<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by opushomes:
In France, there are a number of stations which have self-service, 24 hour, pumps specifically marked as "Carte Bleu". They will not take U.S. issued cards and are intended only for French cards. Learned this after a futile 10 minute long attempt to make the U.S. card work.
Isn't technological innovation truely wonderful?
Edit: To the original poster.
Just realized that the problem really had nothing to do with the card. You tried to buy "petrol" from a "gasoline" pump. Tsk, Tsk.
[This message has been edited by opushomes (edited 09-15-2002).]</font>
If I remember correctly, all Visa/MasterCard cards issued in France have been smart cards (with embedded chips) for several years. Perhaps the pump credit card readers access the smart card, and won't accept any card without one.