Johnb

All this is very interesting, as we are having a salt pool installed as I write and no, we haven't been warned of any impending legislation either by the installer or our local mairie. It raises all sorts of questions: for example, there is little if any trace of damage from the extensive use of rock salt on roads. Is this to be banned also? We then have, Europe-wide, water softeners, dish-washers etc. Are these to be banned also? Most houses in France, including ours, have a dish-washer, used daily, and I'm fairly sure they and I will deposit a lot more salt via dish-washers than I and others will with a pool. Most houses (flats?) in France still don't have a pool, and most never will. Has there been any discussion on 'watering' gardens with bleach water, vis-a-vis those on watering with salt water posted earlier? Are we into more ill-thought-out knee-jerk legislation similar to pool security, which has attracted more ridicule than respect? JohnB

It's in the section 'Votre Banque en Direct', under 'Tous les services -- "Access libre"' [libre?!]. But it does only apply to those, like me, who don't pay a monthly fee for their account. I used to pay €5.35 'compte service' but cancelled that after falling foul of their 'dates de valeur' scam when moving some money from the UK a couple years ago. The €5 euros 'interet debiteur' they charged me was returned after I protested -- and to add insult to injury they told me it would be a 'cadeau', so in a fit of pique I cancelled the compte service -- I felt I had to get my own back somehow! I believe it is now impossible to open an a/c with this bank without some sort of compte service. If they can't now charge to close a/cs, I wonder where they'll rake in the money from instead. They already charge €12 to start a prelevement.....The French consumers group reckon it can cost anything up to €300 to move banks. I believe they are going to law if things don't improve. I wonder if Nationwide would like to open a branch here?

The last time I did this was when transferring our accounts from Credit Agricole in the Haute-Loire to what is now Credit Agricole Nord Midi-Pyrenees. I went to the bank in person, where I was told that all the money in our accounts would be put into our cheque account so that I could then write out a cheque to our new bank, and thereby transfer all the money.  A personal visit guarantees all loose ends are tied up. You should have, somewhere, a copy of the bank's 'General conditions' where they will tell you how much it might or might not cost. I have just had a copy of CA's charges from 1 Jan 2005, and there will be a charge of €50 to close an account (including codevis, my wife and I have four altogether). They also charge 50 centimes for each internet visit. Can anyone recommend a bank slightly less worse? JohnB