problems with La Poste

[Sharon]

We have had a nightmare with La Poste.  Opened the account in Feb 04 and then discovered that they would not send us a cheque card or cheque book until we were resident (Junish).  So could put money in but not take it out.  Then discovered that they would not recognise my wife's name (she uses her maiden name) so when the cheque book etc was finally received (in August!) it had the wrong name on it and she could not use it.  After much arguing finally managed to change the title by saying that we aren't married (which we are).

And then to cap it all, have just discovered that they charge us over 23 euros everytime we transfer money into the account from the UK even though we already pay charges to our UK bank.  Is this usual or does it just apply to La Poste?  Anyone else had similar problems?

 

[Teamedup]

Firstly in France a woman never loses the name which she was born with, which might not actually be her maiden name, sorry it is sometimes complicated here, eg when I send my forms into the CPAM I state the name I was born with and then 'epouse' and then my married name, as that is the one I use. It is fairly common for married women to use their own name here, so I have no idea as to why this would be any sort of problem, it should not have been.

 

It would depend on how you transfer money to France as to the charges you incur. Firstly had La Poste given you a precise SWIFT and IBAN number to transfer this money to, if it isn't then that would incur extra charges, (this has happened to us). Also on the forms in the UK I would suppose that there would be options with regards to the charges too. On the french forms it is marked SHARE, OUR and BEN. Frankly I would check with my UK bank as to what should be marked in order for your charges to be paid solely in the UK. And ask at the post too.

We had months of it going wrong before we sorted it all out. Fortunately ours was between HSBC accounts in both countries and for all it was defineately not the fault at the UK end in our case, it was they who reimbursed me for every single problem.

 

Good luck

 

 

[Stephenlemmon]

La Poste is a nightmare - and this is generally recognised by most French people who wouldn't dream of opening an account there. They are utterly inflexible and unforgiving and the only advantage with using them as far as I can see is their appealing mortgage interest rates.

The only bank I have come across that does not charge for receiving foreign transfers is Barclays. Indeed, I like most things about their current accounts with the exception of the limited number of branches. I receive money with my Barclays account then transfer it to another French account. Total cost = 0.00 which is just the way I like it.

Consider changing banks?

[Tourangelle]

I use my own name and not my husband's.  We're with the société générale, and although they are only as good as any other French bank, they did not blink an eyelid when I told them that I wanted everything to say Mme but not to change the name (we had the joint account there already).    You don't say whether or not you have bought a house.  If you did, and decided to use La Poste, they would probably ask about your maritial status, and more likely than not, you will have a lot of name problems, all over again.  La Poste is out of date, dump them, your wife is perfectly within her rights to use her name and be referred to as Mme. 

Jane

[Coral]

At one of my first French lessons at school many years ago I remember being told all women except for the very young were called Madame.

I managed the married name/maiden name problem by giving people and filling in forms with my married name nee maiden name.  It seems to have taken care of all difficulties.  The house is in my maiden name, the bank accepted the account in my married name and the taxe f. papers on the flat used both (making sure they got me I guess). 

I really can't see what La Poste was making noise about.  Certainly won't be going to them for an account!

Coral - soon to be in Ariege - I hope!

 

[Liz]

[quote]We have had a nightmare with La Poste. Opened the account in Feb 04 and then discovered that they would not send us a cheque card or cheque book until we were resident (Junish). So could put money i...[/quote]

Like others I am surprised you had the problem with the name. One of those little problems that is sent to try us when dealing with French institutions

Regarding the cost of money transfer it does seem rather steep. We have had an account with La Poste for nearly 10 years and although it is a long time since we transfered money from the UK on an ad hoc basis I just checked bank statements and found a sum of about £1500 pounds was transfered over in 1999 for 15ff (just over 2 Euros). Either it has gone up a lot in 4 years or there is something wrong somewhere. I think you will find that it is not unusual for the receiving bank to charge for the service.

I would check with them to see if there is any other way of doing it at less cost.

We chose La Poste because their charges are very low for ordinary no frills banking so I wouldn't rush to change. From what I have seen on this forum other banks make hefty charges just for having the account, La Poste charge 2E a year. All banks charge a lot for any kind of card. It's just the way it is here, I'm afraid.

Liz (29)