Fresie Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Hello everyone,Nice to meet you. This is my first post here. I wonder if anyone is knowledgeable (or experienced) enough to answer my question, please?Early this year 2015, we were suddenly contacted by our bank, Banque Populaire, demanding out of the blue that we pay back 500+ euro. Apparently, in 2006 they made a mistake by paying this amount wrongly twice into our account (we never even noticed!) Now they send us threatening letters promising to take us to court if we don't pay it back. My question is, do you think the statute of limitations applies in this case and do they have a claim after all these years? As far as I know, the statute of limitations in case of commercial debts is 5 years in France and this isn't a debt even but their very own mistake. We didn't even know we had the money! [8-)]Thank you very much!Irene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Just 9 years to spot their mistake- would have thought they would have liked to keep quiet about it.Sorry, can't help on this but I would have thought that they are out of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 French banks, I have found brazen, basically, ils se fichent if they make mistakes, and I have been with a few and have been shamelessly lied to by conseillers, including at the BP.Relevé de compte 5 ansVérifiez attentivement son contenu avant de le classer. And when it says that, personally, I would always check every single bank statement as it lands, being a former bank clerk, I would never not bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Thank you very much, Paul and idun!Yes, I know I should have been more careful at the time but it must have been marked down as a payment from either Pole Emploi or other such institution so I never gave it much thought. I probably just presumed it was an accidental one-off payment from Pole Emploi - it had happened to me before. It's not my fault they processed it twice [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Perhaps legal advice might be a route forward here; perhaps a lawyer for half and hour might make things clearer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 [quote user="woolybanana"]Perhaps legal advice might be a route forward here; perhaps a lawyer for half and hour might make things clearer?[/quote]Yes, you're probably right, but I tend not to trust French lawyers (from experience). They're all adamant they're going to win your case... until they actually lose it and they can't even understand how it happened [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I would withdraw all the funds immediately and close the account.I very much doubt that they would take you to court, I doubt even more that they would win but they will have no hesitation to just debit the €500 from your account.Cash in your chips and then write to tell them that the €500 is the price of their incomptetence and losing your custom is the price of their stupidity in the way they treated you over their own mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Wait for them to take you to court. I very much doubt that they will but you might get letters from the collection agencies that masquerade as huissiers, such as Intrum in Justitia. Remember you can ignore these sharks unless they actually have a judgement against you though they will act as if you have to pay.The fact that they are threatening this means that they daren't take the money directly so they are on dodgy ground.You could also put the money in another account (say at LaPoste) earmarked to pay in the worst of cases.That gives a lot of personal confidence in dealing with any hassle, and if ever it did get to court it speaks on your behalf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Chancer, Norman, thank you very much! Luckily, for the last couple of years this account was as good as dormant as I'd stopped all operations and withdrawn all the funds but I never got around to actually closing it. So there's zero funds in it, period. By closing it they'll save me the trouble [:)] I'm just curious if they have a leg to stand on in their case. Somehow I have my doubts, but you never know with their system. [:)]Norman, this is very important what you're saying about the huissiers, I had no idea! Thank you very much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Remember french banks have been known to reopen closed accounts and debit them. Banks in France, well, I am thinking very bad thoughts about them whilst typing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 good advice from Norman (as usual.)I thought debts unpaid for more than 7 years were regarded as "forgiven", but maybe that's my imagination.There's some rule about not needing to keep financial documents more than 7 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 [quote user="idun"]Remember french banks have been known to reopen closed accounts and debit them. Banks in France, well, I am thinking very bad thoughts about them whilst typing this.[/quote][:D] Especially la Banque Populaire! Apparently, they're currently rated as the worst bank in Europe. Wish we had known it at the time.[quote user="Patf"]good advice from Norman (as usual.)I thought debts unpaid for more than 7 years were regarded as "forgiven", but maybe that's my imagination.There's some rule about not needing to keep financial documents more than 7 years.[/quote]I think so too. But apparently (luckily!) this doesn't happen very often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 [quote user="NormanH"]Wait for them to take you to court. I very much doubt that they will but you might get letters from the collection agencies that masquerade as huissiers, such as Intrum in Justitia. Remember you can ignore these sharks unless they actually have a judgement against you though they will act as if you have to pay.The fact that they are threatening this means that they daren't take the money directly so they are on dodgy ground.[/quote]Such words of wisdom from Norman. One of my friends (whilst trying to leave SFR for another ISP) fell foul of Intrum Justicia and their high-handed bully-boy tactics. They contacted her by email referencing SFR and said she owed XX€; which she did not.As she is an elderly living-on-her-own widow she felt intimidated and asked for my opinion. Knowing her situation and having looked them up I told her not to pay them but to ask them for a written, sent-by-post bill and wait till it arrived before doing anything. But she became so scared by the constant, daily emails she received that she was sometimes physically sick and so she caved in and paid them money she really did not owe.Eventually SFR repaid some of the money she had unnecessarily paid to IJ but the damage was done to her spirit. She still feels haunted some 9 months later.In my view IJ are the scum of the earth but they succeed often by terrifying (some) people into paying them.If you have the courage to ignore them then they usually go away ...though it takes time.Edit : Have to add that IMHO SFR did not come too well out of this matter either, which is a shame as they have been fine for me, but it seems they have a hard attitude to anyone daring to leave them for another.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Sue, how awful. What a bunch of sharks. I can't understand how the French system allows such shameless bullying... preying on the elderly and vulnerable... bastards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I've just received an answer at a French legal forum: apparently, the statute of limitations in this particular case is TWO years [:D] So they can stuff their claims.Thank you very much, guys, you've been very helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Well done, don't let the barstewards get the better of you!As for IJ. I had a demand from them for 86€ two years after changing my ISP from Alice. It concerned me initially and I sent a recorded delivery letter with proof that I was paid up to date on leaving Alice ISP. Of course they took no notice whatsoever and kept sending demands and threats. There was no invoice to say what the money was for and it did not correspond with any amount Alice would have charged. In the end I returned their crap with a note telling them to either take me to court or "go forth and multiply" - they chose the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresie Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Well done, Jay! And so they should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Sue wrote : In my view IJ are the scum of the earth but they succeed often by terrifying (some) people into paying them.If you have the courage to ignore them then they usually go away ...though it takes time.I have also had a run it with them . I had FT disconnect my phone . I returned the Orange livebox to their shop got a reciept for it. Letter recorded delivery to Orange Broadband HQ with livebox reciept copy and request not to continue with their service at end of contract. I later got letters from IJ because Orange computer automatically reinstated another one year contract and after three months with no money coming in they called in the debt collection people . Orange did not want to know . Computer said I owed them money so I had to deal with I J . They failed to understand that they were demanding payment for a service they could not provide me they still expected payment because the compurer said so . I told IJ I did not owe Orange a cent and had the paper work to proove it and suggested they Foxtrot Oscar . They did ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.