Carte Gris

Well Norman, if you had seen some of the brits who were buying french properties in the late ''80s & early '90s you wouldn't be at all surprised that the brit reputation went down the tubes with shops etc. Problem is as usual, the actions of about 10% made it more difficult for the rest.

On the other hand, I had to go help out the gendarmes in translating when a bunch of young Britishers over here for the white-water had all their gear nicked overnight from it being hung out on the campsite boundary fence, by a crowd up from Marseille who do regular "sweeps" each summer ; they can be back down there in nearly three hours and flog the booty off in no time...

The young guys all had insurance so that was OK ; but I did have to nip into the Mairie for a pack of blank paper to write on, the gendarmes didn't have any :)

we need to understand we are not trusted, and, in my opinion, rightly so. I have never written a cheque I cannot meet. I have been in business 40 years and can walk into my UK bank and raise a million pounds if I needed to, all based on a reputation for honesty.

We are now known to all the local shops and supermarket and don't have any problems with payments or any other aspect. Like the brits who get fruit and veg in the super market have the produce weighed at the checkout to make sure they haven't weighed less and put in more. Last week my wife was dragged into an incident were a young English girl was caught putting cosmetics in her bag. Parents were with here (not next to). It's embarrassing to be a brit sometimes.

As I said on a previous topic Andrew. The main culprit in the big cheque turn-off which started about 25 years ago was the british habit of signing cheques knowingly without having the money in the account to cover the amount. The laws in France are quite different to those in the UK. I can even give you the name of the builders merchants where the first dud cheques were written. The knock-on effect was to ban cheques from shops etc in our area which was a pain cos' there were still many brits who didn't yet have credit cards etc.

We refuse chèques in our tabac (apart from a handfull of regular customers) mainly because we've had too many unpaid ones! :-O

Most garages won't even take them anymore. Those TIPP things are pretty useful for paying EDF, Free, SFR, etc. Don't much care for direct debit mesel.

It's amazing cheques have hung on for so long in France. Internet banking is brill and I now wonder how on earth I survived all those years without it !

I've found the CA particularly good with english speaking staff. They were the pioneers in the Aquitaine, Poitou & Limousin regions. I'm sure the service is now nationwide.

French banks charge for the services, use the basics and it's not that expensive. The plus side is you're not paying exorbitant rates, my 1500€ overdraft is interest free and I don't get charged all the other charges my UK bank dream up.

My UK bank charge 18.9% for overdraft and the savings account pays 0.5%, yes, that a half of one percent!

The French DD system, RIB, is easy and we pay all our bills that way.

I use internet banking in both countries. I haven't written a UK cheque for 9 years (probably longer) and the French cheques are getting less. Only cheques now are for hospital bills.

I paid for my carte gris by debit card, but surely if you intend to stay in France then you’ll need a french bank account. I was asked for a copy of my rib ( bank details) when registering with the french social security system (assurance maladie). If your french isn’t good you can open an account with britline, a branch of credit agricole with English peaking advisors.

One of the cheapest is la Banque Postale, it's national too. Crédit Agricole are good too, I'm with them professionally, but can be expensive. Depends what you're looking for ;-)

AXA is an insurance company, the own Norwich Union, amongst others.

We had no problem opening a bank account. They didn't want all the anti-fraud stuff the UK banks want. We've even changed banks, which is a pain as they don't swap the DD's as UK banks do.

I think Micha is so stressed she getting mixed up, poor dear.

Thought AXA was an insurance company ?

On reply to your first response Peter, we HAVE been trying to sort bank account out with our local AXA, due to change of management was arranged for after Christmas, then to be told we have to have to be employment or be registered on AE, to open an account with AXA, have now arranged with credit agrol.

Andrew, thanks, that's what I thought. Only another 4 years to go then :)

The other possibilities for paying the Carte Grise are by a 'mandat postal' (go to the post office with cash and they will send it to whoever on your behalf) or by cash tho' the rules have changed regarding the maximum amount they will take (I believe it's about €300 now). I'm sure someone will know about the changes.

The garage has always supplied the CG sometimes free of charge as part of the deal. I've always been wary of buying second-hand directly from a 'particulier' in France.

quite, Peter. Have bought a couple of cars via second hand dealers and on both occasions the garages dealt with the carte grise and plates. Have changes addresses more than 8 times and the last three times were super simple to change the address on the carte grise via internet - no more queuing for hours at the préfecture!

30 yesr old minimum, there are plenty of old style number plates still on the road, just means the car is over 4 years old and hasn't been sold within the last 4 years/since the change. More info here ;-)

Wouldn't opening a bank account be one of the first things to do when arriving in France ?

Beauracracy yes but hardly the fault of the system you had so much aggro ?

Slightly different question. I have a car manufactured in 1989. It would never pass the full test for cars that don't have a letter of conformity. However you can get a age certificate from Vehicle Historique people (FFVE).

I need to know how old the car has to be for this. The web site isn't clear. Says 30 years from 2009. I think that means the car must be over 30 years old or have an old style French registration with the department number (for retention purposes when sold).

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks