom set of slots were not taking my debit card, so I reached up on high and used the top set of slots for ticket/debit card/receipt.
Anyway, my main point/question remains unanswered - will those prepaid cards issued in the UK, such as Fairfx etc, work OK in the French peage booths?

Cant answer that, BUT, you can get a Telepeage transponder in the UK now from Sanef:
https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/

They charge a little more and if you want to use it on a moto:

4.4. I’ve got a motorcycle?
You can use a Liber-t tag with a motorcycle with some limitations, the main one being that to avoid being charged as Class 1 vehicle you must use the manual lane and hand over the tag to the person in the toll booth. They will use a barcode scanner to read the tag and will charge you as a Class 5 vehicle. The main advantage is that it saves you fumbling for cash / payment cards with gloves on but you should not use the automated lanes.

John

So my personal protest campain, that I reported on another thread, is being noticed (not that I have ridden in France for 3 years!) - they are aware of the time nusiance of motos going through toll points.

When will they finally make autoroutes free for motos?

We don't generate vast revenue for them. It will keep us out of towns and villages and encourage us to use the safer autoroutes.

They used to do it nationwide for the extended Bol d'Or weekend for just those latter reasons, but gradually reduced the free area.

It won't cost them much to implement - just stick a post in the middle of one lane so only solo motos can get through.

Ah, well Tony. At my age I start to nod off after a few hours on the autoroutes so I avoid all toll sections and go for the more interesting D roads.
You save money on tolls/gas and get an interesting ride :scooter:

John

true - but if you happen to be 2 x bikes (or 3x) you can all sneak through on the one payment if you are feeling naughty.

I've seen it done, clearly - I would personally never condone the behaviour :)

In Italy near Milan I once 'inadvertently' followed a car through the booth, never heard anything from it.

I've done that as well. Same zip. happed.
John933

I have just this week received a free (i.e. no fee) VISA debit card from comdirect bank, which allows me to retrieve money from every cash machine sporting a VISA logo without any charge (as in NO CHARGE), which will be debited directly from my free (i.e. no fee) comdirect account. I have to test it with a toll booth, though. If at all, I´ll end up with a 1,5% surcharge (not if charged in Euros, though), which is far away from 100%.... I´m eternally grateful to the person pointing this option out to me.

Regards
Chris

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Welcome to economics 101. :innocent:

Cheers
Chris

thread bump
 

Getting a liber-t tag from these guys isn`t the cheapest option, as they charge a hefty service fee, deposit and set their own £/€ exchange rate
Aquiring a liber-t TAG direct from France has always been a sticking point, as the opperators where becoming less willing to issue a tag to new customers without a french bank account, and the option for existing customers to alternately pay with a credit card was being phased out towards the end of 2012.

However a little research has turned up a potential cheaper option for new customers outside france to get hold of a liber-t TAG without paying the hefty fees levied by sanef UK, and be able to pay the toll costs to the French opperator via credit card. (Albeit consideration to the fees levied by the credit card Co for the exchange rates needs to be considered)
So if anyone is still thinking about getting hold of a French Liber-t toll tag, https://www.telepeagepourtous.fr/fr/.../vos_avantages they are offering liber-t tags for free, abeit with a €10 setup fee (€10 refundable on your 1st bill)
However unlike most french Liber-t tags you don`t need a french bank account to apply, as you can pay via a credit card (mastercard/visa)
service charges: online billing charges at €1.60, or paper billing at €2.10 per month only (for only the months you use it + the toll fees you accrue).
apply here: https://www.telepeagepourtous.fr/fr/...crire/en_ligne
There are no deposit fees for the tag persay as the initial €10 fee when yuo apply is refunded. The only additional fee I can see for using it, beyond the billing fee & toll costs, is that you pay €3 for delivery.
No doubt someone more fluent in french will be able verify the details of this offer by the opperator.

Hi Dave:

I think that the easiest fix for your problem is for you to obtain another (i.e. a different) credit card.

