Giving bank details for money transfer?

[Lesblancs]

I have just come into this posting, & some of my comments may have been covered in some of the links mentioned.

I have been in banking all my working life, the last 30 years with Halifax, HBOS or whatever, until I took early retirement in 2000.

As a result I trust Halifax totally. I have numerous accounts with them which I can operate from France.

I have one deposit account with a balance of 32pence. This is the account number I give to prospective renters. There are no overdraft facilities on this account & when I am expecting money I monitor it daily.

As soon as the money arrives, I do an internet transfer to my 'gite account' & the deposit balance reverts to 32p. Milk that one if you can!

I am in the process of doing exactly the same for my french bank accounts. The answer as far as I am concerned is to have an account with no facility to become overdrawn to act as a holding account. The money, being cleared funds can be immediately moved to an account of your choice.

I feel that this is a solution to an always worrying problem.

Robert

[Guest3]

The other thing to remember is, if you are giving out bank details ALWAYS give a SAVINGS account number. No one from the 'outside' can create a direct debit or request a transfer from a savings account to any another account (I am referring to UK savings accounts only).

We always give our UK savings account number for any transactions to do with villa payments, when cleared, we then transfer the funds to our current account.

[gh]

Great advise to have all transfer to a deposit account with no overdraft facility in the UK.

We do similiar and whoosh when landed we move to the 'Caymen/Gibraltar', best to be safe than sorry later.

[Lesblancs]

Hi Crystal,

I am not sure whether you are agreeing with me or not (deposit is the same as savings).

Or whether you are multi-tasking, because blokes don't know anything! See men behaving badly.

[Big Sis..]

Hi Lesblancs,

Crystals got you wondering eh. dont know if shes agreeing with you or not........

Its a woman thing, if youre right she was agreeing if not she wasnt....simple

[Fraise]

Hi . Just read this. Despite the debacle of 2 years ago we do give IBAN to guests from far flung spots,UK and Europe send cheques. My bank issue was different in that they accepted a fax without ringing back to verify it was actually us faxing. We took the bank to court.We won.We have just had the original amount stolen, refunded ( 21 months later) but nothing else yet,no interest or compensation- when it does come it will be a small amount as the interest is only about 2 % and we only get it for some of the time !! I am going to give details of a savings a/c for IBANs in future tho.Better safe than sorry! This whole business left us feeling really frustrated-how could it take so long? We never heard any more from the police after reporting the crime in Dec 2004 !! Incredible.It wasn't picked up by the press despite there being a couple of pages in our local paper for court proceedings ! Nothing seems to have changed.

[Hells Bells]

The lack of the phone call worries me a bit, as over the past 12 months, I have faxed our French bank on several occasions to transfer money to our builder, notaire, and also to release mortgage funds. Despite asking them to call us, and adding the phone no to to fax, on no occasion did they do so.

[Sarah]

Just a word of caution about the issue of only giving the number of a 'holding' account. French banks automatically transfer money from one account to another if there is no overdraft facility on an account and more money is taken out than exists in the account.

They will even transfer money from the account of a spouse if the other spouse's account goes 'overdrawn'.

I have very stupidly fallen foul of this a couple of times when I have forgotten to transfer money from my deposit account into my current account - I have no overdraft facility on either account. The bank has automatically transferred it and imposed a charge.


Sarah

[Fraise]

Oh yes, it was because my French bank had let me ( humph, aka N. African person )overdraw my account by £18,000 that all this came to light !! I thought overdrafts weren't allowed ?????????

[Hells Bells]

Fraise, that's what I thought too, but last month, they took my mortgage payment out of the wrong account. I got a letter asking me to restore my account immediately as it was xxx pounds overdrawn. As our mortgage is a flexible one,(works in a similar way to a ONE account) they are meant to automatically transfer the money, but they hadn't.

[marrum31]

I have always used the direct transfer system because Holland and Belgium dont 'do' cheques lol I have only ever had a problem with uk renters because they dont like paying the bank charges and because (as someone else has already mentioned) they cant make the transfer online and have to g to the bank itself.

Great idea about the savings/deposit account though. I couldnt do that for the spanish account but a good idea for the French one

[Lesblancs]

Crystals got you wondering eh. dont know if shes agreeing with you or not........

Its a woman thing, if youre right she was agreeing if not she wasnt....simple

Hey Ros,

I understand & hey eureka - the meaning of life

Yes dear, I quite agree, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Sorry what was that again?

Love from Robert

[Big Sis..]

Hi Les.... [or can I call you Robert?]

Glad I helped you out on that.......

See how simple it is just agree with everything we say and do...................

Anything else I can help you out with....Global Warming.....Peace in the Middle East ....[or just in your front room?].......feel free to ask

Think youre maybe on the wrong thread
Try the Mid Life Crisis one or Men Behaving Badly....Alans Bravely battling but hes outnumbered

PS Sorry Ive just realised that you are there contributing!!?? but KNITTING is that the best you can do!!!!

[Guest3]

Its a woman thing, if youre right she was agreeing if not she wasnt....simple

Lesblancs..yes I was agreeing with you:lol: