Hi
I wondered if someone could help me with this;
A person wants to buy one of my paintings from a gallery in France, where I exhibit. She has a french account and a bank card but does not have a check book. She lives in England now and wants to use her money in her french account to pay for this. She has been unable to make transfers online and has been told she must go in person; She says she cant create a beneficiary on her french account online.
It could be that this service has been removed. The gallery is a business but hasn’t before had a client paying with a bankcard over the phone like you can with some large sites. Does anyone have an answer for this dilemma. Could it be that so many laws are now in place to stop money laundering. I have heard people are unable to access their money if they are abroad. Thank you!
Option A would be for her to phone her bank and insist they set up a beneficiary over the phone. Ours will do that if pushed.
Option B would be for her to write a cheque on blank paper! The receiving bank may have a hissy fit, but this is legal as long as it contains the same info as would be on a cheque. Might need to be paid in in person……
Which bank is it and in which departement or area of France?
I have an idea that the French bank may have procedures that require a fee to be paid for each beneficiary to be set up. Got an idea that this is the reason why my first Paypal transaction was rejected by Credit Agricole on my account . Even though Paypal authenticated and the test transaction was identified OK. Previously each manual payee setup had turned out to have been charged 10 euros to the account, but the app had done it without a fee.
I had added Paypal as a beneficiary in the app only so as to be able to do grocery shopping online.
While CA took till September to send a bank card replacement that was requested in May for no particular reason. When CA rejected the first transaction after the OK test, I had to start using Wise for everything waiting for the card CA finally sent to start working. Perhaps the bank involved here only wants to earn a fee.
Don’t banks here have those Giro-type forms still in the lobby or under the reception desk sometimes? Why not get the details of the other account and either use one of those forms to give an instruction for virement or handwrite a letter. Hopefully if requirements can be checked with the bank first they won’t insist on a certified copy of passport to be attached but just a photocopy?
Ours certainly does!
Hello Fiona,
Your customer has a french bank card, so why not take the payment (s) over the phone?
(Though its odd she cant create a beneficiary on line)
@fiona_mcclean
I’m trying to think clearly about your situation…
I have family/friends selling their artwork etc…
Some have been swindled, which makes them/me/us very cautious nowadays.
This person wants to buy… and you would like to sell…
Quite frankly, it’s down to her to arrange payment.
Once the received funds are fully cleared… then the goods can be sent/collected/whatever…
best of luck
Neither can I. I have a CA a/c and it annoys me that others on here can set up a new beneficiary.
The way I get round this is to use Transferwise online and use their euro account.
For example, I’m sending 100 euros tomorrow to a friend in Spain - so it’s a euro to euro transaction.
I use my CA debit card and put 100 euros into my Transferwise euro a/c online.
I have my friend’s bank details in Transferwise as a beneficiary. I click on her details to send her money. Transferwise charge me a minimal fee for doing the transaction (so I keep a small amount in my account to cover the fee). The transaction is instantaneous.
How about your customer using her French bank card to obtain cash from a UK cashpoint and then sending you the money by means of Western Union. Perhaps she could even use her bank card to create, and pay for, a Western Union payment online.
I tried to set up a transfer… kept being rejected.
sent a strong but polite message through the on-line thingy…
“my” conseilleur (?) came back to say that all was now well… and that I could do it… hurrah… but it was a hassle. (previous years had been no problem… )
have you used the messagerie thingy ???
She is going to try this but it is a small business and might not have the card reader. Thankyou!
We’ve been into the branch twice. First time, the branch manager said she had done it for us. We found she’d blocked our accounts and it took ten days to sort out and at the end nothing was different. Second time, we were given masses of paperwork to read and sign. At that point, I lost the will to live and resorted to Transferwise, which works beautifully, no hassle. 
don’t blame you… 
Very strange.
We have a Britline account (which is part of CA Normandy) and can setup new beneficiaries online.
Guess that the different parts of CA operate to their own set of rules.