lizzie15again

Zeb- it was just the two of you tho wasn't it? Totally different when you have 2 young ones relying totally on you[:(]  

How long is a piece of string. The area is fantastic,the land time forgot... I can't fulfill your brief cos it's too wide,everyone else might nod off...... Ask specific questions and I'll try to answer 'em.  I've got 2 houses in the Gironde Estuary area, one with views of the water, one just slightly further away, both lovely :-). I would advise spending time in the area though to see for yourself :-) ps- it gets very quiet in winter,even in Royan  

Hi. As some of you will remember from other threads ( and other sign on names- computer probs !) I took CA to court for transferring money  to an account in another country to a fraudster without them ringing back with security questions. They lost the case. I still haven't had my money returned 21 months later.The gendarmes have not been in touch, I don't know who took the money altho they mumbled " N. Africa " when we went to report the crime. I obviously would not recommend CA altho it is very much up to individual branches, other branches in the area have assured friends that this could not happen to them as the bank would ring back to make sure you're who you say you are! I now have 2 La Poste accounts. One I pay 9,70 a quarter for debit card. The other account has a cheque book- I thought this account was free but after checking all my records it seems as though I pay 3 euros a year for this.The reason I have the 2 accounts is because of the trouble with CA I had to get a replacement bank up and running quickly, so La Poste seemed a reasonable choice.Unfortunately I couldn't have a cheque book with the free account for several months ( despite going in to the branch with an ex- CA bank manager who is a friend ! Despite them knowing me personally for 8 years! It made no difference),so I had to open the account with charges,which was pretty instant.La Poste seems to have a vast range of charges .As someone else said, non of 'em are up to much for those of us used to "free" banking. You just have to pay up[;-)]

Bordeaux airport is pleasant, not many airports are! They have planted more vines this year and the downstairs cafe has had a makeover. The free 30 mins parking is useful. We have stopped going to Ikea each time ( a much better experience than UK Ikeas!) and now go to the enormous Auchan instead- they are doing buy one get one free on some cartons of 6 Medoc and St Emilions. We bought a trolley load and then went back the next day for more ( yes, it's the season for loads of airport trips !).

"So far, the attitude of CA has been sympathetic, although I can sense a small tidal wave of bureaucracy approaching. I was, for instance, told to obtain a crime report from the police in the UK ( ! ), a request that caused no little amusement when I went into the local station" Have you read my thread "money gone missing"? Someone stole 13000 euros from my CA account  20 months ago and despite winning the court case we brought against them ( CA) we still haven't got it back ! The first contact with them after the event wasn't too bad but after that things changed, they treated  US like the criminals, in other words they closed ranks. Is their system any worse/ better than others ? I don't know.  One of my questions is- how did someone know I had that sort of money in my account?  We went to the local gendarmerie and filled in a crime report too- we've never heard back about that either ! When I went to CA last week to eventually close my account they refused, telling me they would ring me up to explain- they didn't. A phone call to our solicitor did the trick- I was able to go in and close the account after all, hmm. My advice would be pester CA- don't let up, assuming they are trying to put things right, they may not be !  Good luck [Www]

 Only just seen this post. How are they doing? How is the sponsorship going?[:)]

We were the ones who went to the police ! We have never heard anything more about the case,the police said the money had gone on to North Africa when we went to report it, don't know if that was fact or surmise. The bank was more interested in covering its  back than investigating ! We tried to find out from the police what the state of play was but got nowhere [:(]  Meanwhile, we are still 13000 euros missing.If the bank goes to appeal we will get the huge sum of 2 % interest on the money  when we eventually get it back[:@]

As far as I know- no questions asked,mind you, they never rang back to UK to ask any! No, I don't normally keep that much money in the a/c but we were having work done so the money was there to pay the builders. We were overdrawn because I had written all the cheques before Christmas, when I arrived in France, to pay them all. How did someone KNOW there would be all that money in the a/c?. If they tried that normally there would not be 13000 euros to take! There had been more in as I had lots of work to pay for but had already written cheques for most of it when the money was taken.

Don't know the answer to that , but I do know that for 7 years I used to write on here in praise of CA !! We had trouble free experiences up until something went wrong !! I now bank with La Poste, have done for 20 months, so far so good.

Hi. Yes, I agree with what  Snow White just wrote. We have places in the area Tresco describes, beautiful -but maybe for all year round living a Town would be best. Whatever floats your boat- I know many people who live here full time and they love it but it can get very quiet in winter ![;-)]

Hi. Some of you will remember me from way back ( several name changes due to log in probs ). We have had a place in France for 9 years and were really happy with all our banking matters until Dec 2004 ( until then, 7 years happy banking with CA ). I wrote of my woes some while back ( can't find the original post on a Search) and thought you might like an update. In Dec 2004, just before Xmas, someone rang our French branch from UK claiming to be my husband. He asked for 13,000 euros to be transferred to a bank in Majorca ( no, we have no Spanish bank accounts). We have never rung up our bank to ask for money to be transferred anywhere. This was followed by a fax from the same person, using my "signature" ( was a good copy-how did they get it? ). The bank failed to ring the UK to make sure this was bona fide and let the money go off to Majorca. They rang me in France, where we were staying for Christmas, a couple of days later telling me I was overdrawn and this was very serious ! We went to the bank ( whilst we were there they had another call from UK asking for more money !), then off to the Gendarmerie to report the theft. The bank began by being helpful, then didn't return our calls. They refused to reimburse us. We took them to court. At the end of June this year we heard that we had won our case as they should have made the UK phone call and they should have kept a copy of the original call demanding the money- they did neither. We have a hollow victory as so far, 20 months along the line, we have received no money back from CA. They are considering an appeal, which everyone tells us they will lose but apparently this is the normal course of action for French banks. It could take another 2 years before we see our money again ( over 3 and a half years since it was. stolen ). Beware !