Britline Bonkers?

[YCCMB]

Have frequently wondered what the point is in Britline boasting English-speaking staff when all correspondence from them is in French, but I think they've just excelled themselves!

Received today (all in French, of course), a note saying that our Credit card expires "soon" (they don't bother to elaborate - that's up to us to work out or read from the card) Anyway, it's the end of this month. They then go on to invite us to pop in to our Branch to collect our new card and hand back the old one!!

Unfortunately, they don't offer to pay for the journey from the UK, or suggest any alternative arrangements given that we, like, I guess, many of their other clients, live outside France.

Anyone else already been through this one? What happened? All advice gratefully received - we arrive in France 2 days before the card expires, which may put a bit of a damper on things!

Jane

[Loiseau]

If you arrive two days before it expires, isn' t that OK?  Can you not just go in and pick it up when you get there?

[Val_2]

Its the same with other french banks, you must always go in person to collect any sort of bank card, along with the old one to be handed back for destruction. If you inform your bank, they will hold your card for you for some time until you can collect it. Personally speaking I can't understand why people don't use their local french banks in relation to their french properties,you would be surprised to find out how many staff actually do speak very good english and over the years you build up a good relationship with the staff there. As for the language problem, what rubbish,everyone can communicate if they try hard enough even with just a few words of french which they should do so anyway,this not being England.

[Quillan]

We have an accouunt with Britline which we opened three years ago mainly because they were English speaking and we needed a bank account to buy our house.

The first problem came when we had our first guests, very exitedly we went down our branch of CA here in Aude to put the cash in, on the way out the guy told us it would be several days till we could draw on the cash as Britline was in the North and we were in the south, cheques would take longer because the posted them to Britline and was told it would be quicker if we posted them ourselves. It appears that the way they operate regionally means they may just as well be different banks.

Well none of this was any good to us so we went round the local banks and asked each one in turn, in English, if they had anyone who spoke English. Out of all four Banque Populair had three staff that spoke Engliish. Why a bank that spoke English? Well at that time our French was so bad, or in my zero, we needed one.

Talking to friends, both French and English who bank with CA they have all moved because our branch in Quillan has gone totally automated. Loads of people have had money go missing when it's been deposited and then grief getting it back even when they had all the paperwork to prove their transaction. Banks in France temd to treat you as guilty until proved innocent.

At least with BP you get to talk to people who are also empowered to make decissions like raise our bank card limit when it ran out after 3 days in to the month because of all the stuff we were buying for the B&B etc.

So my tip to anyone that lives here is that Britline is OK to get you here but once you get here go to your local banks and open an account there it saves a lot of grief.

[magsw]

I have CA Britline account and when my card expired they sent the new one by registered post - no problem.  I found them very useful when we first bought our house and our French was practically non-existant, but we now have a local account as well.  You mentioned paying cash into your local CA branch but I thought it was only possible to send cheques by post.  I understood that banks are Departmental franchises, not national as in U.K.  I must admit to having been amused at receiving a lot of the information in French when it's supposed to be a British speaking branch.

[Battypuss]

Nothing to do with Britline, but I have an account with CA and a charming female Bank Manager who bends the rules left and right! I do speak French though. I think banks here are supposed to follow the lines, you win or lose depending on which area you are in and which bank. Normal French stuff really.

[graham34]

[quote]I have CA Britline account and when my card expired they sent the new one by registered post - no problem. I found them very useful when we first bought our house and our French was practically non-e...[/quote]

As magsw says Britline will send the new card by registered post at no extra cost, at least they do if your address is in the UK. This year it did arrive a few days after the previous card expired (the post took over a week).

You have to see Britline as an outpost of CA trying to provide a service in English. One problem is that a number of letters seem to eminate automatically from the French computer systems at, I presume, CA Calvados HQ.

Graham

[bizzer]

Hi Guys

I have a britline account and a CA account in the Charente I can only give praise to the staff who have served us .. My Britline account card came via registered post  they sent me a letter to say it was ready for collection I sent them an e mail to say I could not collect and hey presto 4 days later by registered post it was in my grubby hands asking to be used!! I have also sent faxes to Britline for virements and they have called back to ask what type etc and all in excellent English transfers to my CA account in the Charente and to the Notaire went without a hitch..

My CA account is in Villebois and the staff there have bent over backwards to help my partner and I as well as several other English people I cannot fault them--- Although e mail does seem a little difficult to get through to them... On the whole a fabulous service.

 

Cheers

Barry

[YCCMB]

Thanks for the replies! It's clear from some of them that I made an absolute lash-up of expressing myself in the original post, as well as leaving out some key information, but at least it would appear from others' experience that CA will send us a replacement card without us having to make the pilgrimage from our house in the Charente-Maritime to Calvados! ( That's why we can't pop in and collect, Loiseau). On the down side, the new card will probably arrive whilst we're in France!

Val_2: I thought your "what rubbish" comment was a bit uncalled for. Not sure what it refers to, whether my comments in the post or me personally, but for information I do speak French, fairly fluently as it happens. It's what I earn a living doing. The reason we use Britline is that my OH doesn't, and he's the financial person in the family. He quite likes the idea that he can do our banking without me needing to be at his elbow throughout! We will certainly open a local account when we are finally in a position to make our permanent move, but our local branch of CA opens on only 2 half-days a week, we already have an excellent relationship with the staff (she's a lovely woman) and given the short opening hours, I've got to know more than I ever believed possible about the financial affairs of most of the village, as well as the state of their marriages, varicose veins, etc. A visit when they're open takes a good half-hour as the whole village has about 2 hours in which to do its banking for the week.

