Postal Problems & Banking!!

[Hells Bells]

It is only FOC if the transfer is in the same currency though.

[Guest3]

Helen said

It is only FOC if the transfer is in the same currency though.

If it's an international transfer then we request that the charges are paid by the senders bank....I've had no problems to date with that arrangement.

[Big Sis..]

That's the way I do it...(and have done for the last 3 years)

All right smarty pants [theres always one aint there]..Might have known you had it sussed...
Seriously Im going to give this some thought I will ring her in the morning if the chq comes I can always tear it up[after the transfer of course]
Thanks All.....Thanks Feebs & Crystal and all the gang of course sorted
BTW Crystal Aint it nice to see Feebs...

[Hells Bells]

Not being in the same place as my French bank doesn't help though, as it takes me an age to see if the money has been received, and then some daft idiot managed to send it twice. I had to send it back, by faxing the bank, who then telephone me to check the details on the fax. I was then charged for the priviledge of returning the overpayment. Unlike my Dutch sis-in-law who did the international transfer online, free of charge to my French bank, but I can't send it back to her for their cancelled trip so easily. I'm sticking with Paypal, for all it''s faults, at least I can see instantly that the booking has been made and paid for.

[Guest3]

Helen...can you not opt to have online banking with your French bank?

We have a bank account in Spain which we can check online and it's great because we can also send international transfers anywhere in the world for a small fee!.... (unlike UK banks who still will not allow international transfers online and whose charges are ridiculous compared to our Spanish bank!)

[Hells Bells]

I can,but it has locked me out for months, and I have given up asking for new log-in details because they don't work. The bank sucks, but we have to keep the account as it is part of the mortgage. I can't use the online banking for an international transfer anyway. I can add a French account, BUT, first I have to fax the account details to our personal banker, and they add the account to our list of allowed transfers. French banking can be very antiquated. Trying to complain is useless, their fluent English becomes non-existant

[Guest3]

French banking can be very antiquated

I can understand now why you prefer deal via Paypal.
Can't believe the hassle you have to go through with the French bank ...and I thought Spain was bad enough (as they like alot of paperwork too!). Well...I can count myself lucky in that they (Spain) have a good online banking system!

[vrooje]

Americans (in general) are REALLY scared of wire transfers (don't know why really)

Wire transfers are very rare here, agreed.

When we were buying our French house, we transferred a large sum of money from our US account to our French account via wire transfer. Our banker brought out an extremely complicated (and antiquated -- it didn't have any way of using SWIFT or IBAN numbers) form and told us to fill it out very carefully, because if we made a mistake our money would be permanently lost. We asked for their help, and they were more clueless than we were as to what numbers to put where, so we ended up filling out the form by ourselves. We were quite nervous about it because the information the form asked for didn't completely correspond to our French RIB information. We triple-checked it and it all went through fine, but the bank was so hostile about it that we've tried to avoid it ever since.

Then, after the purchase was complete, we came home with 50 euros or so and tried to exchange it at the bank. Turned out there was only one bank in our area that even did cash currency exchanges, and they charged a flat $20 fee for it! It must be because we don't literally border on many countries, but US banks just aren't very internationally-minded.

This was in Southern California, not exactly Hickville, USA. I don't even bother mentioning wire transfers to US clients anymore!

Helen, I've only had limited success getting clients to use the eCheque, probably because PayPal doesn't do much to encourage it. In fact, one client only paid by CC because he couldn't find the way to select eCheque! If I figure out a way to make that a default selection in an e-mail link, I'll let you know...

[Hells Bells]

BP, I have one unused set of log-in details,which I will try out tomorrow, but it is only fit to check the balance, and move money between one account and another. It isn't really useful for anything like making payments. Even my statement is hopelessly out of date, as it is dated the last day of the month, and the bills come out on the 2nd !! meanwhile it isn't delivered until the 8th.I suppose we all have that problem though.

[Moliere]

I can,but it has locked me out for months, and I have given up asking for new log-in details because they don't work. Trying to complain is useless, their fluent English becomes non-existant

SNAP, Helen!

Are we talking Credit Ly**nais, by any chance?

Your experience is exactly the same as mine.

Moliere

[Hells Bells]

Mols, no it's barclays france, sorted for me by my friendly UK personal banker. I am going to go to UK branch again and complain, but there's not a lot they can do. I had a work colleague who's sister worked for the international division, but she no longer does. If it wasn't for her we'd have lost our house purchase altogether, as Barclays had 'accidentally' withdrawn the mortgage offer without telling us, mainly due to a delay in signing the 'Acte' caused by the notaire that we had informed them about. Thread creep, when's the next postal strike?

[Big Sis..]

Thread creep, when's the next postal strike

But its been really interesting though Helen [and I am rather enjoying the irony of it]
its usually me aint it :oops:allegedly ]

..Ive got a Spanish Bank account Like Crystal has and it is efficient..Ive used it to transfer Money from England but havent for International transfers..I will give that some thought as well..Learning all the while thanks guys[and gals ]

[Normandy Cow]

Turned out there was only one bank in our area that even did cash currency exchanges

I was shocked to discover last year that that seems to be the case in France too now. None of the banks in our local town did currency exchange and we were told we would have to go to Rouen (30 mins drive away!). Luckily we found out, by chance, that the post office could do it.

I remember just a few years ago that all the banks had a "bureau de Change" counter, but I suppose the introduction of the euro has made those largely redundant. (but not for us Brits of course!)

[Guest3]

Helen said

Mols, no it's barclays france

Now that does suprise me! For such a big international bank to be so antiquated in France!

when's the next postal strike?

Apparently there is going to be a series of strikes:

....over the two-week period beginning at 7pm on Wednesday 25th July 2007 and ending at 12 noon on Wednesday 8th August. The action will not take place on a national basis but at different Royal Mail sites, at different times, across the country.

[la vache!]

Helen, why don't you try Britline (part of Crédit Agricole Normandie) - I have friends and family who are non French speakers and have second homes in France and they never have any problems using their Britline bank accounts.