Hi Catharine
Well in some respects that is a good sign as we know it is not a scam.
Now Caroline & I have a joint account but the letter was addressed to her not us nor have I received such a request.
Is that the same for you and James?
I am retired, Caroline per se does not have an income, it is ours, but like a normal housewife she spends money on our bank cards and our chequebooks doing what all housewives do, the shopping and etc though many times I do the shopping if I am out doing other things as I was this morning.
You have seen the questionnaire, I cannot see a way to answer the document for Caroline that in any way makes sense (e.g. how can she spend with no income, how can she pay taxes with no income, etc)
I will grind away and see where I end up, besides closing the account and moving to another bank of course, which I am currently considering.
Of course being an adult I would not say any such thing, but I am reminded of that very funny film "Meet the Fokkers" where baby learns to say "arseholes"
Yes , we are and have just been sent the very same thing.
Quick update. I have spoken to Barclays again, it is them, and they do know about the letter and I have been promised a call back.
As a matter of curiosity is anyone else on this blog a client of Barclays in France?
Hi all
No this is a letter from Barclays with a pre-addressed envelope back to their HQ in Paris and I have already phoned them to verify it is a valid, in the sense it originates from Barclays Bank, request.
All my French living expenses are sent to Barclays - I make 3 transfers each month - and all of our expenses are incurred by their bank debit card, plus of cheques and etc, so we are not the occasional user either.
We also have a not insignificant amount money on deposit with them and have been clients since 2006 when we transferred to them from CA as the local branch was staffed with incompetents.
So back to Barclays for a further discussion.
Thanks
I had an experience with Barclays about 1969 I think when the Chief Clerk (rememeber them?) of my very small branch asked me to come in for a meeting. I was still in Uni at the time and was "struggling" a bit. He had taken the trouble to go through all my cheques and had noticed that I had had the temerity to eat in restaurants paying for two (attempt to increase my amourous chances) and he commented particularly on a cheque for £17 which he thought was wildly extravagant! He was obviously monitoring my activities with some alarm but I didn't even know his daughter!
I would phone Barclays ,not using any phone number on this letter/e mail but a phone number that you know to be genuine snd ask them. If they know nothing about it -it could be a scam of some sort.
I have certainly been asked to prove the source of large transfers before but surely you are entitled to reasonable privacy of your other banking arrangements and I wouldn't think a bank has a right to that level of information. Commercial considerations may be different but it's ofetn an advantage to have at least two banks. Declaration of all your bank accounts has been a requirement of the French governement with annual declarations for some time. When I first opened a bank account in France in 1971 or 2 I had to get Bank of England permission, pay a dollar premium and make annual declarations to the Bank of England itself. That was in the days when you were limited to £50 per foreign visit and it had to be stamped in the back of your passport ( we need that again like a hole in the head Mr F).
I opened up an account with banc agricole and deposited quite large sums of money as we are renovating our house, they asked me to provide proof of where the money had come from. All I had to do was to give them some bank statements from my British bank, which they photocopied, as proof that transactions were legit.........it is all about the laws on money laundering.I did have to provide information on income and other bank accounts and proof that I had purchased a property, when I initially opened the account.
Have never had a request like that. I don't see how they can request details of your income or expenses. Could it be a sneaky way of getting you to close your account because you don't do enough business through them ? They shut a business account I had for that reason but Barclays Lyon were very up front about it.
Hmmmmm.....I'm not sure. Is this a hard copy letter or an email? If it's an email, I'd suggest it's spam? The only people you should be declaring all that to is the Impots. I can't see how the bank can demand that. Have you called the bank?