France motor way peage tag

[ClaphamGT3]

omniflow said:

You obviously don't travel on European Toll Roads very much.

Contactless is by no means ubiquitous - there are large sections in France and Spain where contactless just plain doesn't work.

Plus, if you're in a car that's quite low then you need to get the passenger side of the car really close to the machine, so that your passenger can actually reach far enough to take the ticket.

Plus, if your passenger is asleep, then you either need to wake them up, or get out of the car and walk around

Plus, if you don't have a passenger, then you need to get out of the car and walk around.

Plus, it's quite likely that at one of the toll booths you're going to hit the limit of number of contactless payments and need to enter your PIN.

So, there are quite a few reasons.

Add to this the dedicated Tag lanes at all tolls and the express lanes where you dont even have to stop, just slow down to about 50kp/h

[Gunk]

Tyre Smoke said:

I really don't get this.

How much time are you saving at what financial cost?

Just scan your contact less card and away you go. 30 seconds? If that?

Just a short trip then possibly I understand the argument for not bothering, however we’ve just done 1500 miles and it was invaluable, no faffing about with debit cards or cash just a discreet beep and through you go!

[Tyre Smoke]

Yeah, fair enough.

[Double Fault]

I’m just home from driving to Tuscany (from Calais) and back, and also drove to the French Alps a few months ago.

In fact, I drive to France at least twice every year and have done for at least 10 years.

I’ve never had a tag but I don’t recall ever queuing at. peage.

Definitely not ‘invaluable’

[Gunk]

Double Fault said:

I’m just home from driving to Tuscany (from Calais) and back, and also drove to the French Alps a few months ago.

In fact, I drive to France at least twice every year and have done for at least 10 years.

I’ve never had a tag but I don’t recall ever queuing at. peage.

Definitely not ‘invaluable’

Opinion seems to be split, we holiday in France regularly, sometimes twice/three times a year and we usually do long drives, favouring Autoroutes, so personally for the modest cost (€2 a month when you’re using it) I find it makes a big difference to the ease of the journey, but understand the opinion of the camp that feel it’s not worth it.

[Deesee]

Double Fault said:

I’m just home from driving to Tuscany (from Calais) and back, and also drove to the French Alps a few months ago.

In fact, I drive to France at least twice every year and have done for at least 10 years.

I’ve never had a tag but I don’t recall ever queuing at. peage.

Definitely not ‘invaluable’

Great you crack on, I’ll stick to the automatic lanes and payment by direct debit..

[bolidemichael]

Rushjob said:

Jaguar steve said:

And the limit changes from 90 to 80 and back again whilst on the exactly same road as you leave one department and enter the next without any warning at all.

Ask me how I know...

And it all changed again at the beginning of August depending where you are, thankfully my department, Puy de Dôme went back to 90. Waze caught up after 2 or 3 days so that was nice!

Thanks for this. Am in France at the mo and have travelled all over, so was surprised by this after the 80mph/50mph furore. Also, in Provence where I was, there seem to be no cameras at all!

After two recent roadtrips this summer, it does seem as though there is greater compliant of speed limits that ever before, particularly crawling through villages including the 30kph bits.

Edited by bolidemichael on Sunday 28th August 08:26

[bolidemichael]

G321 said:

Well, after all the good advice on here this has turned into a bit of a nightmare.
Ordered a Ulys tag, all fairly straightforward on the website. They're supposed to take 1 euro from your account to verify the details. Get an email this morning saying payment was blocked and I now need to pay a 40 euro deposit to continue with the account. If not I have to send the tag back. Trouble is parcelforce have lost it and are now on strike until 5th September (when I'm in France). Been told to contact ulys so they can put a claim in, not sure how straightforward that will be!

If I can get the bip and go website working for me, how quickly are they delivered? If not did somebody mention about getting a tag from folkestone services? Are these easy to set-up quickly (ie. Whilst in the euro tunnel)?

Apparently you can buy them from the péage itself. Perhaps someone'll contribute that knows how the process works and whether a French address is required etc.

[WyrleyD]

Some of the larger toll stations have service centres. I exchanged my failing SANEF tag at the service centre on the A1 autoroute just north of Paris (the last one you hit when heading into Paris).

[S600BSB]

I have a house in France and go over 4/5 times a year. Have never bothered with a tag - it's really no hassle.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

S600BSB said:

I have a house in France and go over 4/5 times a year. Have never bothered with a tag - it's really no hassle.

I don't know anyone who has ever had a tag and decided to stop using it.

Lots of things aren't much hassle - like washing dishes by hand or getting out of your chair to change the TV channel

[Phil.]

For the OP, Bip&Go have centres across France where you can pick one up:

https://www.bipandgo.com/nos-agences/

[Rushjob]

Phil. said:

For the OP, Bip&Go have centres across France where you can pick one up:

https://www.bipandgo.com/nos-agences/

Problem for the OP is that from the kiosks based on the Autoroutes, without a French bank account they may not let him have one....

[Phil.]

Rushjob said:

Phil. said:

For the OP, Bip&Go have centres across France where you can pick one up:

https://www.bipandgo.com/nos-agences/

Problem for the OP is that from the kiosks based on the Autoroutes, without a French bank account they may not let him have one....

Mine is on my UK credit card. Has anything changed in the past 2 years to require it to be linked to a French bank account?

[Rushjob]

Phil. said:

Mine is on my UK credit card. Has anything changed in the past 2 years to require it to be linked to a French bank account?

UK since Jan 2021 has a different relationship with SEPA, you're probably OK as it's existing but I know that I couldn't set up a new one for my FIL using his UK account last August so I've done it through my french one. The rules when it changed said there SHOULD not be a problem for UK payments, but this is France we're talking about....

[G321]

Looking at the options available with only one week to go, I think I'm going to go for an emovis tag through the euro tunnel website. Mainly as they do next day delivery, hopefully this one won't get lost

[Gunk]

Phil. said:

Mine is on my UK credit card. Has anything changed in the past 2 years to require it to be linked to a French bank account?

I set mine up in July this year and linked it to my UK bank account. You’ll need your IBAN number to set it up (it’s in your bank statement)

Edited by Gunk on Sunday 28th August 14:40

[blueg33]

Sanef/BipandGo have always been great for me over the last 20 years, no issues at all.

[snoopy25]

Another Emovis user here!

Just came back from a trip down to the West Coast of France from middle to end of July and I certainly would not be without it!

[Kev_Mk3]

omniflow said:

Tyre Smoke said:

I really don't get this.

How much time are you saving at what financial cost?

Just scan your contact less card and away you go. 30 seconds? If that?

You obviously don't travel on European Toll Roads very much.

Contactless is by no means ubiquitous - there are large sections in France and Spain where contactless just plain doesn't work.

Plus, if you're in a car that's quite low then you need to get the passenger side of the car really close to the machine, so that your passenger can actually reach far enough to take the ticket.

Plus, if your passenger is asleep, then you either need to wake them up, or get out of the car and walk around

Plus, if you don't have a passenger, then you need to get out of the car and walk around.

Plus, it's quite likely that at one of the toll booths you're going to hit the limit of number of contactless payments and need to enter your PIN.

So, there are quite a few reasons.

All of the above and in a car on my own in harnesses its the last thing I want to do