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Credit-Agricole charges


Alan Zoff
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Perhaps "free" banking in the UK colours my reaction to this, but I thought I would check in case I missed a trick when opening my C-A bank account. They are very pleasant to deal with at the local branch (in central France) but it seems to be the place where my linguistic skills let me down most, for some reason.

I have a cheque account with a Master Card. It all works beautifully - the cheques and card are accepted everywhere in France for paying for anything from autoroute tolls and petrol to property taxes, furniture, etc. Utility bills are paid by direct debit or standing order. All great - except the monthly and annual charges.

 Each month my account is debited with the cotisation of 5,35, and the annual fee is now a whopping 36 euros (less a small offset, depending on number of times card has been used in previous 12 months).

So the card/account effectively costs me around 100 euros pa. OK, I could pay that in the UK for a premium bank account offering freebies such as travel insurance, breakdown cover, etc but there doesn't seem to be anything like that with the C-A account.

Before I march in there again and do my usual trick of causing them all to gather round the counter in an effort to understand the problem, and then walk out again having changed nothing, I thought I would seek advance guidance here. Did I perhaps inadvertently sign up for something that does more than I need? Does anyone know if there is a cheaper option with C-A that will still give me a debit card and cheque book that I can use for routine purchases and pay bills by standing order/direct debit? Armed with such information, I could then perhaps enter the branch with confidence and come back out for once with a result!

Many thanks.

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I have a debit card which I pay E32 per month. I can also use a cheque book. There is no other charge.  However if I wanted an overdraft they would charge me  5 euros per month, are you sure you have not accepted an overdraft facility?  You just have a debit card, not a credit card?

You should just be paying for the debit card at around E32 depending on the branch.

I use Britline, the Brit speaking arm of CA.

Georgina

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That is the norm for CA Nm-P if you have a current account and a debit card, for that I also get a free 600€ overdraft, of course if  you don't want the convenience of a bank card just stick with a cheque book and save 36€,  personally I couldn't be arsed to write out cheques instead of card payments and at 3€ a month it seems a fair price to me.

Don't know which CA you are with but nord midi- pyrenees have an English website and the charges can be viewed here.

http://www.ca-nmp.fr/Vitrine/ObjCommun/Fic/NMP/Pdf/UK/TarifsUK.pdf 

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I have a Compte-Chèque with CA (Nord midi-Pyrénées) and only pay an annual fee for a MasterCard. I have no overdraft facility or card/chequebook insurance.

According to the monthly fee you mention, you appear to have a Compte Service Souplesse.

See here for the list of fees: http://www.ca-centrefrance.fr/Vitrine/ObjCommun/Fic/CentreFrance/PDF/BrochPart250207.pdf, and if you look HERE, it tells you you will be paying €5.50 a month from May 2008... [Www]

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They've signed you up for one of their "added value" account services (the UK banks charge even more than CA for a similar "added value" account!). The name of these varies around the country but basically you need to cancel (annule) the subscription; that'll save you the monthly charges. Usually Credit Agricole charges around EUR 40 annually for a normal Mastercard (a little more if you have a delayed debit ie pay everything at the end of the month); you can reduce this to EUR 15 or so if you are with one of the Credit Agricoles who offer "L'Autre Carte" which is a direct equivalent to a UK debit card (the others have medical insurance, hence the higher fees).

If you could do without the debit card, most CA's don't charge for accounts with just a chequebook.

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I am with CA Charente-Périgord. The formule I have is CSCA Equilibre, with a Maestro debit card (which works in shops and petrol stations but not, I think motorway tolls where I use a UK credit card). Online access is included. Cost, €5.71 per month.

I, too had too much "added value"  I didn't need, so I made an appointment to discuss my actual needs - cheque book, debit card, direct debits, online access and ended up with the above.

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If you are receiving one of those monthly booklets that resemble the type that social security send out for free, aimed at families, then you will find that five euros a month out of your money will be paying for that as they come to you via CA. It is a subscription thing and very difficult to cancel as the person who opened your account at CA signs you up for it without asking you. These things are nothing more than junk mail. We found out that these useless things were costing us five euros a month and were almost impossible to cancel...until we closed the account altogether and stopped CA debiting the money for them. They ignored all requests to cancel the subscription otherwise.

 

 

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I complained about the monthly charge directly to my C A bank manager and it was dropped because he did not want to lose my custom.  I still get charged an annual fee for the Carte Bleu and a small annual insurance fee.
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 Grahan and Brenda wrote; "I am with CA Charente-Périgord. The formule I have is CSCA Equilibre, with a Maestro debit card (which works in shops and petrol stations but not, I think motorway tolls where I use a UK credit card). Online access is included. Cost, €5.71 per month."

I am with CA Charente-Périgord also, but my account is called CC Non-Resident and I pay €9,96 per month plus €36 per year for a card plus €0,50 for each Internet connection with a max €5 per month.

Are the fees you state  for a resident account? And is the CSCA Equilibre available to non-residents?