My point was that, if CA are advertising a service for British customers, it makes no sense to assume that they will be able to read French, and that when important information is sent in French, people may not react in time if they don't understand it.

To quote directly from CA's Britline website:

"In view of the varying geographical situation of our customers, CA Britline is based on a telephone and internet banking service. The service is dedicated to English speaking customers resident in the UK, Ireland or France." ..."No need to come to France to open your french bank account, request a loan, insure your french property, amongst other services as this can be done by post, telephone and fax. "

Jane

[DMC]

Can't understand why you have to go into your 'branch' to pick up the card. My wife and myself both had Britline cards expiring recently and they were sent to our UK address. It was a slight problem for me as I was in France at the time it expired and I had to revert to cheques.

Can't have it all ways I suppose but is it possibly that your account is registered to your French address?

Doug

[YCCMB]

DMC thanks for your reply. No, our card and account are registered to our UK address, but looks like they will be sending the replacement card to us in the UK whilst we're in France. As you say, can't have it all ways!! Just like you, we'll have to revert to cheques.

My point, reinforced by the useful replies from those who've been through it, is that Britline write to you, in French, to tell you that you have to go to your branch to pick up your new card. As those of you who've experienced it are all telling me, you DON'T (so why do they write to you to tell you that you do??).

I e-mailed Britline separately to ask the purpose of their letter, and received the following reply:

"Sorry about the inconvenience but this message it to be ignored by Britline
customers since the renewal cards are auitomatically sent to your home
address.

Regards

britline"

So why bother to send out the message to UK customers in the first place then, if the chances are that they may have trouble understanding it, and even more trouble working out that they shouldn't take any notice of it in the first place??

[Quillan]

Where you may be going wrong is to think that Britline is a seperate bank when it's just a branch of CA that is also a French branch as well. So when the cards are sent out from the manufacturing plant they all go with and preceeded with letters in French.

Most French Debit cards are produced by a subsidary of FDR who's headquarters is in Basildon UK who are then owned by the same company as American Express. There is a world wide monopoly on the production of debit and credit cards with only two companies actually owning the production systems, Amex and Lloyds TSB. They both used to be the same company but split in the early 90's. FDR used to be one of my clients.

It's abit like yogurt pots and margarine containers, they are all produced either in the UK or by subsideries of Bowater Scot who have the patent on the machines that make them. Just thought I would add that totally useless piece of information.

[YCCMB]

LOL! Thanks for that gem, Quillan - thank goodness I'm not trying to sort out a problem with yogurt pots! Nope, I realise that CA Britline is just another part of the CA franchise, I'm even up to speed with the fact that CA in one part of France isn't necessarily "joined up" to CA in any other part of the country. I think that where I'm going wrong is assuming that if a company (or indeed a bank) offers a service tailored specifically to the needs (and even more specifically the linguistic needs) of a group of customers, then it will tailor its communications accordingly. CA has gone to the trouble to set up Britline and then not bothered to even adapt or modify its systems to acknowledge Britline's existence. "One size fits all" banking is fine, but not when you're touting a tailored service!!

To add to your list (I've mentioned it before elsewhere) - there are only about 3 manufacturers of crayons/pencils in Europe, and they do every single cosmetic pencil as well as your bog-standard HB writing implement!

[Val_2]

Croixblanches -Jane. This wasn't directed personally at you at all and sorry if you got that impression. I was trying to put over the fact that EVERYONE can communicate by some means when they come here with just a smattering of french words and having several elderly british friends here who absolutely REFUSE to learn or speak french as much as they really should do,they manage to get through to officials on sticky problems with sign language and a bit of franglais.

[YCCMB]

Hi Val - yes, I agree absolutely, but that wasn't really at the root of my question or concern. I was making the point (extremely badly) that, for those who are stuck in England with second homes in France, Britline's service should be a real help (sign language and franglais aren't too useful for translating letters or over the phone), but what they are advertising (see previous post) and what they are delivering are two different things.

In this particular case, it's not a question of English people coming over to France and expecting all the French to speak English, it's a case of a French bank advertising a service in English for English-speaking customers and then sending all correspondence in French.

Jane

[Owens88]

We opened a CA Britline account because we could do it from England. An estate agent in the Canal du Midi area had fed us with so many horror stories about local banks, and we wanted an account sooner rather than later.

We have found CA Britline to be excellent, but the notion that CA is national is at best a myth, at worst duplicitous. We paid a cheque into our local branch, luckily getting a receipt ! It didn't get to its rightful home,noit merely a delay officially non existent !

Luckily the cheque was from our Notaire and the lady at CA britline sorted it all out for us.

However I have heard praise about the local BP in Vernet.

John

 

[Tarn]

I too received an e-mail from Britline (the British speeking bank) in French, inviting me to go into my (not so) local branch to pick up my new card. I e-mailed them and asked if they would send it to my UK address. They responded  promptly (in English) saying that they would.