Jakhil

Hi All,
I moved to Bordeaux a few weeks ago and have found the advice and help everyone has offered so very helpful! so thanks!!
Now, I have found an apartment, signed a lease and I just agreed to buy a car today, I am dealing in cash still because my French bank needs a few more docs before they can release my cheque book and bank card but that's life I guess.

In the meanwhile I need to work out insurance on both the apartment and the car - I don't speak French yet, so finding the best deal has been difficult. Any advice anyone can offer would be very greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
J

dennerlymum

try nick chubb at Asttral...do a google search .. he speaks English and is lovely!

Chatter Static

For the car if you have overseas no claims certificates they will reduce your premium here, So take them with you.

loy loy

Our guy is dutch and speaks English. I thinks its Aviva.

Peabrain

Hi,
Just a word of caution about payments in cash. There is a ceiling of €3000 on cash payments, which is going to be brought down to €1000, I believe, but with a €15,000 limit for non-residents, which you might still be. So a professional salesperson would be entitled to refuse a brown paper bag stuffed full of wads of cash. Doubtful though these days, as long as you're not called Cahuzac.

Tweedpipe

Ouch!

Chatter Static

When we purchased our last car we paid for it in cash to annoy the dealership we asked the bank for total sum in five euro notes. The dealership had six different employees count it. I got more than one free coffee that day Recently I read about a chap who paid his taxes in 1 cent 2 cent and 5 cent pieces because the tax office had fined him for late payment. For some reason they had to take the payment in what ever denomination it arrives.

Jakhil

Thanks for the advice all...turned out it was the BANK that wouldn't give me my money! They said they could only give me 1500€ each day...and there was no other solution. They stuck to the "impossible" response until I told them I wanted to close my account and take all of the funds out in cash...then things changes slightly and they express transferred into the owners acct - still would give me cash or a bank cheque (because I was a new account holder).
That took me so long that I didn't manage to get the car insured today!!! Hahn you just have to laugh about these things. Tomorrow is another day I guess!

Chatter Static

When you get you card be warned for normal bank Cards the weekly cash limit is about 450 euros unless you ask for a higher allowance card. They also have a rolling transaction limit when spending in shops.

Novocastrian

I bought a car here in February (the 11th to be exact). The insurance was no problem... I just went to the AXA agent carrying our house insurance. What has proved an issue has been getting the new carte grise.

First the seller wanted to wait until my cheque cleared before mailing the C.G. OK. It cleared in 2 days but nothing came in the post for more than I week so I called the (professional) seller. "Oh, the chap that does the mailing is on holiday, you'll get it in a few days".

I get the CG after 2 weeks and take it and all the other bits of paper to the Sous-Prefecture in Bayeux on Monday March 4th, only to be told (without explanation) that they're not accepting title transfers that week and to come back next Monday.

We do that, and all seems to be in order; we're told that the new CG will arrive by mail 2 weeks later. It didn't. What arrived 3 weeks later (on the Saturday before Easter) was all the paperwork including my cheque for 180.50 euros with a form letter saying we need to include a piece d'identite with my wife's maiden name on it.

Phone call to son in Canada who's house-sitting; scan of our ancient marriage certificate sent by e-mail on Easter Sunday.

But: the sous-prefecture is closed on Monday and we're going to Athens early on Tuesday morning. We got back on Saturday (lovely time BTW) and went back to the sous prefecture this morning.

There's more: we're returning to Canada on April 25th (back in late June), so we're told "c'est un peu juste" and advised to go to the Prefecture itself in Caen.

We do: there's a quadzillion people there trying to get a carte grise: it took nearly 2 hours but success!! I now have a CG provisoire and the doc itself is said to be arriving later this week by registered post.

On verra. Il ne faut que sourire.

dennerlymum

France eh!!

I deposited MY pay cheque into my bank account at the cashpoint on Saturday... only to receive a tel call at the end of opening hours to let me know that the cheque couldnt be credited to my account as ..I hadnt signed the back.. the branch doesnt open now until tomorrow...

who else would want to pay a cheque into my account!!

Im_and_Er

For the sake of a 60km round trip I'd have definitely bypassed the sous prefecture.

We know how it can and should work but also know how often it doesn't so next time go to the train driver - not his oily rag

Novocastrian

Yup. Lesson learned. BTW Caen is 60km one way from us. (But yes only 30 km from Bayeux).

Novocastrian

Interestingly though, many of the French ladies trying to get a CG were also sent away with a bolloxing because they didn't have a copy of their livret familial with them. Several others fell at the last hurdle when la caisse refused to accept a cheque signed by their husbands without a copy of his carte d'identite (even though they just included a copy with the application across the room).

Apparently it's not just us furriners who have problems.

Peabrain

Never has been. That's just a paranoid myth. Similar to French people from outside Alsace who complain that when they go there, 'the natives' deliberately start speaking Alsatian so as 'outsiders' can't understand the snide remarks being made about them.