Virements

[sid]

At the risk of sounding stupid, having had a French bank account for several years now, could someone explain how "virements" work, please? As far as I can understand, these are online payment transactions, which would be an ideal way for me to pay certain bills. However, for my bank (I'm still with CA Britline) they have to be set up first by filling in a request form, so it's going to take away the immediacy of it, and anyway, some bills are one-offs!

Is it just Britline that operates like this? I've been perfectly happy with the service otherwise, paying most things by CB or the dreaded cheque; I don't think I had used a cheque for a few years before coming here, and there was talk of scrapping them altogether in UK. It still amazes me in the supermarket queue when the person at the front, having had a 5-minute conversation with the cashier, then produces a cheque-book and proceeds to slowly write a cheque!

Anyway, I digress; do you use "virements"??  I'm prompted to ask as I received a bill recently and the sender had included RIP details (even though I'm not dead yet! [:-))] ) and I wondered if I was expected to pay this way. I sent a cheque.

[idun]

I would just send a cheque for one off payments. I'd note on the back as to what it was for and the reference number and then take a photocopy of the front and back of the cheque.

Isn't that the easiest solution?

[Debra]

You can register to set up online payment details yourself by registering a mobile phone number to which they send an SMS  message with an authorisation code each time you want to set up a new person or organisation to make payments to.  This is a bit of a pain for us as we have to go outside to get a mobile phone signal and hope the bank screen doesn't time out while we're waiting!  It does work though.  I use it for people I need to pay things to more than once but also for those payments which need posting as it's cheaper than paying for a stamp, envelope and petrol to get the post office!  I also have details for other accounts and family set up so I can send money to them if need be.

[sid]

Thanks Idun and Debra - yes a cheque is easy, but I have to go to the post office to send it (that's the nearest post box for us) and it'll take a day or two to get there and then the payee has to take or send it to his/her bank. I know I shouldn't worry about their end of things, but sometimes it's good to pay promptly especially after good service.

I didn't know about the mobile phone text method, so I'll look into that.

 

[Debra]

You may have it already and not realise?  Click on 'virements' and you should see a screen showing a drop down selection of the sending account and the same again for the receiving account and under that, a box to click on which says '+saisir une autre compte beneficiaire' .  Mine has a little message saying 'authentification forte' next to it and when I click on it, I see a button saying 'demande de SMS' next to a message saying what my registered telephone number is - or at least it shows enough to remind me which one it is with a lot of the numbers replaced with Xs.  I click on the button and a box appears for me to put the SMS code in when it arrives.  After that I can add the SWIFT code and IBAN number for whoever I want to pay and then select them to pay to forever afterwards.

[Clair]

[quote user="sid"]Thanks Idun and Debra - yes a cheque is easy, but I have to go to the post office to send it (that's the nearest post box for us)... [/quote]

I always give my letters to the post-lady. As long as it's ready to be posted, i.e. stamped, she takes it to the sorting office.

It's what they're supposed to do in rural areas as part of their mandate.

[Debra]

That's good to know, Clair.  We have a post desk in our mairie office but it's only open at certain hours.  We have a post box outside the mairie which the post lady collects from.  As the mairie is only next door but one to me it's not inconvenient but my problem is I always need a stamp.  Even when I get those prepaid envelopes from people, they never seem to cover the weight of what they want me to send!  Do you buy a selection of stamps and weigh your letters at home, then?

(For payments I would still do it online though as it's cheaper than an envelope and stamp.)

[idun]

Clair beat me to it, as I was going to say that I used to give our letters to the postie, if I wasn't going out.

I'd just remember to buy a book or so of stamps whilst I was out and then easy peasy.

 

[sid]

Thanks Clair, I didn't know that. [B]

[NormanH]

A wonderful service. Unfortunately in town I not only don't see my post person from one week to another, I quite often don't get my mail delivered either, unless it is registered.

I have posted before about this and I have to say that  La Poste is only just second to Orange as a totally calamitous organisation.

As for virements you can send them to anyone at any time.

I use them often to send money to the UK, but also inside France.

They are quicker and more secure than a cheque in that they don't pass by LaPoste.

