French ATMs

By Mark H
March 28 2005

One of the advantages of my job (some would say the only advantage) is that I get to find out bits and pieces of news that I wouldn't necessarily find out, through the complaints I read.

So when I started reading this week that some people had been complaining about ATMs in France not dispensing money, I dug a bit further, and thanks to a very good contact I have called Poppy, can now bring you a bit of a warning.

Apparently (and I'm sure our France based correspondents can confirm just how big a problem this is), there's an ongoing problem with French and Belgian ATMs accepting British cards - in a nutshell, their technology simply isn't as up to date as ours.  Not all the cash machines are affected, in fact from my understanding, the majority are OK.  If you do encounter a problem, you are able to withdraw funds over the counter at major banks, but I'm sure it won't come to that.

Be aware, therefore, that it might be a good idea if you are planning to use the machines whilst in France to have a certain amount of Euros with you before you go, so at least you can get where you need to go.  It'd be a crying shame if anyone had problems getting hold of money over such a short period of time.