re DWP (old age pensions)… we have ours paid directly into the French bank account.
The Brit Govt gets a good exchange rate and the money is there, regularly (every 28 days) on the dot.
you might like to consider this option… as it gives stress-free banking, with a regular decent balance to meet the various direct debits Utilities/Insurance/whatever.
Letting the 5 small pensions mount up in UK and transfer a lump as and when it suits you to do so.
So pleased to hear you will joining ‘us’ in France… Just ‘do it’ thats my only advice… Looking back - the VLTS/S1 route was relatively easy although seemed pretty stressful at the time…
We still have our pensions paid directly into our UK bank accounts as basically we didnt want to lose them… there may come a time when they (Nationwide/HSBC) tell us to close them but so far so good… but we do pay the exact sum into our French account (joint) each month just to prove the transactions I suppose…
My husband has some strange sort of account (HSBC Global?) where there are zero transfer fees. I think maybe there are a few of them now… But seems to work well and always good rates of exchange…
for a moment I thought you heard something about “losing one’s pension if paid into France…” then I re-read your post and realised you were talking about possibly losing the UK bank account…
(at least I hope you were… ???)
we keep ours open with really huge sums (eg £18 … ) which hit the bank account every so often… but it does mount up…
Yes I’m debating doing this (I bank with Nationwide as well) when I make the move, just for the convenience of having a UK debit card when visiting the rellies - but I can also see the attraction of having the State Pension paid directly in Euros for simplicity’s sake.
I expect you’ve thought of this, but it might be worth investigating consolidating your private pensions into one, to save on admin charges and make it all easier to keep track of?
I had four private pensions of various sorts and combined three of them in 2018, on the advice of my financial adviser - who basically did all the work for me. He recommended keeping one pension fund as it was because it had a good final bonus add-on, but the others he merged for me so now I can check on it (and top it up!) very easily (using an app or on the web). It also performs better than the original ones were doing.
Obviously I am not a financial adviser (and you should talk to one before doing anything) but I was happy I did that “tidy up”.
Having done my fair share of this type of thing lately (arrived on my 1 year visitors last November, renewal under way, got my SSN, just got my Carte Vitale etc) the rationale of the “consumption” invoice was to prove that you’re actually living here and not trying to pull the wool over their eyes by providing “proof” for your part occupied holiday home etc. I had that specific issue with my Seolis attestation during a health/tax/visa application (don’t recall specifically) even though the attestation says Primary residence on it.
They ended up accepting a direct debit statement for the charges for the period even though it proved nothing extra.
On a wider point, as others are talking about it. I don’t know if it is a sexism thing but all my paperwork, so far, has arrived before my wife’s has. Strange coincidence if it is one.
An advantage of Nationwide in parts of France with dire cell phone reception is that online payments can be quickly verified via the card reader from the comfort of your sofa, rather than wandering around the village waving the phone about, trying to receive an SMS code before it expires (my wife’s method of Credit Agricole online shopping).
I seem to remember @Stella once mentioning a CA card reader, but they don’t seem to be available in Occitanie.
Sorry to hear about your problem. We had the same but I just asked the Marie for a “*Attestation de Modification d’Adresse” That confirmed all residents living at that address. Hope this helps
CA issued me with a “for life” security code which I enter when asked to do the extra-security double-check… as I don’t have a card reader…
We successfully used it just the other day… I was amazed that I could recall it “just like that” rather than having to root about in “a safe place” to locate their correspondence, where it slumbers…
I forgot where I put my code and on trying to use my CA card online, it was refused. When I went upto the bank to ask what had happened, they said it was because the code had not been used and they had blocked me from online transactions, it was soon unblocked and I take more care now where I put things (so safe I can never find them again LOL)
I have one of those too but it’s not really instead of a card reader, it’s instead of using a smart phone app for verification. Works fine though, in combination with the SMS code they send.
With Nationwide at least, you use the card-reader in conjunction with entering codes on the bank’s website, no need for a phone, smart or otherwise (though it could be done in a phone’s web browser if necessary).
it’s a touch fiddly as you have to type in various numbers on the reader and the website (and annoyingly the reader’s screen is not backlit), but it does at least let you get things done without using a smartphone.
The nationwide thing is a standard card-reader - a lot of banks used them in the “old days” - shove your card in, give the pin number and Robert is your uncle. It’s the most reliable piece of kit I have
!