Jump to content
Complete France Forum

BANK CHARGES!!!


Homer

Recommended Posts

Hello Readers,

I should imagine, that the vast majority of people who go to live in France, are NOT very happy how the banks charge their customers, We are not actually living in france at this precise moment, although we do infant have a bank account...register at our daughters french address; quite recently, we noticed on our bank statement(which is with the Credit Antlantique) that they have charged us for the following...Interets 3eme Trimestre 225...50 Euro......can any one FULLY explain in DETAIL what these charges are ?......they are quite seperate from the 4...70 Euros which we pay each month, what is getting me ''hot'' under the coller is trying to communicate with the said bank in order to get some answers!.....one thing has become extremly clear to me in as much that english banks really do need a pat on the back for customer satisfaction!If by chance, you see this, your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Homer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Homer,

I don't know about anyone else but I feel the details you have offered are a little thin on the ground.

Can you try again in better detail or maybe scan the letter and put that online? Or perhaps someone on here will know of what you talk about.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems to be interest.  Either you have a loan and that is your interest on it or you have savings and that is the interest on them.

Is it plus or minus?

Speaking for myself, I have only been charged for drawing money out of the hole in the wall at another bank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In defence of french bank customer service, at least when you phone a french bank you do not get a machine (well at least I don't) or a call centre God knows where. We have someone in the bank who always deals with us, if he's not available, he phones back. Are you trying to speak to your bank in French or in English? I'm pretty sure if you were to try and speak to your English bank in French(or any other foreign language), then their customer service wouldn't rate that high!

Now as to your charges, I have to agree that banks here like to charge for things that we're not used to being charged for in the UK, but a quick call usually clears up any misunderstandings, and has also managed us to avoid a few of these charges.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, I am 'Homers' daughter and this is the response I had to the email I sent to query the 'charge' which was also taken from our account aswell.

''........Bonjour

Il s'agit des intérêts débiteurs calculés au cours du 3ème trimestre sur votre compte bancaire, lorsque celui-ci enregistre un solde débiteur.''

I have tried to translate it but am still none the wiser, we have stayed permanently in credit with the account so other than the normal charge for the bank card / setting up a prevelements etc..did not expect to be charged for anything else.

Can anyone shed any light on this..........?

thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you think that you have been in credit all the time , the most likely explanation is that you have fallen foul of the "jour de valeur" system.

This means that if you withdraw money from your account it can be treated as if you withdrew it either the day or two days before the actual date. Conversely a payment in may not be fully  credited to the account until  a week after the day the cheque is handed in.

Hence you would technically be overdrawn and charge (in)appropriately.

It is likely that if you didn't have an authorised overdraft that various penalties would be applied. Even so it must have been some withdrawal. unless you have had some big cash bills to pay.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks to those who were kind enough to reply to my letter, we have had some constructive replies! such a shame Steve you continue to guess answers instead of actually having much idea of what you are talking about......for your information, we have NEVER been overdrawn, infact we have quite a healthy bank balance,might I suggest to you or anybody else for that matter! who do not have the knowledge and answers to readers questions........should go counting sheep and stop wasting members time reading such rubbish!

Homer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote]Hi, I am 'Homers' daughter and this is the response I had to the email I sent to query the 'charge' which was also taken from our account aswell.''........BonjourIl s'agit des intérêts débiteurs calcu...[/quote]

Il s'agit des intérêts débiteurs calculés au cours du 3ème trimestre sur votre compte bancaire, lorsque celui-ci enregistre un solde débiteur.''

Translation by google;

They are the debtor interests calculated during the 3rd quarter on your bank account, when this one records a debit balance.''

Looks like they think you were over drawn!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi

Thanks for the translation and responses.

It is becoming clearer now that this does relate to the 'valeur'/'operation' dates.

The bank manager himself transfered a lump sum of money into new savings accounts for future house purchases ( in my case and 'Homers' case ) before the date of valeur which would account for the theoretical deficit. I suppose this would have been picked up by the computer which would not make allowances for the (twit) manager who actually initiated the transaction.

It will be interesting to see how he deals with this.

thanks again

Natalie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, according to the email, you are being charged for being overdrawn.  You will be able to see from your statement if you have slipped into the red but as you say you most certainly haven't, I would guess that the bank has made a balls up.

It happens!

They have probably muddled your account up with another.  Strange idea, but check your account number is correct and they haven't changed a digit around.

Off you go to the bank.  Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't remember ever wanting to give Barclays a pat on the back in over 30 years but many's the time I wanted to give them a slap.

Our bank here (Credit Mutuelle) started charging a small monthly sum for all transactions about a year ago, and that's life, I am neither happy nor unhappy as I have found the that the number of times I get  hot under the collar recedes the longer I live here.

Weedon(53)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would suggest you change your account to Credit Agricole in Caen.  Although they have their critics on this site I have only found them very helpful, both by telephone and e-mail.  They speak English (Britline) and you can bank online.  I have never had any charges. 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh dear!  Bloody banks.

I transferred 20,000€ once from my savings to Gilles account and the 'bloke' transferred it from my current account.....  I was about 19,999.50€ overdrawn.

Fortunately I had been to Weldoms and tried to pay by my card and it had been spit out so we knew that there was something wrong.

Oh how we laughed in the bank the next day..........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote]Many thanks to those who were kind enough to reply to my letter, we have had some constructive replies! such a shame Steve you continue to guess answers instead of actually having much idea of what yo...[/quote]

Really, with such an appalling attitude you don't really deserve anyone's help.  Steve was obviously trying to help, you could choose to ignore his advise, after all it is free of charge.

Georgina

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...