Credit Cards Not Accepted in Finland
Yes, you may be the proud owner of a nice rental car (which, of course, you paid for with your credit card) but when it comes to getting gas, don't go to Finnish gas stations like Shell, Teboil or ABC. “Foreign Visas and Mastercards don’t work in Finnish service stations. In some stations you can’t even pay with your card at the cashier," states Financial Newspaper Taloussanomat.
In the Helsinki city area (map here), you do have the option of using your card - but only at Neste service stations. It has been said that Finnish gas stations are working on the situation and hope to support foreign credit cards soon. Until then, make sure to carry cash for gas or stop at an ATM.
On a lighter note about driving in Finland: Did you know that if you drive along Highway 1 and want to use Finnish roadside toilets, you have to text-message "OPEN" to the Finnish Road Administration? Seriously!
Comments
Hmmm… interesting. I use my Bank of America debit/Visa at the Prisma ABC in Kokkola all the time with no problem. Of course, I can’t use the pay-at-the-pump kiosk because the card isn’t a “chip” card. But the card has never been rejected. Perhaps this is because it’s a debit card, but I hardly think so.
That’s good to know, Penelope. Thanks for sharing your experience regarding this. I do hope more service stations will be able to accept credit cards soon.
I’ve used my Canadian credit cards to buy gas at Finnish gas stations for years (last December was the last time) so I don’t know what this is about. Can you give us the link to the Finnish Taloussanomat article…I did not find it on their site…so that we can understand what this is about.
With the positive comments from travelers, is it possible the press release was a hoax?
The Helsinki Times has picked up the story here
I finally found the actual article in Taloussanomat. www.taloussanomat.fi/ratkaisut/2008/07/27/ulkomaalaisen-visa-ei-toimi-huoltamoilla/200819463/133′
It’s in Finnish, of course, but the gist is that the pumps in most self-serve stations (they call them “cold” stations)have old technology that, apparently, does not read foreign cards.it ends with: “When the cards with chips become more common, this problem will disappear.”
Interesting, Tuija. So we can’t use credit cards there unless they have the chip on them.
I just returned from a two week trip through Denmark, Norway and Sweden. I have a CHIP credit card and it worked fine with the exception of all gas stations. It wouldn’t work at the pump, nor would it work inside - I had to sign every time, and believe me, this was sometimes a difficult routine as I would have to show another piece of ID, or wait for the cashier to call a manager. It was very frustrating…
I’m in Denmark right now, and I’ve been through the rest of the Nordic countries in the last month, and it’s true, most places here will not take an American Credit Card, unless it has a pincode. It appears that there is an exception with American Express, but not everyone takes it. More tourist friendly places (shops in big cities) will take your card and override the machine to do it with a signature instead of the pincode, but don’t dare try to use your visa at a local grocer or the like. I spoke with a store manager about it, and they claim that it’s something that the credit companies have requested them to require. When told that we don’t use pin codes on credit cards in the U.S., except for cash advances, they don’t really seem to care. And if you try and tell them they can override it and get a signature, they’ll tell you they can’t, which is a lie. They can do it, they just don’t know how to do it. I know this, because I was able to do it at one ABC in Finland and not another identical ABC, only because they had a manager on who said, ‘oh, yeah, you just do this and get a signature instead.’