Bank charges

[johnycarper]

We bank with bnp and every month we pay 10.50 euros for charges we are being told this is also because we have a bank card each,does anyone know if you actually do pay each month a certain amount for each card.

[Chancer]

C.A. charges me €37 per year for the use of a Mastercard to spend my own money, that is if they are feeling generous because they even limit that no matter how many millions I may have available.

 

Then I heard that they had slipped in a new charge "frais de tenue de compte actif" into their new T&C's which I have not signed nor read, sure enough they debited €24 this month which I believe is for the whole year but as they dont deign to even inform their customers that as of X date you will now be charged Y once per year or every month in the way that any normal person/body would do there must be a lot of others now unexpectedly €24 worse off before Xmas and not knowing if its going to be deducted every month.

 

And the worse thing is, even I now just accept it as part of life, but even without that reminder I had already concluded that I have been here too long.

[suein56]

[quote user="johnycarper"]We bank with bnp and every month we pay 10.50 euros for charges we are being told this is also because we have a bank card each ...[/quote]

BNP can be quite expensive; which is OK if you have an efficient agency but not if, like one of my friends, the agency staff make dreadful mistakes and then take ages to rectify the mess they made, without any apology naturally. Said friend then swapped to Banque Populaire, which is nearly as expensive, hereabouts anyway, but at least they have behaved themselves.

OH and I are with Banq Pop too and we pay 8€30 a month for a card each, access to Internet, all kinds of cover for whatever and monthly paper statements. A tad expensive but the local (very local) agency is sound.

Sue

[cajal]

**!!??? €10.50 a month.....wot!!!!!  That's €126 a year. For what????

If you have or can obtain a UK credit card (preferably Nationwide) then use that.

Mrs c and myself have banked with BNP since 1989 and have not paid them that much in charges in all of those 26 years.  In 2006 they offered us a loan at something in the region of 2.75%.  We snatched their hand off as our cash in the UK, at the time, was earning about 6.0% - 6.5% and we still didn't pay that amount in charges for the loan and  we ended up earning 3.25% at their expense for 15 minutes work of signing their wad of forms.

I know diddly squat of the ins and outs of French bank cards apart from the fact that they charge you for using your own cash.  This is a link to a bank card comparison site http://www.10meilleuresbanques.fr/  where you will surely be able to find some sort of better deal for the both of you.

In the mean time I would use cash and cheques, wherever possible,  dump the cards and if you receive paper statements cancel them and go numérique. I would also visit the branch and change whatever account you have to a basic no-frills account. We have never encountered any problems with that sort of account in the time we have banked with BNP.

Good luck and seasons greetings.

regards

cajal