French banking: yes can still astonish me!

[mint]

Today, I had occasion to want to check some statements from last year.  Now, I admit I am not the most organised of people and I also have all my paperwork scattered a midge haphazardly, since removing bits and pieces from files and reorganising them elsewhere for application of residency[:-))]

No problem, I thought complacently; I'ld just go on line and seek out the statements I wanted. 

But, guess what, I can only access statements from the last THREE months!!!

What rubbishy service[6]  In my UK bank account, I can bring up any old bank statements I want.  Though I don't know how many years' statements, last year's would certainly have been a cinch.

So, I continue to be disgusted and in a state of incredulity.......urgh!

[idun]

My faith in my french banque is such that I have refused all efforts on their part to go paperless. I get my statements by post and that is that.

[BritinBretagne]

My French bank allows me to access archived electronic documents through its web site, it will only go back three months through the App on my tablet but even then there’s a shortcut to the main site without leaving the App. It sound# like particular banks, not French banks in general.

A while ago when I was sorting out paperwork for a CdS application I had no trouble accessing and downloading statements going back the five years I needed.

[Kong]

One of my banks only offer six months of statements, another all statements since I opened the account in 2011. I too printed off 5 years of statements for TdS application but they weren't required. Another tree wasted....

[NormanH]

My bank keeps the details and  they can be printed off (for a price I think) but only the last three months are on-line.

[idun]

My main french banque would charge if I wanted, say a lost statement from a year ago, because that is what they are like.

My other french bank has only taken 10 years to change my address. How many letters and when in France, visits to tell them, should it have taken to change it....... ONE actually.

The last letter I sent, I tore into them and their uselessness and they actually did the necessary.

Frankly I think that UK banks are pretty nulle these days, and yet they are still better than anything I encounter with my french banque...... very sad.

[BritinBretagne]

We only had to print off two months per year for five years. In my case that was a small twig.

[BritinBretagne]

I prefer my French bank to my UK one. The French one is staffed by real people I know and I even received an answer to a question sent on a Sunday by e-mail within a couple of hours. My UK bank closed the branch I knew and moved my account to the branch in the nearest larger town but that too closed and has moved farther away. The online presence of my French bank is far more user friendly too and that is particularly important these days.

[idun]

 I am still waiting for an answer from my french  banque that I emailed a week ago.

No 'receipt' letter nothing. Not that I was expecting one.... I have a long long long list of all the problems we have had over the last 38 years.....with our 6 french banks plus the CA which I had the misfortune to have to use when I was a treasurer.

[YCCMB]

I find French banking hilarious. Withdrawing money from one's own account at a random branch without a debit card (for which you have to pay: what's all that about) is so incredibly time consuming that you'd be quicker walking in with a balaclava and a sawn off shotgun.

My village bank in France sent us all a little brochure explaining that they'd only now be open 2 days a week....but (only in France) they explained that it was (and I quote) "pour mieux vous servir". How does that work, then?

UK banks mostly pay us to have accounts with them, French banks seem often to charge for the privilege of looking after our money.

And I love how quaintly the French system clings to the cheque. I got a UK cheque book five years ago when I moved my account, and I've never used it. In France, it seems nary a week goes by when I'm not stuck in a supermarket checkout queue behind someone paying by cheque. What was it that people on forums used to say about why they'd moved to France? Oh yes, I remember: " it's like the UK used to be 50 years ago".

Monzo. It's the future.

[idun]

I have been having  lots of problems with my computer and logging onto most of the sites I use, so I ended up asking my UK bank for a cheque book as I had bills to pay and I had no idea if I could get onto our account or not.

What a carry on, they wanted to know 'why'.... well, even if we rarely use them, IF things go pear shaped or there is no internet access then they can be handy. We now have our new cheque book and I have had to write a couple of cheques, and the bills are paid.

And yes we pay a fortune in France for our account and get a tiddly bit of interest in the UK, but compared to France we are a lot better off.

[BritinBretagne]

Several years ago U.K. banks were all set to do away with cheques but had to do a u-turn due to customer pressure. There’s nothing quaint about the French system but there are people who prefer to use cheques to save on bank fees, delay payment or simply pay money to people or associations that are not geared up to handling cash.

[PaulT]

Our French bank is split in to regions. Our region is SW and if I want to use the debit card in the North then.....the debit card is rejected. Still, a UK card with no commission and bank rate conversion does the trick.

Ah, yes the cheques in supermarkets. Thire use seems to have diminished and the pin and chip card is being used more and more. Plus as time has passed they only have to search through their bags to find the card, they no longer also have to search for the piece of paper with their pin code on.

[idun]

Re outdated french banking, well it was not always so, well not for everything.

I remember well when my youngest was very very young so, about 1985 and we were in a big ski resort with english friends. She was a computer systems designer, amongst other such related jobs. We were shopping and in a supermarket in Tignes, which is for a ski resort quite big, but actually is not very big at all, I paid using my card and pin number.

'How advanced' she said. I told her this was normal for me at that time. And in fact it was quite a number of years later, or so it seems now, this time distance  away, when I stopped having to sign for my transactions in the UK.

There was only one place that I used on a fairly regular basis in France that held out with this and that was my local pharmacist, she simply did not want to pay for the new pin machines. Took her a long time to change over, but no one seemed to mind.

[mint]

The other side of the coin is that there are STILL French on line companies that do not accept a credit card issued by a British bank.  So then, I have to revert to our French carte bleue and THAT, of course, is limited as to the amount you could spend.....ggggrrrrggghhhh!

[NickP]

I'm amazed that France, which was so in advance of other countries with its Minitel system years ago, has dropped behind in Banking technology these days.

[nomoss]

[quote user="mint"]The other side of the coin is that there are STILL French on line companies that do not accept a credit card issued by a British bank.  So then, I have to revert to our French carte bleue and THAT, of course, is limited as to the amount you could spend.....ggggrrrrggghhhh!

[/quote]

I am very reluctant to give my CC details to any online company, so don't deal with any which don't offer to accept payment via Paypal, except for Amazon, who I have come to trust, as I have found that any complaints regarding payments via PP have been handled and dealt with to my entire satisfaction.

I just can't be bothered to take the risk of having to try to make a claim on some vague guarantee offered by my CC providers, quite apart from the risk in giving out the personal details necessary for an unknown company to bill my CC account.

[idun]

Re cards and usage overseas. My french cards have not necessarily worked in the UK and my UK ones the same in France. Really has depended where.

My son's recent holiday abroad was a nightmare to book as they would not accept his french card with the company he wanted to use.