sue-J

The 'ACE' mobile phone virus is a hoax. viz: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/mobile-phone-hoax.html sue

See the other post yesterday on this topic, a RIIING sim lets you receive calls & texts free in most of Europe without paying roaming charges. About thirty pounds with ten euros free credit. Call charges have a 25 cent set-up fee, plus 0.29 euros upward per minute depending on what & where you're calling. So it may be useful to have one if you have a lot of incoming calls from outside France. For me this is much cheaper than using a French SIM. There's a call cost calculator on www.riiing.com and you can buy them online in the uk at http://www.freedom-mobiles.co.uk/riiing-international-roaming-sim-card.html amongst many other places. Top up by the riiing web site. Sue

Also too late to be of any help, www.riiing.com provides a SIM only service with free-to-receive calls in over 100 countries including France, with no roaming charges. Sims are available in the UK and many other countries, mine was £30.00 (GBP)- outgoing calls are between 0.39 and 0.69 euros per minute. Topup via the riiing website. Mine works perfectly throughout Europe (and the UK) - the only foible is outgoing calls are made on the callback principle - where the Riiing call centre connects you after you've 'dialed' the number by ringing you back. Excellent for me - free text reception and free call reception works perfectly. Riiing numbers seem to start with +423 though. Full review here: http://www.thetravelinsider.info/phones/globalriiingsim.htm Sue

I'm in the same position. If you spend an afternoon browsing the finance section here I'm sure you'll find the answers. They seem to be: If you pay tax on your income in the UK, you can't be taxed for it again in France, but you should declare it on your French tax return. I'm sure someone will be along in a while to clarify this. Your rental income in the UK is subject to tax as income, plus you'll pay tax on the savings interest paid by the UK bank. My own thoughts are to maintain bank accounts in the UK, at the moment I pay voluntary N.I. contributions in the UK, so I'll maintain those as long as possible. In your case, if you have an income from rent in the UK it's probbly advisable to maintain that, and not try and sever all links with the uk. If you sell the house and stash the monoey in the bank it will be slowly eaten away by inflation, if you keep the house, you may see ( as long as the housing market remains reasonably bouyant) a better return from the investment in the long term. As your are heading up towards 55 years old you may, if you have only a small income in the uk, be able to migrate to tax-free status in the uk at age 55, at which point the bank interest will become 'tax-free'. But whatever you do, don't burn too many bridges, or rush into selling your UK house, as there are many ex-pats in Frnace and elsewhere for whom it didn't work, and feel trapped as they can no longer return to the UK and buy a house. My two-euros? Keep the house in the short term - especially as it's generating an income.

Can anyone tell me what the current price of diesel is in France? Thanks Sue

I'm in the same position , but figured out that it's not a case of how much I can gain if I wait, but how much I could afford to lose if the Euro strengthens. My sale completes in about two months, so I've opened an HSBC offshore Euro account and put the Euros in there. That way I know that I don't have to spend the next eight weeks worrying about rates as the cash is in the bank. On my purchase a change of just 5% in the Euro rate would have added or lost me £8000.00. I'd rather get some sleep at night! When to buy is the key here, I've kept an eye on euro rates for a couple of months before buying with a simple spreadsheet, which shows the exact sterling I had to find to fund the euro purchase. So the bottom line is, you can either wait and take a gamble, or buy Euros now while the rate is reasonable. But it's quite a gamble, just a penny change in the £/E rate makes a big change in the price you'll eventually pay. As to rates and forecasts there are plenty of sites, perhaps start with Yahoo.co.uk and click on the Finance link. Sue (62)

[quote]In a word, no. This is France, where French law, customs and practices (archaic or not) prevail. Read through the House Renovations section and work out that by using non-NF sockets (all foreign ones...[/quote] Thanks for the response, yes, I've had a good browse, and in retrospect it was a silly question. I'll get an electrician in, I don't want to spend my first year there in the Bastille! Merci! sue

Hello and good morning, after lurking here for a while I bought a place in France (62) yesterday, so thanks to you all for making the forum so useful. The fermette near St Pol, is about 40 years old, in pretty good condition, but the electrics are terrible. Sockets hang off the wall although at least the light fittings are secured to the ceiling. Can I easily replace the French sockets with Brit ones, or will that infringe some archaic French Law? I'm thinking of using surface pattreses (boxes) to make the process easier.. Sue