Lettre T (prepaid reply)

[Martin963]

It's getting to be an annual ritual where Credit Lyonnais write to me in the UK demanding to see a copy of my passport,  utility bill,  etc etc to confirm I am resident in the UK.

With the price of an international stamp now at 48 p thanks to Her Majesty's GPO,   I'm wondering whether the prepaid reply envelope supplied by LCL is valid from the UK or whether it's just within France that it can be utilised...?

It's marked with a Montpellier address and the words (where the stamp would be) 

LETTRE     T

M  20 g

Valable jusqu'au

16/03/2008

I know it's fairly mean minded to be fussed over 48 p,   but I'm also getting fairly fed up that they keep asking me for the same information.

I've looked at the La Poste website but can't find any mention

Thanks to anyone who can help!

[Clair]

In my last job in the UK, we used to send prepaid envelopes to all our UK customers and sometimes, the envelopes would be enclosed by mistake in a package sent to a French customer.

The envelopes from France would always find their way back to our office and sometimes, the postman would ask for a payment, most of the time he wouldn't...

PS: the postage from France to an EU country is 60 cents...

[Loiseau]

Ooh, I was just wondering exactly the same thing, Martin!

So it's worth giving it a go then, Clair.

 

Angela

[Pierre ZFP]

I'd go for.  What's the worst that could happen?  They'll say that they have not had a reply and send a reminder, they're hardly going to close your account are they?  and if they do, go to another bank - I've never had to provide such information after many years with CA.

[Martin963]

Thanks for the anwers peeps!    This year I think I'll play safe (much as it grieves me) but I'll check when we're back in the summer, as it seems daft to send out a mailshot like this to your non-resident customers without making the reply-paid world-wide.

I'll also be encouraging them to stop pestering me (and Pierre,  have you tried opening a new bank account recently,   they give you endless hoops to jump through!)

And as an aside,   I'll have a quick go at HSBC who REFUSED to open me a current account a couple of years ago (I wanted to open one precisely because of the provisions of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme limit,   the one that Northern Rock customers now know was set at £35000!).     HSBC refused to open me a c/a UNLESS I closed ALL my other current accounts -  I was more or less (and publically,  in the branch!) accused of being likely to be either a money launderer or benefits fraudster for wanting several bank accounts!

I appealed twice against their refusal and got no where;   methinks they've been badly burnt in the past.

No such trouble with the excellent Nationwide,   with whom I opened an account at the same time.

[cooperlola]

I used to get pre-paid reply envelopes from the ACO when I was living back in the UK - with stuff sent out to non-French members.  They specified that they were valid in Europe and were certainly not the normal ones which I get here.