Our trip began by starting in the Netherlands, landing at the Hook of Holland and travelling to Havelte further east. After 5 days we doubled back on ourselves and crossed through Belgium into France. Then we crossed the whole of France from east to west to Arçais near La Rochelle. Following that we travelled all the way south towards the Pyrennes, before turning east again to wind up at Mèze. We’d travelled 1900kms buying fuel on our JL credit card without a single hiccough.
Whilst at Mèze, we went to the Super-U supermarket in nearby Pomérols. It has a fuel station which we’ve used on previous years. I stuck in the JL credit card.
“Card not accepted at this station”, flashed up on the screen.
I switched to my Barclays debit card.
“Card not accepted at this station”, flashed up on the screen once again.
“Expletive deleted”, I muttered to myself. What’s the story? We’ve been here before. We still had ¾ tank so nothing was urgent but I was bemused. What had changed?
We are now wandering our way back north again on the autoroutes where I expected less trouble with the cards. Dropping slightly below ½ tank, I called in to a Total Energies station on the autoroute.
I stuck in my JL credit card. “Select fuel type” [done], “Enter PIN” [done]”, then it blew me a raspberry of some description. The screen returned to the starting point and spat me a ticket which seemed to say “authorization refused”.
I tried the Barclays debit card. Same deal, I was never offered the chance to take any fuel.
In desperation I tried the Caxton pre-paid Euro card, which I only normally use for cash and supermarket shopping (and that is new). Mercifully, that worked and I got my tank filed with diesel.
This last issue was different from the Super-U in Pomérols. This accepted the cards but then authorization failed. Previously, it just didn’t like the cards.
Here’s what I think was happening on the autoroute. I did see a message saying “authorizing €200”. The limit at pumps in the UK is £120, which €200 exceeds. I think that’s why the authorization failed. Super-U remains a mystery.
We’re not finished yet; I was on the hunt for something else – AdBlue. I knew our tank would be running low and I needed to have some available. If the AdBlue tank runs dry, the vehicle will simply not start. You do get a warning with some “grace period” to top up, as long as you ain’t dry.
In past years we’ve seen piles of flagons of AdBlue in the motorway stations. This station had none. Recently (last year) AdBlue pumps have been appearing at fuel stations and I had successfully filled up at a local station in Mirepoix. The pumps are much cheaper than the flagons. This year, however, we never visited Mirepoix so I missed my planned opportunity of filling up there.
This Total Energies station had no AdBlue pumps at the car filling points either but I did spot AdBlue pumps at the HGV filling points. I asked an attendant If I could use it. “Yes”, he said, “I don’t see why not”. I did a circuit and drove into the HGV pumps pulling up beside the AdBlue.
I stuck in my JL credit card.
“Card not accepted”, came the jaunty reply.
I tried the Barclays debit card. Same deal, no joy.
OK, Caxton prepaid card it has to be. I stuck it in. “Card not accepted”, it repeated, irritatingly.
“Bollocks!”, said Pooh, profanely.
My warning light was still not on so we just continued, vowing to try every fuel station on the route hoping to pay cash for some flagons of AdBlue.
With great relief, the next service station on the autoroute DID have flagons of AdBlue stacked up. I bought a couple of 5ltr flagons breathing a sigh of relief.
I’ve read that the grace period after the AdBlue warning light comes on is 1500 miles / 2400 kms but I don’t know how general that number is and I wouldn’t like to push it and put it to the test.
Something is out of whack. British cards are failing to work because the European systems may be different. The only safe answer (this year, which is different to previous years) seems to be the prepaid card.
I blame Brexit.
Recent Comments