Woodrup

Not related to your post Chocfish, but concerning L&G. I just tried to Log into my Annuity account with them. Hadn't done so in the year since it was set-up. It wouldn't accept my details, I was going around in circles, tried New Password, Virtual Assistant, Chat, after about an hour I called them to be told foreign account holders can no longer access their accounts online ! 😮 He said " ...we're hoping to remedy the issue sometime this year or next year." What? Unbelievable. It's no great problem, I can verify the payments entering my French bank account but just found the fact they've stopped this facility for those who live abroad, very strange.

Taxes? I have to go there to collect the parcel my mate sent, if they try to charge me anything I'll do 180 and walk out.

Ooh la la what a faff! 2 manhours and immeasurable stress for one small parcel. Post Brexit sending stuff to UK is a nightmare. Every christmas I send some produits locale and in return my mate sends me xmas puds and mince pies. An hour trying to navigate La Poste website filling in their boxes to obtain and print the all important barcode to ... take to the local Poste where they print the parcel stickers. Except when the barcode doesn't work at the post office 😠. She looked at me blank, "There's no point in me going home and trying again I said, that's the barcode it gave me." So kindly she input all the info again at the desk, luckily only one other customer came in because this took another 30 minutes to do. And €19 to send a 500g tub of Savoie honey 😑. At the end she said "Alors, you must have forgot to put something down on your form." Em no, all the info she asked me was the same as I used to obtain my barcode. Then finally I had to sign 4 FOUR labels, one of which was my copy. That's the last time, next year I'll just do without my xmas puds and mince pies 😭

Good news. Prudential have just said they will refund me the €32. I've given them my UK bank details !

Thanks Hanser. I just looked at their website. Had it been payed into my UK Bank first I could have transferred the £350 for a £2.47 charge at £1/€1.17. That's very good.

€32 for one-of payment? ?

That's strange because L&G have said they will transfer to my French bank for a about £4 per transaction, I forget the exact amount, so to reduce this I've opted for quaterly payments. They sent me an Overseas Mandate France and Monaco form to complete.

Also, the L&G person who gave me the annuity quote over the phone ... didn't know whether it would be taxed at source (I haven't had any dealings with Inland Revenue since I moved here 12 years ago), she said it depends on what I.R. say. So I'm betting that will be another ongoing headache for me to resolve. Honestly they're an absolute nightmare, claiming my State Pension was a walk in the park in comparison.

Exactly. I stupidly told them the truth, one bott of wine a week, non smoker ..... As soon as the damn payments start to kick-in I'll pop my clogs I bet !

I have a small private pension pot with a well known UK company, beginning with P who had a lot of red brick buildings back in the day. They have farmed out my annuity, which includes a 'guaranteed minimum pension' to L&G. Filling out my application form to start drawing it, they want my doctor to verify my cholesterol test in English and accept payment in Sterling. They sent me an 'inconvenience' payment cheque of £150 recently (because of their incompetence in dealing with my pot, I couldn't cash it at my bank and had to send it back. Also they can forward the payments to my French bank via Citibank transfer, but with a £2.85 charge for each monthly transaction. When you consider the number of Brits living abroad, this seems to me to be discriminatory. Rant over ?.

Thanks NormanHYes my French Retraite is only €200 per month but that puts my mind at rest I'm covered for the Assurance Maladie.So with no other incomes than pensions, hopefully I won't be in line for social charges.Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that before, I'll have a good read of it.

I have just been consulting the posts on completing my Declaration Revenus 2020.I see we can be surcharged for our Assurance Maladie? Is that right?I've lived and worked here for 10 years and have just retired and started my UK Pension and have small French Retraite + the Complementaire.How in fact is my Assurance Maladie now paid for that I am no longer working?I have a Mutuelle also.

.... Hopefully will be in the documentation they send, if not I've the email of my French 'counsellor' so can get in touch with her, she actually replies !!

.... Thanks.I'm not aware of Agirc sending me anything in previous years, but I was able to see my info online, semestres and points and predicted retraite.In fact I have just had an email from Carsat that strangley went to my Junk box -Votre interlocuteur retraite en région  Nous avons terminé le traitement de votre dossier retraite le  06-05-2021. Votre notification de retraite vous parviendra par courrier dans une dizaine de jours. Votre premier paiement interviendra sous 10 jours en fonction des délais propres à votre établissement bancaire. Si votre situation évolue, signalez-le à votre caisse régionale. Vous souhaitez obtenir un calendrier ou un relevé de vos paiements ? Créez votre espace personnel sur lassuranceretraite.fr ! Recevez nos sincères salutations. So it's all coming in the post.  

Thanks for that link idun. Crikey it's complicated, even with the English translation.Well, in the last couple of days both retraites have kicked-in with their first payments, so that's a relief. I made the applications when I stopped work on my 66th birthday in January. The payments are backdated to 1st March.But, the recent number of semestres they both quoted did not include my last year of work (2020), so I forwarded paperwork for that a few weeks ago. I have just had a tour of the CARSAT state website and it's now all changed and different colours as I'm a receiver rather than a claimer, the 'Check your semestres' option has disappeared, so I'll have to find out somehow if my semestres are correct.