Paying for it in Austria

:Dhi,i do not think this is a problem confined to just one place either (only certain plastic being accepted),i recently came back from BSM and went to fill up with fuel and when i went to pay the teller in the station they said my card would not be any good(fortunately i had some cash).
Upon returning to the UK i rang mbna and told them the problem and was told that thier credit cards can be used for all other purchases but they are not compatible with the electronic payment device in certain french petrol stations? :D

jonG wrote: :Dhi,i do not think this is a problem confined to just one place either (only certain plastic being accepted),i recently came back from BSM and went to fill up with fuel and when i went to pay the teller in the station they said my card would not be any good(fortunately i had some cash).
Upon returning to the UK i rang mbna and told them the problem and was told that thier credit cards can be used for all other purchases but they are not compatible with the electronic payment device in certain french petrol stations? :D

it may be a training problem in the petrol station. There's one I used to use near a place we had in France, one weekend I filled up on the way past Friday night and paid with my German card as normal, by Sunday the cashier was claiming they didn't take the card and never had. The receipt from 2 days before soon sorted that of course :D

I think it's fair to say that this thread shows the reality of just how inflexible our flexible friend is(n’t) :|

After living in the UK and being used to paying for EVERYTHING on plastic, life in Austria seems somehow more like a scene from "Life on Mars" with it's quaint 1970's ways, but if it helps visitors realise the issues beforehand then the stress will have been worth it!

As an aside, I have a debit card for my Austrian bank which has a weekly and monthly spend limit !! So now if I spend more than a set figure each week (or month) and then go to buy something more (despite however Black my account may be) I am refused payment!! Gotta luv ‘em!!

Happy spending (or not!)

Jan

Hamish Macbeth wrote:

ise wrote:

Hamish Macbeth wrote:Handling over €500 notes can also be a problem. :mrgreen:

Not in Austria it's not. It's interesting to compare the denominations that ATM's in different countries use actually, Austria goes for high notes, Germany about average and in France the smallest possible. All Euros of course.

I was being a joker there.

But I do recall this past summer seeing signs up in France, especially along the motorways, saying that even the €200 notes were not to be offered.

Exactly, it proves some sort of point about the notes in common use now so many countries are on the euro. Unfortunately, I've no idea what the point is, something to do with trust in taking large notes, or flexibility in having enough change or something. Large notes don't cause much flap here either, I hate using a 200 franc note to pay for coffee or something but no one seems to mind. But in France, they want those small notes which change hands so often they're falling apart :D