Cash v Contactless use in France?

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groberts
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France - cash or contactless?

Post by groberts »

For the first time in a few years we're returning to France with our bikes in July and was wondering if from first hand experience (post covid) if anybody can say whether contactless transactions can now be widely used there as in the UK, or is cash still a better method of paying?

We'll certainly take some cash but less if contactless is generally viable.

Graham
nirakaro
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by nirakaro »

Be aware that the bank may make a charge per transaction (mine does), which could mount up if you're making a lot of small purchases.
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MrsHJ
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by MrsHJ »

I last toured there in September 2021 and it was almost entirely ok with contactless.

The occasional bakery wanted cash. So I’d take 50 euro and see if you need it.

On charges I use a revolut card and have it on my phone’s Apple Pay as my preferred card when travelling. So I just top it up from my bank account for free as and when I need it. No charges. Use it for all shopping and other small transactions and for b and bs (but I have a credit card on my phone and physically with me too as it helps with eg booking.com). I use the revolut card for withdrawing cash but please note there is a monthly cash limit of £200 I think.

The revolut card is a cash card and is free- the whole family has one now and I sometimes dish mine out to the teens to go shopping. https://www.revolut.com/
Last edited by MrsHJ on 25 May 2022, 4:16pm, edited 1 time in total.
Psamathe
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by Psamathe »

I suspect that some of the choice might be how you are travelling. If staying in hotels, maybe with a family, eating out you might have to be carrying a lot of cash and/or making very frequent cash machine stops. But if camping and self-catering then it's all much cheaper so you are carrying a lot less cash.

When travelling I take the travel pre-paid debit cards (as well as credit and bank debit cards). I tend to use cash as camping and eating in cheaper restaurants and travelling solo. That said, in French supermarkets I did tend to use my pre-paid debit cards a bit (PIN entry, never tried contactless) and they worked fine and I didn't get transaction fees. But same cards in South America, withdrawing cash at ATMs and the local bank does add a transaction fee (sometimes enough that I'd cancel the transaction and go elsewhere). I suspect transaction charges would depend on a wide variety of factors and I've bined the card I mostly used as the company was taken over by another and it became a disaster area.

Ian
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MrsHJ
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by MrsHJ »

Psamathe wrote: 25 May 2022, 3:34pm I suspect that some of the choice might be how you are travelling. If staying in hotels, maybe with a family, eating out you might have to be carrying a lot of cash and/or making very frequent cash machine stops. But if camping and self-catering then it's all much cheaper so you are carrying a lot less cash.

Ian
I don’t think I agree or rather that’s not how I do it with hotels. They mostly don’t want/expect cash. Same with restaurants. These days they often expect plastique.

I don’t know if Germany for instance is that same- they were always a more cash based society. Switzerland though- I spent 5 days and 1 euro in cash when there (local tourist tax- luckily they didn’t require Swiss francs as I never got round to getting any).
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Audax67
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by Audax67 »

Sans contact almost everywhere but keep some cash in case you buy stuff from a kiosk or on a market.

As has been mentioned, Germany's a bit more iffy - some do, some don't.
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pal
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by pal »

I was in France briefly last month, and only encountered one place (a bike shop!) which wouldn't take a card. But my sense also was that, outside Paris at least, the default assumption for small payments (e.g. in a boulangerie) was cash rather than card -- though most places seemed to have a card machine knocking around. In Paris, card payment seemed very much more the standard, even for small transactions.

(One small wrinkle in hotels: the tourist tax -- usually a euro or so -- is often charged separately, esp. if you've booked on booking.com or similar, and it often seemed to be expected, or perhaps just simpler, to pay this in cash...)
st599_uk
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by st599_uk »

Audax67 wrote: 26 May 2022, 8:02am Sans contact almost everywhere but keep some cash in case you buy stuff from a kiosk or on a market.

As has been mentioned, Germany's a bit more iffy - some do, some don't.
Germany has gone contactless at last - haven't needed cash on my last 3 work trips.
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Psamathe
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by Psamathe »

MrsHJ wrote: 25 May 2022, 4:02pm
Psamathe wrote: 25 May 2022, 3:34pm I suspect that some of the choice might be how you are travelling. If staying in hotels, maybe with a family, eating out you might have to be carrying a lot of cash and/or making very frequent cash machine stops. But if camping and self-catering then it's all much cheaper so you are carrying a lot less cash.

Ian
I don’t think I agree or rather that’s not how I do it with hotels. They mostly don’t want/expect cash. Same with restaurants. These days they often expect plastique.
...
Like I said in my post you quoted, if staying in hotels, maybe with family you'd end-up carrying loads of cash (not a good idea) and/or forever stopping at every ATM meaning cards are far more practical. If camping, self-catering, etc. then you'll be spending a lot less and cash becomes far more practical. Hence my saying it depends on how you are travelling.

Practicality constraints can impact of transaction charges/currency conversion charges made on card transactions (which depend on the card, where you use the card, what currency the transaction is made in (i.e. select transaction in £ sterling and often the exchange rate will be local and a lot worse than if you make the transaction in the local currency - but not all places or cards have that capability anyway). Many might chose to pay a few transaction charges on big bills rather than carry round wads of notes.

In NL a few years ago a lot of places were refusing to accept €100 notes (apparently because of a lot of forgeries) and some ATMs would dish out €100 ntes if you did not have an account at the bank!

Ian
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by pq »

I live in the middle of nowhere in SW France. Thanks to the pandemic almost everyone here now accepts contactless, but obviously you should also carry cash just in case.
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francovendee
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by francovendee »

It's the same in this part of France. At the height of the pandemic shops much preferred cashless. Recently I came across a busy boulangerie in Nantes and they had a machine at the counter that took your cash and dispensed the change, all without contact between the purchaser and assistant.
I still see older people paying at the checkout with a cheque. It's not until you see how long it takes you realise how cards have sped up the buying process
beeb
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by beeb »

agree that revolut is great
simonhill
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by simonhill »

francovendee wrote: 27 May 2022, 8:34am It's the same in this part of France. At the height of the pandemic shops much preferred cashless. Recently I came across a busy boulangerie in Nantes and they had a machine at the counter that took your cash and dispensed the change, all without contact between the purchaser and assistant.
I still see older people paying at the checkout with a cheque. It's not until you see how long it takes you realise how cards have sped up the buying process
Those little cash taking and change dispensing machines were popular in Portugal. I presume a pandemic thing as I had never seem them outside of Japan before.

If the pandemic picks up again, maybe they may become more widespread.
pq
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by pq »

I've only encountered those cash machines at a particular chain of Boulangerie. They are not widespread and are not a Covid thing.
One link to your website is enough. G
francovendee
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Re: France - cash or contactless?

Post by francovendee »

I'd not visited this Boulangerie before and assumed it went along with the plastic screens erected on the counter.
A local PMU has the same system.
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