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The booklet Jura refers to is "Dossier Familiale". It comes free for the first 3 months then you start paying if you don't cancel. I managed to cancel it the first time round and when I renegotiated my new package I was offered it again but refused even the free issues! Presumably some people find it helpful or interesting but it had no value for us. I was pleasantly surprised to get 3 months' charges free on my new account package though, having already had that when I first opened the account some 2 years earlier.

I am a resident Jackie. With my first account I had to pay for each internet usage but that's now included. You would have to ask them about non-res as I don't know.

If you have a look at the CA website which covers your area you can research what they offer and print off any details you need to aid your face to face negotiations. Hopefully you'll get what you want and not what they want to sell you!

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You may pay charges, but if booking holidays, etc using your C-A (CB) card you have automatic travel/medical insurance worldwide. Much cheaper than any annual travel insurance you will take out in the UK. Remember pay the holiday with your card and you are automatically covered
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My wife and I are with CA in Haute-Alps and recently asked about travel insurance (for which we paid £55 PA in the UK). We were told such insurance doesn't exist in France and our CA 'credit card' provides cover of this type.  We were given a leaflet entitled arte Mastercard which explained the cover we have so long as we use the card to pay for all or a small part of our holiday.

This to me makes the subscription worth it.

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  • 7 months later...

I've been delving into this topic, and the posts here have helped me confirm the situation.

I am in Deux-Sevres, and a UK resident, although we spend a lot of time at our house here.

I signed up for what I thought were just the cards on the telephone. I do not speak fluent French so I guess I missed some of the nuances - namely that they signed me up for the 'Confort' package - which costs 8.70€ per month including immediate debit card (which can be used on motorway tolls, unlike the ' autorisation systematique' that requires a response to confirm (as in the supermarket). 3€ of this pays for the card (from 2009, 36€ per year), which is why it is 5.70€ 'sans carte'. The rest pays for life insurance, travel loss of documents and unlimited access to internet.

I still have uk bank accounts and cards, so I get all that already for free. The CA internet site is so restricted compared with my Loyd's one (ie I can't transfer money or change standing orders, or see back over a year's statements) I don't use it often. mostly when we are in the UK over Christmas just to check. If you have no package, internet access costs 50c every day you access it. I do about 6 times a year - that's 3€ (as opposed to 12x2€!)

Bank acounts are free. Cards cost from 15€ per year (CA- 'l'autre carte' - resticted in some ways) with an average of 25-40€ for an normal Visa or Mastercard, per year up to vast amounts for Platinum etc. Visa and Mastercard automatically provide basic insurance (against fraud) - true they don't all cover loss of passport, expenses etc, but I don't need that.

So I'm going to reduce my current 8.70€ pm (104€ a year) to 36€ a year by simply cancelling my 'package' (as someone so wisely suggested earlier in this topic)

I have to say, after an hour with the bank manager on Friday, I was no wiser (he reminded me of that guy in the UK TV ads - you know the one who talks about 'hooking' customers and puts his finger in his mouth - just kind of smiled and said, well that's it). At one point he said the charge is obligatory (er, it is if you choose that package, of course) - All I know now I got from deciphering the leaflets I picked up (one of which was about packages, but didn't describe the cheapest one (equilibre) except in passing. I also combed the internet and CA website last night - driven by the thought that no French person I know would dream of paying that much for a card! :-)

So - check your packages carefully. You probably got a leaflet from CA with the charges from Jan 2009. The reason for this was the law that was passed earlier this year that from that date, banks have to declare all charges transparently to customers (no, transparency wasn't the banks' initiative, despite what they say) - they havan't been. And it's still not THAT clear.

I love France, but I've found some things here are really badly done, and then again some things are much better than the UK, I guess that's life. The banks here are pretty arrogant, IMO. I'm still considering moving my account anyway.

good luck!

JohnG  

 

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Another little CA wrinkle to watch out for - my branch (CA des Savoie) stopped my card because I once tried to spend more than 3,000 euros in a month, buying some furniture on top of normal expenditure. Quite a useful security step, but when I asked the branch to re-activate the card, I was told I would have to take a more expensive (platinum) card at €80 a year. They're both immediate debit cards, anyway, and there were funds in the account to cover the spend.

I told them to get stuffed, and used my chequebook until the end of that calendar month, when the card re-activated itself. As far as I know, the limit's still on there.

One to watch out for, though - consider paying for any large items by cheque rather than card.

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We also found we were paying more than expected and checked things out. We apparently had the 'confort' level account, and I asked for a cheaper basic account; we now have the 'equilibre', which is several euros each month cheaper. It's a basic account - cheque book, a few direct debits and internet access. It is also a non-resident account. This is with CA Languedoc

Jo

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Last month I changed from CA altogether and now have a Post Office Bank account.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when they charged me €9 to set up a new direct debit.  I was thinking of changing anyway but that made me vote with my feet.

 

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