Do gites take cash or credit cards?

[AussieJan]

Starting from Le Puy in early Sept - do I need cash to pay gites or do they take payment with credit card? Do most towns have ATM's?

 

[Kitsambler]

Most towns with a church have a bank and an ATM, and you will pass one of these at least every two days (sometimes more often). Private gites and most restaurants, not to mention markets and grocers, are operated on a cash basis. Larger establishments like the small hotels, and some more upscale country inns, may take credit cards. So keep a couple hundred Euros in cash, so you are prepared, replenishing as you go. And take advantage of credit cards when you are able - just don't count on using them in any given situation.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Most towns with a church have a bank and an ATM

Most Post Offices have ATMs as well.

 

[Kitsambler]

Most Post Offices have ATMs as well.

Oh right! The Europeans do this "postal savings bank" thing that is so different for us North Americans. Sometimes those same post offices have phone cards (and pay phones?) as well.

 

[newfydog]

If you have an American magnetic strip card card with no chip, expect some small places to pretend they can't use it. Cash is always preferred.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

expect some small places to pretend they can't use it.

It is not pretend. Their banks have told them what to do.

 

[mspath]

Whatever your budget and whichever card(s) you carry always have a stash of emergency cash. It need not be much say 4 × 20 and 2 × 5 euro notes. This stash might be very useful when an intense storm knocks all power out and no ATM works or during a long holiday weekend when the machines are 'milked dry'. As always it helps to be prepared!

 

[newfydog]

It is not pretend. Their banks have told them what to do.

Nah, all those hand held devices will work with a magnetic strip. A representative from Visa told me they can't put a Visa sign up if they don't. Their banks don't want them using cash and not paying a credit card commission. Finally, lots of American cards are now coming with a chip, so that scam is ending. The American chip cards don't use a PIN but they always hand the device expecting you to enter a PIN, and then are surprised when it spits out the little receipt to be signed. I have to point out to many of them that there is indeed a signature receipt that they need to keep.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Nah, all those hand held devices will work with a magnetic strip. A representative from Visa told me they can't put a Visa sign up if they don't. Their banks don't want them using cash and not paying a credit card commission.

So they pay the commission on credit cards with chips, which are becoming universal, but decline those without chips, planning on making how much extra money? All from cashless pilgrims ignorant about credit card technology? If they didn't want to pay the commission, wouldn't they just refuse to take credit cards altogether and keep the bonanza? (Which is what small places do.)

The chips add security, so that credit card fraud is eliminated. Not accepting chip-less cards makes a lot of business sense, since businesses get a chargeback from transactions that are not completed according to bank requirements. If merchants accept chip-less charges after being instructed not to do so, they lose.

I personally would not be paranoid in cases where it is not warranted, and a few pennies on my 7E menu peregrino does not seem to warrant paranoia. But who know, maybe they are all out to get me. Even paranoids have enemies.

 

[newfydog]

So they pay the commission on credit cards with chips, which are becoming universal, but decline those without chips, planning on making how much extra money? All from cashless pilgrims ignorant about credit card technology? If they didn't want to pay the commission, wouldn't they just refuse to take credit cards altogether and keep the bonanza? (Which is what small places do.)

Exactly. They all prefer cash transactions, but if they can't figure out a way to get that, they take a credit card. I have had many places tell me they can't run an American magnetic strip card and need cash, and then sigh and take my chip card from my Banque National de Paris account.

It isn't just the 2-4% commission the cards are charging them they want to avoid, it is the fact that cash is, believe it or not, often overlooked in declaring taxable income.

 

[billmclaughlin]

I've never had a credit card with a chip and I've never had a card refused in an establishment that accepted cards. At one resto in Pau I remember having to show the 16-yr-old waiter how to slide the card in his hand-held device, but that's the only "problem" I've ever encountered.

 

[NavyBlue]

It isn't just the 2-4% commission the cards are charging them they want to avoid, it is the fact that cash is, believe it or not, often overlooked in declaring taxable income.

Hello,

In fact, the french residents, i.e. the majority of the pilgrims, usually pay with bank checks, which are traceable by the Revenue service. Other nationalities and the odd frenchman short of checks, must use cash.

 

[marbuck]

We found very few places aloud us to pay with credit cards and we did not stay in gite's. So if the B&B's and small hotels refused credit card I don't think the gite's would accept them. We found cash is king in France and ATM's on the le Puy can be far between.

 

[sharon w]

In 2012, we used cash in all except one of the gites. Try to get cash out of the ATMs when you pass through a village or town in case you stay in an isolated gite off route eg at Gamel.

 

[Felice]

My son works in a large department store in the UK. They were recently told to take great care with cards without a chip and PIN as there is a scam in operation at the moment, and shops in the mall have lost several tens of thousands of pounds to fraud.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Exactly. They all prefer cash transactions, but if they can't figure out a way to get that, they take a credit card. I have had many places tell me they can't run an American magnetic strip card and need cash, and then sigh and take my chip card from my Banque National de Paris account.

It isn't just the 2-4% commission the cards are charging them they want to avoid, it is the fact that cash is, believe it or not, often overlooked in declaring taxable income.

A bit like in Greece then?

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Starting from Le Puy in early Sept - do I need cash to pay gites or do they take payment with credit card? Do most towns have ATM's?

Even small towns nowadays - I remember one place (Trabadelo?) where, out of hours, you needed to use your card to get into the lobby to get to the ATM!

Speaking of which you'll be looking for a cajero automático in Spain or a
caixa electrónico in Galicia or maybe even just a caja