It is going to be easier to change your French bank

[NormanH]

From the 6th February:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/conso/2017/01/31/20010-20170131ARTFIG00003-les-francais-pourront-changer-de-banque-plus-facilement.php

All you have to do is ask the new bank to contact the old one and all your standing orders etc will be automatically transferred in a maximum of 22 days.

[idun]

SADLY, I hardly trust my french bank, well any of my french banks to deal with my accounts as they stand, never mind actually doing some proper work and doing a transfer.

Would I try this, unlikely........

[Chancer]

When I changed to La Banque Postale they made a big thing about how they would do it all for me, that is until I said no, I dont want that account with all the bells and whistles and (non) benefits that you are trying to foist off on me, I want the one you quoted me and that I signed for, then all of a sudden it was no longer available, they are as much the con artists as the my last banque its just they are smoother with it, people around here are honestly so thick they just go along with it, I seem to be the only one who ever questions them.

 

Now I have shot myself in the foot, after spending on my UK cards in the UK I muddled the code Pin's between my French accounts (still havn't closed the old one) and the card is now bloquée définitivement I have to post it away at my cost, wait 3 - 4 weeks and pay for a new one.

 

Not being allowed to choose your own code pin is a real scam to make money for the French banques, I have only just remembered the old one apart from today that is, I have far more chance of forgetting the new one.

 

 

[Chancer]

Just been into the branch, cost me €13.50 [:-))] but I certainly took up more than €13.50's worth of paperasse, the mantra in France is definitely "how can we complicate this even more?"

 

3 weeks to send out a new card, they are having a larf.

 

Tried repeatedly to sell me assurance and seemed gobsmacked to come across someone that was happy to carry their own risks and also unhappy to be asked and sermonised several times when I had repeatedly and politely said no.

 

Learned a new faux ami, anticipé means inattendu and not attendu (expected/anticipated) I think to be precise it may mean "ahead of time" but it definitely does not mean anticipated but the opposite.

[Grecian]

Thanks for posting that Norman, we are in the process of changing banks, and I was going to hit the button last week, but never got around to it. Now I will wait until Monday, when supposedly the existing bank will have to transfer our account within 22 days, we will see.

I know that we live in France and that banks charge for current accounts, but with the latest increase in charges I feel enough is enough, so as from Monday I will put wheels in motion to switch to an internet bank, with no charges.

[Gyn_Paul]

...Apparently the change would require re-writing a couple of lines of code in the cash machine software to enable a machine of your home bank to re-write the pin number in a card, like UK- bank machines have been able to do for years. All it really requires is the will to do it, but  -no - that would not be 'the French way' . Never make the mistake of confusing a French bank for part of any 'service' industry !

I am old enough to remember the general attitude displayed by UK banks towards ordinary people back in the 1960's/70's. No matter how big you credit balance, you were made to feel as though they were lowering their standards by letting you across the threshold - had I worn a cap I would have felt the need to doff it.

The only time I feel like that anywhere, these days, is in a French banque.

[quote user="Chancer"]

When I changed to La Banque Postale they made a big thing about how they would do it all for me, that is until I said no, I dont want that account with all the bells and whistles and (non) benefits that you are trying to foist off on me, I want the one you quoted me and that I signed for, then all of a sudden it was no longer available, they are as much the con artists as the my last banque its just they are smoother with it, people around here are honestly so thick they just go along with it, I seem to be the only one who ever questions them.

 

Now I have shot myself in the foot, after spending on my UK cards in the UK I muddled the code Pin's between my French accounts (still havn't closed the old one) and the card is now bloquée définitivement I have to post it away at my cost, wait 3 - 4 weeks and pay for a new one.

 

Not being allowed to choose your own code pin is a real scam to make money for the French banques, I have only just remembered the old one apart from today that is, I have far more chance of forgetting the new one.

 

 

[/quote]

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="idun"]SADLY, I hardly trust my french bank, well any of my french banks to deal with my accounts as they stand, never mind actually doing some proper work and doing a transfer.

Would I try this, unlikely........

[/quote]

Couldn't agree more... a few years ago our local Banque Unpopulaire changed its IBAN or sort code, or something, and they wrote to US, the customers, telling us to contact all our DD's and SO's to set up new mandates.

If they couldn't sort out a change of their own making, I certainly wouldn't trust them to implement a change, where a customer was leaving them, in anything like a timely fashion .