I have two Canadian credit cards, one MasterCard, the other American Express, and I have used both of them on the French Autoroutes in years past. Both card companies mark up the foreign exchange transaction by 2%, but heck, that is negligible for road tolls. That's about $2 per $100, and I can't possibly imagine spending more than $100 a year on French Road Tolls (unless I reach pensionable age and go buy a Gold Wing...)

Different credit cards have different advantages and disadvantages. It might be that the card you have used in the past has lots of domestic advantages for you (airline points, or cash back, or some other angle like that), but has very disadvantageous foreign exchange practices. Just search around until you find a card that has very desirable FX practices, then, sign up for it. Most of the 'basic' (i.e. not 'premium') credit cards are free of annual charges.

In my opinion, using a credit card on the French Motorways is even more convenient than having a transponder (electronic pass) - you don't have all the worries about setting up the transponder, paying the bill, that kind of stuff. Just shove the credit card in the slot, wait 5 seconds, retrieve it, and ride on.

Michael

Most places now take cash and give change. the cash usually has to be notes and the change is usually in coins.

So no credit/debit card charges.

Yes!
I've noticed that recently, when returning to the UK from the French/Swiss Alps; when I posted this thread, about 9 months ago, I had travelled by car to the south more or less via a direct route - to the west of Paris and then through central France. Later I made a similar, but longer, journey on a motorbike and never went on a peage section of Autoroute.
Now I have travelled on peage to the East, from Calais, mostly on peage with a 4x4 and found lots of pay-by-cash booths on the autoroutes, alongside the tele-peage and thosed signed for the credit card only booths.

Does that card work OK in the non-manned toll booths on the autoroutes?

When driving through these booths in a right hand drive car with no passenger in the left seat I have caused more delays than I have ever managed when riding a bike.
I always stop, switch off the engine usually, unbelt, step out, walk around to the other side, have a read of the instructions, search out the cash/card, do the necessary, inspect the receipt, stroll back to the car and place the receipt in a safe place (so I can find it again) etc etc.
All of this is done at a leg-stretch pace as a break from driving.
One time I ended up in the wrong lane and I had to reverse back out with a queue of trucks behind me - inadvertant, but it made me think. :innocent:

If such things are introduced into the UK - which seems to be a growing idea according to the politicians - then there will be a lot of left hand drive vehicle drivers doing much the same thing.

In France it is possible to avoid peages altogether, there are good quality non toll routes you can use.
In the UK there aren't, you have to use motorways, that's the difference.
If you travel a long distance in France it costs an absolute fortune in Tolls, I dread the idea of it coming here. It will be far far more expensive than the current road tax.

I have no idea. As I use cash if and when I use the toll's. But the up side is you get a good rate of exchange for your money. Payment on toll road's I use a small purse with a small amount of cash. Just hand that over. The lady will take the money and put the ticket inside. Keep the purse in the map holder on the tank. That way you can get it out with your glove's on. No flapping around.
John933

Hi John:

That sounds like a really clever idea, a lot quicker than digging out a credit card, and without the risk of losing the credit card (dropping it on the ground) somewhere along the way.

Thanks for sharing that suggestion.

Michael

credit cards would be a horrendously expensive way to pay I would think. Most will charge you a transaction fee and have crap exchange rates.

This is the case, I can vouch for that.
As per my earlier posts, the issue seems to have sorted itself out over the past 10 months, or thereabouts, with many more cash kiosks in evidence now.

As it happens, when I did use a credit card for peage purposes I was in a real hurry (I even pitched up for a ferry crossing with no prior booking and paid full price for the privilege) and I was conserving my Euro cash-in-hand for other purposes.
= a lesson (re)learnt.

Not the case with either of my (Canadian issued) credit cards - neither MasterCard or American Express levy a transaction fee, and the premium they charge for currency conversion (2% and 1%, respectively) is negligible for toll charges that average about $3 per transaction, and perhaps $40 for a two-week tour.

