You can buy a prepaid N1 card from the cashier of the gas station.
This blog is not sponsored. Just helping other tourists in Icealand that have credit card issues at N1 stations.
Read here the full story about my road trip around Iceland in 9 days.
How to buy an N1 prepaid credit card in Iceland
This requires that there is somebody inside the station to sell the card for you. So this does not work outside of office hours or at the self service “cold stations”.
Prepaid N1 cards were either 3000, 5000 or 10000 ISK. A card can not be reloaded, but I’m not sure how it work if you don’t spend the full amount at once.
No issues at other gas stations in Iceland
We could succesfully pay by credit card at least on Olis and OB stations. Also our credit cards worked in any other possible occassion in Iceland such as restaurants, grocery stores and public toilets.
Our Finnish credit cards had both credit and debit functionality that sometimes causes problems abroad. The weird thing was, also a plain debit card did not work at N1 stations.
Credit card problem description at N1 stations
The credit card problem at N1 station occured as follows.
You can choose the desired max amount of fuel successfully. But soon after that the pump’s payment screen shows something like “Unauthorized” without further information.
How to prepare for the N1 credit card issue
If you have any problems with credit card payments, I recommend buying a N1 prepaid card in advance. In the northern Iceland gas stations are infrequent and most of them are under N1 brand. It’s nice feel safe at remote areas.
