Carte Vitale & RIB

[Oboulez]

My partner has a French bank account & was able to get her Carte Vitale no problems. I am going round in circles at the moment as CPAM need a RIB. The fact that I have a UK Nationwide account is no problems - just that they need a RIB. I am going round in circles with nationwide for them to supply a document with the relevant info. The best they come up with is to supply a bank statement which has the relevant bank code numbers on it. It does indeed, however it is not a RIB or equivalent. Somebody must have had similar problems??? Help please.

[Will]

Sorry, it doesn't answer your question entirely, but it's yet another indication of why, if you live in France, you are making a load of trouble for yourself if you don't have a French bank account. The sécu system depends on paying small amounts direct into your bank account, as far as I know there is no other way. The costs involved in transferring such amounts to a non-French, non-euro account are likely to prove uneconomic. So without a French bank account there is no other way to get reimbursement of any money you may pay out to doctors, pharmacists, dentists etc.

If you must use your UK account, then you need to get an IBAN number. That is the nearest you will get to a RIB for a non-French account, because a RIB contains additional control characters which check its validity, and all the fields must have the right amount of digits which might vary according to the country of origin - see here for an explanation. There is no real reason why a French payment can't be made to an English bank using an IBAN number as long as the payer's system can accept it. Whether or not an IBAN is acceptable to CPAM only CPAM can answer.

[suein56]

[quote user="LouiseGary"] Help please.[/quote]

Why not make your life simple and open a cheque account with La Poste? It costs something ridiculous like 4€50 a year for the account, with free internet access and as many RIBs as you could possibly desire.

Sue

[andyh4]

I have to agree with the previous 2 posters.

 

To transfer the money from the state account to yours will probably cost the state around 1€ (possibly less given that it is the state).  In theory it should be the same to transfer to your nationwide account - but may not be because of the different currencies involved. 

So now the euros land in your UK account, and Nationwide charge say 5€ as handling fee for the foreign transaction.  They then apply a 1% charge on the exchange rate (which would be less than a currency exchange company).  So you are now considerably down compared with what the French State wanted to give you.  Indeed if the transfer was say 4,5€, you would now be out of pocket (as in poorer for receiving the benefit) to the tune of 55c. 

[Oboulez]

Thanks to you all for your very useful advice. The current banking situation is temporary pending us opening a joint account which cannot happen for a little while for a variety of reasons. It made no sense for me to open a personal account & pay the charges pending the joint account being opened. I like the La Poste suggestion.

Cheers Gary

[Will]

Most banks will do a very basic account with no charges, as long as you don't have a bank card. That somewhat limits its everyday usefulness, but my mother-in-law had just such an account with Soc Gen, for the sole purpose of receiving her CPAM payments.

[cooperlola]

As Will says, many banks have free accounts.  I have one with BNP Paribas - I can access this on line and make transfers to other French accounts free of charge, and receive payments.  No need for you to hang around. 

As an aside, if you don't use your cartes vitales but pay up front and get feuilles de soin, you can reclaim in arrears up to a year after they are issued, so you could do this instead (if you can afford it!) and make all your claims once you have a French bank account.

[Oboulez]

Again a very good suggestion. I have not had to see a Doctor yet, so a CV is not vital at this time. I was just trying to get things sorted whilst I am here on paternity leave & have the chance to do all the things I normally do not have a chance to do working in the UK through the week.