Michael

yes, but the british banking system is full of greedy xxxxxxxx stuffing their faces into the trough!!

Hi Moggy:

That may be so, but I don't think that the bankers in Canada are any more benevolent.

My experience with credit cards is that you get exactly what you pay for - or, perhaps more accurately, you don't get what you don't pay for.

The various credit card issuers offer a remarkably wide range of products, some aimed at consumers and other aimed at business people, frequently with the same brand name. I only have two cards, a MasterCard and a (green) American Express card. I picked these two cards because they don't charge international transaction fees, and they offer reasonably low premiums on currency conversion.

I pay $55 a year for the AmEx card (that is a membership fee), and although I don't pay a fee for the MasterCard, I picked one that does NOT offer Air Miles points, cash back bonuses, or other stuff like that.

The trick is to shop around carefully (even amongst the same card issuers) for a card that has no international transaction fees, and has a reasonably low commission on currency conversion. I am sure such cards are offered in your country, simply because I am sure that there are business people in your country who frequently travel abroad and want cards with low commissions and no transaction fees.

But, if you sign up for a "consumer level' card that give you all sorts of affinity points, or frequent flyer miles, or sends you roses on your birthday, you are going to get screwed on the surcharges.

Michael

nah!
surely Canadian bankers of models of benevolence:rofl:!

cheap UK cards
 

If you're from the UK I'd recommend getting yourself a Metro Bank account. They don't have any charges for overseas use plus give the wholesale exchange rate. For credit cards I use the Post Office Mastercard. Again, no charges for overseas use.

This is a good website for financial stuff :

Money Saving Expert: Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more

I never used to bother much if I took toll roads or not.
Recently I have been doing several trips to NE France and that's about 850kms on the "direct", but non-toll roads and is pleasant, if long, drive.

The last trip, I returned via the autoroute. Its ALL downside's. You travel at a higher speed, so use more fuel, its a longer distance, so even more fuel and it cost me €60 in tolls!.
All that to save about one and a half hours. I'll take the N, D and free autoroutes in future.

John

Hi Friends:

Well, with great embarrassment, I have to withdraw everything I said about using (foreign) credit cards at the unattended French toll booths. In the past few weeks, I rode from Geneva to Montpelier, then later from Biarritz to Caen, and none of my (Canadian) credit cards worked in any of the automated toll booths. I did visit a few toll booths that still had attendants, and much to my surprise, the cards worked fine when I gave them to the attendants.

The cards - all of which were the latest 'chip and PIN' types - were simply spit back at me by the automated (unattended) toll-booth, with a message "card not accepted". They worked everywhere else in France - at attended gas stations, hotels, restaurants, etc.

So, after some experimentation, I found that it was easiest to keep a stash of 5 and 10 Euro bills in my pocket, and to just shove one of those notes into the machine. Using paper notes was faster and more convenient than using coins (I found I was less likely to drop a paper note on the ground than to drop a coin, and it is easier to fish notes out of a pocket than to rummage for coins).

One suggestion for all of you: A moto is considered a "Class 5" vehicle, and only pays half the toll fee that a car (a Class 1 vehicle) pays. But, about once every 7 or 8 trips through the automated booth, the message would say that I was a Class 1 vehicle and demand more money. There is a simple solution to this: Just press the red CALL button on the tool-booth, and when the person answers, say 'motorcycle'. The person who answers the CALL button has a video display of you in front of them, and they will immediately correct the charge so that it shows you as a Class 5 vehicle.

Michael

If this is a problem, take the national roads, which are free and often much prettier than the boring autoroutes. They are indicated on the maps with a red N and a number. N7 runs all the way from Paris to the Riviera. If you use France justas a transport part of your trip, then paying makes sense. If you want to see something, stay off them.

Have a look at this, cheers Mark

Avoiding Paris - Routes from Calais to the south and west - About-France.com -