I can’t remember what it is called but I just stopped myself from paying the 2nd, and larger, of our 2 car insurances today because once before I was deprived of the use of the card for quite some time.
The first was for almost €100 and the 2nd for almost €500. In the end I did the 2nd one by TIP but hate having to go to the PO specially.
Anybody know what the limits are for La Poste Bank?
They vary according to income, how you use your account etc. so there isn’t a flat rate. Ring them up and ask your conseiller, it may need adjusting.
When our renewal bill arrives, it’s generally allows time (few weeks) before the actual due date.
If you check your paperwork, you might find you have time still to go to the Post Office and send off the TIP…
I keep a few pre-paid envelopes to use for such things, which avoid me needing the Post Office, as I can use any Post Box when passing…
The renewal is the end of the month, so a week today,
@vero I feel sure that I had a printed leaflet, quite a long time ago, but can’t find it now, so Not sure it depends on income. If you could remind me what it is called I could go in and ask when I post this TIP but I don’t feel up to explaining something that I don’t understand anyway.
Thank you both anyway. 
Just say quels sont mes plafonds a) de retrait et b) de paiement pour ma carte. When you first open your account they start with some fixed amount for everyone but it changes I think, either automatically or you ask them to do it for you. No idea about the leaflet I’m afraid, sorry.
Just what I needed @vero, plafonds, that’s the word I couldn’t claw back from my memory. I’ll give them a try tomorrow when I go to the shops.
I have gone into the bank several times over the years to sort out occasions when suddenly I can’t use my card. Always because I’ve reached my plafond and they always obligingly increase it - usually for a month - but last time I think she put it up to the maximum and left it there.
Thanks Sue, I knew nothing of it until, a few years ago I was asked to hire a car from Super U by PAD (Dobermann rescue) as mine was off the road. I paid the deposit with my French Debit card and was then unable to use it for the hire charge. As the deposit isn’t cashed I should have used my UK credit card instead of the other way round in which case I would not have exceeded the block on the French debit.
It is a most inconvenient system, I don’t have a French credit card but do you know if it applies to them or, as in the UK, only to the total (in my case very generous) limit on the card?
It is an immensely frustrating system, from which only the banks profit. I regularly have similar issues with my business debit card, which is limited to 14K per rolling 30 days. As I can regularly have expenditure for clients far exceeding that in any given 30 day period, and often without notice, I get charged 40 Euros a time to extend the limit. Of course, the limits are set by the bank itself according to the type of business structure and the nature of the business. Anyone somewhat paranoid might think that it is almost as if the banks don’t want you to succeed.
frustrating though it is… I think it might be more to do with their responsibility to avoid allowing the clients to overspend… thus they have hard rules…
Whatever the reason, I shouldn’t have worried.
Paiement limit in 30 rolling days € 3,000
Retraite limit in 7 rolling days € 1,000
Way more than sufficient for me these days and I could easily have avoided messing about with a TIP and a stamp.
In the case I gave above re the hired car, I have no idea how much was demanded but I hardly think it was anywhere near that, so I must assume that they have upped my limit unasked in the meantime.
While we’re talking about Bank Card limits…
Can we veer slightly off-course and remind folk that when writing a Cheque…
there should be sufficient money (or agreed overdraft) in the bank account to cover said cheque on the day it is written…
Folk can and do fall foul of that golden rule… not often, but enough to make it worth the Reminder…
I know that some Hypermarkets (Leclerc) etc sometimes offer to hang onto the cheques until xxx date… and, presumably that works if the cheques are dated correctly…
but just be careful…
I could understand such a policy with a new client, but I’ve been with my bank for over 20 years personally, and professionally now for over 12 years. The bank knows precisely how much I earn, what my business turnover is, and how solvable I am. In the 12 years of professional account use, it has never once been overdrawn, or lacked provision. I know from other professional colleagues working in the same sector as independents that I am not alone, and that it is not limited to one bank.
It s a general policy, that’s just how it is and if it stops Fr people living on borrowed money to the extent people do in the UK then I think it is a good thing.
I’ve also been with my Fr Bank for donkeys years… but I’ve still got to adhere to my limit… just like everyone else.
It’s nothing personal… just how things are…
It has never bothered me before, except for that once when I was unaware of it, but if I was in business I can think why it might.
I was never in debt when I lived in England except for a short period in the 70s (in business) but not unmanageably so. We cleared our English mortgage and credit card debt in the 90s when we left to live here and have never needed it since.
However, going into debt is one thing, preventing you from using the money you already have is quite another, and, imo, wrong.
Its a french thing, you gjve your money to your bank and it immediately becomes their money, and you have to beg them to get some if it back!
Living on borrowed money is having an overdraft or credit facility. I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about the fact that if I were to have 100KE in my bank account, I am not able to spend 85KE without first having to jump through hoops (and pay for the dubious pleasure) to be able to do so.
Do what French people did (or perhaps still do) and keep your money in Louis d’or in a sock under your bed. 
If only I could find some 
I tried digging around in the stone cellars of our old house, but no joy.