While I might still write a cheque in a face to face situation I certainly wouldn't send one given the dishonesty and unreliability of that organisation and its failure to accept responsibility.

I just go into the branch with  RIB (not RIP sid  [:D])  of the person who will receive it, but you don't need that if you have their details in some other form.

[Frecossais]

Living 5 miles from our nearest post office in France, our postie lets me give her the money for a stamp and posts it for me too.

Mind you I only ask her infrequently so as not to take too much advantage.

[Clair]

[quote user="Debra"]That's good to know, Clair. [...] Do you buy a selection of stamps and weigh your letters at home, then?[/quote]

Yes, I usually buy a carnet or two of stamps, (more if the cost of stamps is due to go up!), so I always have some on hand.

Talking of which, the cost of a 1st class stamp equivalent is going up on Jan 1st, from 60 to 63 cents, and the timbre vert will go up from 57 to 58 cents.

Must get some more whilst they're still cheap...

[Jay]

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Debra"]That's good to know, Clair. [...] Do you buy a selection of stamps and weigh your letters at home, then?[/quote]

Yes, I usually buy a carnet or two of stamps, (more if the cost of stamps is due to go up!), so I always have some on hand.

Talking of which, the cost of a 1st class stamp equivalent is going up on Jan 1st, from 60 to 63 cents, and the timbre vert will go up from 57 to 58 cents.

Must get some more whilst they're still cheap...

[/quote]

I always post letters/cards from home. We weigh the item then print out the stamps from https://www.montimbrenligne.laposte.fr/ stick them on and give them to the post lady. She is about to get her Xmas bonus for taking all our Christmas cards!

[Kelly]

Hi, yes i use that web site, but what do you print your stamps onto, I usually print straight onto the envelope, but sometimes the envelope won't go through the printer. 

 

Can I print them on normal paper and then selotape them on the envelope, or use glue.

Kelly

 

also I think the ones delivered in France are cheaper, no tax. 

[Jay]

[quote user="Kelly"]

Hi, yes i use that web site, but what do you print your stamps onto, I usually print straight onto the envelope, but sometimes the envelope won't go through the printer. 

Can I print them on normal paper and then selotape them on the envelope, or use glue.

Kelly

 also I think the ones delivered in France are cheaper, no tax. 

[/quote]

I print them onto normal paper then stick them on with a Pritt stick. If you save a database of your frequently used names and addresses on the site then you can print out onto an envelope or just a sheet of ordinary paper complete with stamp and the address you need. I usually use A6 size, then you can use Pritt stick or sellotape to stick the whole thing to an envelope.

[Kelly]

Ok, that's great, that's all my christmas stamps sorted then, must buy Pritt stick. 

many thanks

[sid]

Norman, the recent "facture" that I received definitely had an RIP on it, not an RIB. I know what RIB looks like as I've used them previously. This one looks similar but the account in question appears to be with La Poste, so maybe that's why it's called RIP ??

Debra, I've rechecked my account in case I had missed it as you suggested, and I don't have the facility to add new payees. When I click the help icon I can see that it needs an authentication code which is sent by SMS.  That's where it'll end for me as I don't use a mobile phone, not a French one at any rate. Why so difficult? I can't see why it's any more secure.

Jay, What kind of weighing machine have you got that will differentiate between 19gms and 21gms?  The one in the post office is very sensitive, and it's unlikely that most of us would have something like that.  I think this is the flaw in the home printed stamps process.  I have used this previously, but it takes a few attempts, for me at any rate, to get the stamp in the right place (you can reprint though), but I've only done it when I have an envelope which is obviously underweight. I finished up with several sheets of self adhesive paper all with the top left and botton right corners missing where I had cut out the stamp!  [blink]

 

[NormanH]

Norman, the recent "facture" that I received definitely had an RIP on

it, not an RIB. I know what RIB looks like as I've used them previously.

This one looks similar but the account in question appears to be with

La Poste, so maybe that's why it's called RIP ??

Apologies sid.

I was stuck in the idea of a bank virement, and wasn't thinking at all about LaPoste

I avoid LaPoste like the plague, as, apart from the problems I outlined above, you can wait 40 minutes to an hour to be served especially around the 5th of the month when everybody's allocations are paid.

