John & Norma

Im writing this as a pay back for all the help/advice I found on this site 8 years ago when we bought our house in France. For the last 5 years we have both been retired and therefore spend 2 weeks or so every month in France. To those of you contemplating buying or who have just bought I thought I would tell you how we handle the bills for our property. Online using a credit card: Veolia water and Gaz de France. Never had a problem. We arent online in France but our local bar has wi-fi. We have the bills sent to our UK address but each bill has the date of the next one on it so you know when to go online. This leaves Electricity, both taxes and house insurance. All these we pay from our bank account with Britline (TIP and cheque). For 8 years we have never had a problem transfering money from the UK to the bank via sending Euro Traveller's Cheques. You sign them twice and make them out to your account name so if stolen they cant be used. Normally it only takes 4 to 5 days (not working days) from posting to being in our account. The original bank to bank transfer we did to pay for the house took more than 10 days and cost an arm and a leg. In this time we have found that the UK Post Office offers one of the best exchange rates and no commision but it does take some time at the counter for them to organise their rubber bands etc. However, the Post Office credit card is one of the few cards that dont make a charge for foriegn transactions. An aside here: it is useful to have another type of card in case yours gets rejected in France. As an example, on our way home we call at a petrol sation and a hypermarket and at both we have found that we can use only certain machines with the Master Card. We are about to return to France for a brief visit whilst we have a new boiler installed and we needed to get a larger than usual amount of euros into our bank. I spotted that the good (old) Post Office are quite aggressive (The Post Office aggressive??) to get our type of business. If you have a Post Office Master Card you can now buy euros (currency or TC) online and there is no charge. That is no handling fee, etc and no cash charge - the transaction is treated as a normal sterling purchase! And they will deliver to your door free if ordering £500 or more the next day. (Or to your local PO which I prefer.) So cash on credit! The limit is £2,500 per two weeks. This takes all the pressure off. And no rubber bands! A last aside. One Year In Provence!! Good book etc but in our experience in rural northern France we have received nothing but exceedingly prompt, professional and curtious service when dealing with plumbers, electrians, builders etc. The only problem is a relaxed attituted to paying: our boiler man said "anytime within the next month or so after installation". It took me months to pay the chimneysweep as he visited us when we werent there and didnt leave an invoice. 

Just an update. Went over with my box - then found out that the area doesnt receive TNT until about now - so will try on my next visit beginning of the new year.

We have a UK tv working fine in France on the normal French terrestrial channels. Can anyone tell me what the equivalent of digital/freeview is in France, please? Is it being introduced as in the UK with a imminent closedown of terrestrial? And, would a UK freeview box 'work' in France? And, therefore would a UK bought PVR be OK for French digital? Please excuse my ignorance in these matters but it is only matched and exceeded by our French neighbours.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the theme here (and I've not read all the posts) but: I am a UK resident with a house in France. All the time I've had it I've used C A Britline which is an online service for Brits via the Credit Agricole Normandie in Caen. There is no charge for a normal online account and to transfer monies to it I simply send traveller's cheques (signed top and bottom with the account name on). Appart from 5 years ago when buying the house I've always used this system and always (UK postal strike allowing) my money has been in the account 4 working days from posting in the UK. When using a bank to bank transfer I was charged £25 and it took over a week. My house isnt in the department of the bank and I dont use it for cash. But I pay all my French bills from this account using RIB details and never had a problem. The site is www.britline.com.