Paying treatment for UK resident

[Keithchesterfield]

My wife was taken ill in France, gave her E111 details at reception and treated at Montmorillon Hospital earlier this year.

Today, five months on, we have had a bill from the Hospital.

There is a 'Talon de Paiement' attached to the bill but I'm not sure which way is easiest, acceptable and best way to send money for a relatively small amount.

The Hospital address is at the top left of the bill, there is an address of the Tresorerie Poitiers to the right of that but the Talon has an address of the Centre D'Encaisdsement in Lille.

Could anyone please advise which is the best way to pay the bill and where is the most likely address to send it ?

Any help appreciated.

[YCCMB]

Others may disagree but I'd send a cheque (assuming you have a French bank account: you didn't say) to the centre d'encaissement in Lille. I still pay most bills this way, as a non-resident who would rather give French organisations one of my actual ribs than the sort that allows them to make free and help themselves to the contents of my French bank account whenever they fancy.

(Cue input from a concerned citizen advising that self-removal of one's own ribs is ill-advised)

[Keithchesterfield]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Unfortunately we don't have a French bank account.

Is the practice of self- removable ribs covered under the E111 card ?

[idun]

ROFLPMP

I am crying with laughter at this post. THANKYOU, I have been hoping to see something that makes me howl with laughter, and this has.

Just the idea of Betty not wanting to send one of her ribs is just tooooo funny for words.

Good job I can touch type as I can hardly see the screen.

How to pay, well, if they have given you all their bank details, could you not just pay via your UK bank. Opening an fx account would seem unnecessary for a smallish amount. And I would think that your bank might be the cheapest. As ever, it will cost, but that is what I would do.

edit,

rib - releve d'identite bancaire, simply bank details issued by all french banks and that is used by organisations to take payment details from accounts.

All the same details are now at the top of UK bank statements, (I think), the likes of SWIFT and IBAN numbers, that is all it is.

[mint]

Well then, do you know a friend either here or in the UK who has both a French and a UK bank account?.  If so, the friend can send a French cheque on your behalf and you reimburse your friend in the way that is most mutually convenient.

[YCCMB]

That would be my plan B, too, mint.

OP: I don't think self removal of ribs will be covered.

Hope your wife is fully recovered.

Idun, I hope you are too! But sure you know only too well why I refuse the rib wherever I can!

[idun]

LOL and I never ever sent a RIB to france telecom in spite of their frequent demands. Just would not do it.

And I have recovered, but thankyou, thankyou, I love laughing until I ache....

[richard51]

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k5912650-Easiest_way_to_pay_french_hospital_bill_from_the_UK-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

Pathetic attempts at sarcasm Queenie - Oscar Wilde would be turning in his grave.

[BritinBretagne]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"] I still pay most bills this way, as a non-resident who would rather give French organisations one of my actual ribs than the sort that allows them to make free and help themselves to the contents of my French bank account whenever they fancy.

)[/quote]

I was sent a RIB by a local Porsche dealer last week. Can you please tell me how this innocent bit of paper could make me rich? If they had sent me a cheque that would have given me their bank name and location plus their sort code and account number. Two minutes on the Internet would have given me their IBAN etc. What makes the cheque safe and a RIB not!

[YCCMB]

If you've got Porsche dealers giving you money, I doubt you need advice on getting rich.

[richard51]

A few assumptions there Queenie (you really do have a condescending attitude to fellow posters with your nom de plum btw).

BinB hasn't openly stated that he is easily able to "go private" if necessary or suggested expensive beauty treatments. Before you ask ACV is not cheap cf other proper medications or in everybodies cabinet.

[BritinBretagne]

They sent me a RIB, not money.

[richard51]

So what is the sensible answer, if any, to BnBs question?

[idun]

LBF... alors, where to start..??

Companies in France in my experience, are indiscrimate in how they debit accounts. The banks don't care, no one does, le bordel. Even when you write a cheque out they can and have actually done this to us....just tell the bank it is for a different amount and the bank cashes it, debiting the account with an unauthorized amount...

At least with a cheque they have to have a cheque in their hands, whereas a RIB are full bank details and untrustworthy companies can do as they please, and not fly by night ones either. And then let battle commence, trying to get it all sorted out and money back.

For an ordinary person it would not be something one could do, but companies, I wouldn't want to give any of them a RIB.

[richard51]

Doesnt make sense Idun. You must have dealt with an unusually large number of bad companies. Did the companies not have a helpline to correct problems?

Did you not have a personal banker who could have dealt with your unresolved problems?

Queenie, with your communication skills why do you have problems with RIBs? Any examples?

Dead easy nowadays.

[idun]

I don't know where to start, but firstly you must remember that I lived in France for a very long time.

Randomly

France Telecom received a cheque for our phone bill, say 200ff at the time, but something like 640ff debited.

Paid by card at a supermarket, on say 8th January 2003, same supermarket debited that payment again on the 8th January 2004, cannot remember the dates exactly but that is what happened. I contacted our card payment people, it was MasterCard or Visa and they 'boffed' at me, as that was nothing, all payments from La Poste had gone through twice that month!!!! No one obviously balances their books!

Paid cash into an association account, the clerk scribbled out my figures and put theirs in instead, the cash I had handed over matched the figures I had given, I was being swizzled by the clerk, they didn't get away with it! That was the CA.

The CM paid cash in and a month later when I queried where it was, the clerk had it at their till, all that time later, not in their till. Just to one side. And I had not got a receipt as their printer wasn't working properly when I had paid in and at that time, I only had monthly statements. Was the clerk honest, she knew it was mine????

Lied to by our conseiller at the CM. These people are supposed to help, this bloke was a blatant liar. Have never had much faith in any of them, all just about all our banks have had terrible conseillers, sauf one lady, who has been as helpful as she could with her banque confusing her as well as us.

Our internet provider wasn't paying our payments into our account with them, but just keeping it and threatened us with debt collectors for non payment. Later the same company denied we had ever had an account with them, we had had one for about five years, this came to light after we had had further threatening letters, so they were saying that we had no account, never had, but we owed money.....

It just goes on and on, and not just us, I would help french friends who didn't know whether they were coming or going with their problems.

This things are off the top of my head. There was much more. The moral is that I don't trust french companies or banks, never ever will. And good service, twice, maybe three times.

So there you go.

[BritinBretagne]

The sensible answer is that a RIB is a benign bit of paper that gives out general information that cannot be used to get money from a bank account. Signing a standing order agreement or direct debit mandate, like a cheque allows that. What the RIB does is to allow the company to check that the details provided by the client are correct. It’s bizarre to think that they are an invitation to fraud or theft.