There is a queue out side and round the block of people waiting to send money transfers back home.

Debra, is that a bank virement you are talking about or a post office one?

There is nothing in my CA on-line  account that would let me send a virement from my on-line account to another person, only  to my other personal  accounts.  Certainly no way of sending to a third person. For that I have to go into the branch in person.

[Debra]

After our SMS has been sent, you can click a button to say you didn't get it and they'll send it to the registered email address instead, so perhaps they can do it that way too?  It might be worth asking.

The reason they do it is to add a level of security.  You register your phone so if someone nicked your laptop for instance, with the info on it to log on to your bank and add themselves as a payee, they'd have to have nicked your phone too in order to be able to complete the operation.  

I have an electronic scale which I bought from Devaux which accurately weighs grams.  Any dieter's scale would also do it.  I didn't know you could print stamps out so that info will be very helpful to me.  At this rate I'll never have to leave the house!

[Debra]

[quote user="NormanH"]Debra, is that a bank virement you are talking about or a post office one?

There is nothing in my CA on-line  account that would let me send a virement from my on-line account to another person, only  to my other personal  accounts.  Certainly no way of sending to a third person. For that I have to go into the branch in person.

[/quote]It's a bank virement, Norman.  The same place you send payments between your personal accounts.  You add a receiving account and it then appears on the drop down menu for the receiving account, along with your own bank accounts to which you make transfers.  I'm with two separate CA regions and I have this facility with both of them, to transfer between our own accounts and to pay other people.  You do need to ask for it though and register your mobile phone number with them to use the SMS authorisation facility.  Prior to having this facility I used to have to phone my personal financial advisor and then send him a confirmation email or go into the branch if it was over a certain amount.  We used to pay cash into the account which is in a different region to where we now live and it used to take 4 days to get there because they're effectively different banks, even though they are both CA - a right pain.   Now I can just do it  all online.

[Debra]

Norman I should point out that it's the same software that is used by both of our CA banks too, so presumably your branch will also use this software and have the same facilities available to them.  This is where I logon to internet banking: http://www.ca-charente-perigord.fr/ and the other region is the same, just with a different region name/logo on the top left.  Do you use that too?

[Debra]

Couple of screenprints with our personal account details taken out and the payees partly blanked but you should be able to recognise where it is.

[Debra]

Couple of screenprints with our personal account details taken out and the payees partly blanked but you should be able to recognise where it is.

[Debra]

Couple of screenprints with our personal account details taken out and the payees partly blanked but you should be able to recognise where it is

edit: at least I tried to add them!  I can see them when I edit this message but they're not showing when I view it on the thread??

[Jay]

[quote user="sid"]

Norman, the recent "facture" that I received definitely had an RIP on it, not an RIB. I know what RIB looks like as I've used them previously. This one looks similar but the account in question appears to be with La Poste, so maybe that's why it's called RIP ??

Debra, I've rechecked my account in case I had missed it as you suggested, and I don't have the facility to add new payees. When I click the help icon I can see that it needs an authentication code which is sent by SMS.  That's where it'll end for me as I don't use a mobile phone, not a French one at any rate. Why so difficult? I can't see why it's any more secure.

Jay, What kind of weighing machine have you got that will differentiate between 19gms and 21gms?  The one in the post office is very sensitive, and it's unlikely that most of us would have something like that.  I think this is the flaw in the home printed stamps process.  I have used this previously, but it takes a few attempts, for me at any rate, to get the stamp in the right place (you can reprint though), but I've only done it when I have an envelope which is obviously underweight. I finished up with several sheets of self adhesive paper all with the top left and botton right corners missing where I had cut out the stamp!  [blink]

[/quote]

RIP = Relevé d'Identité postal

No problems adding new payees to our CA account or our Credit Mutual account, although a French mobile number is required by both - one of the problems with only having a UK mobile phone.

Our scales were bought in Lidel for 19€ and are accurate to 1g. I doubt the PO would allow printing of stamps if they were worried about fractions of a gram. We have used this service for a couple of years sending hundreds of letters/cards and never a problem.

The La Poste site has recently been updated but I must admit I don't print to any envelope less than A4 size, always just print the stamp or a label.