Money Matters, Paris

The Kehl Centre is the first point of contact for French and German consumers. But it also deals with cases involving non-German and non-French consumers from other EU-countries complaining against professionals from France or Germany. Non-German and non-French citizens bring their cases to the Centre in their own country, which then transmits the cases to the Centre in the country where the professionals hold office.

France registers the greatest number of tourists each year (over 70 million visitors) and Germany, with its 10 borders, is among the countries with the highest level of cross-border transactions. These facts explain the importance of both Centres and why the French and German governments logically decided to regroup these two bodies for better efficiency.

Try to use your credit card as little as possible, and if possible, never allow it to be processed out of your vision. We have been in Paris for 3 weeks, after visiting Hanoi, Portugal and UK on business/pleasure. No problems until arriving in Paris, when apparently our euro account was being fraudulently used several times a day, all for amounts less than 300 euro so as not to alert the bank. We have strong suspicions, but no actual proof, that it began before our arrival when we paid for a rental apartment with the card. Every rogue transaction was made shortly after that time. The rental company also made a fraudulent, unauthorised transaction after we left for another apt., supposedly for an airport transfer costing 75 euros. The bank was alerted by a guitar and a computer purchased in New York and promptly cancelled our card and sent us an email to call them. We booked this apt. in a hurry and were not able to check on TripAdvisor, but we now find many, many complaints about this company and several of them involving money! Clearly someone has sold our credit card number and expiry date to a third party. Take heed, we had read of all the street scams in Paris and were ready for them, but this is the first time in more than 30 years of travelling the world, that we have faced internet credit card fraud. We did not lose the card, or give out the pin number, so the bank has accepted the loss, but its still a very unpleasant experience to discover 2 days before flying home after a 7-week trip.

Warning: Don't use the LCL (Le Credit Lyonnais) ATM machines at 14 Rue Rambuteau in Le Marais in Paris. When I was there at Christmas 2006, I asked for 200 euros from one of their machines, and only 90 euros came out. The receipt, however, listed the withdrawl as 200 euros.

I had just arrived after a long flight from the States and naturally I was upset. In my fractured French I explained the problem to a bank officer (most ATMs seem to be outside their home banks), and she told me that at the end of the day when they settled accounts, they would realize there was "too much" money in that ATM and would give me a credit. I didn't believe her and went back a few minutes later with a friend who spoke much better French. He found out that this is NOT the first time this has happened at these ATM machines. We wrote out a long letter and they copied all my information from my debit card and promised they would credit my account. Of course, when I got back to the States, none of this has happened and the withdrawl is still listed at 200 euros.

I am currently contesting this with my American bank, but I don't think I will ever see the lost 110 euros (about $150) in my lifetime.

I can't say for sure, but I think my mistake was not to press a button for a set amount, but rather use the option to ask for a custom amount to withdraw. The rest of the time in France, I was very careful to just use the set amount options, and of course, I never used an LCL machine again.

By the way, when I told this story to my counsin's daughter, who is living in Toulouse, she told me the SAME THING happened to her at an ATM there. She never got a refund either.

UPDATE: The banks honored my request for a refund and I recovered all my lost funds. Still, I would NEVER ask for a custom amount again at a French ATM--only the amounts posted. Also, keep your hands free and withdraw your cash QUICKLY.

Whenever you hear the buzzer sound on the metro, and you are at the stop rushing to get on it, just don't bother...I got trapped in the doors yesterday, it sure as HELL is not pleasant, I just thank God I wasn't squashed or that my hand wasn't torn off me. If you hear the buzzer just play it safe and wait til the next metro. They're frequent enough anyway.

When in Paris, I found that vendors give you the wrong change. I bought a cheese sandwich for 18f. I gave him a 50f note which was the smallest I had from changing my money at the airport. He only gave me 2f back and insisted I gave him only a 20f note. I argued with him and kept on telling him I knew it was a 50f note because that was all I had. Finally he gave me correct change when I said I was going to find a police.
So you need to be sure you know what you give them, point it out to them that you are giving them a 50f note, and be persistent. Don't let them cheat you. They assume you aren't familiar with their money and that they can get away with it.
I think France is now using the Euro. This was in 2000.
Indeed, when we returned in 2006, France is using the Euro which makes using money easier. We had no trouble with any of the places trying to cheat us this time which was refreshing.

We were at Lido on new year`s eve 2007.The show was great, but the night was wasted because our camera with all the pictures of honeymoon was stolen while we were dancing.
It is not the value of the camera but the value of the pictures that was so important for us.
The personnel staff was not helpful,they were only interested to get rid of our complaints.The lido of Paris is not a safe place.Keep your money with you and don`t leave items on your tables.

Theme: Other
Dress Code: And they have their own "taxi system" ! To make 1 km 25 euros per person ! We asked for taxi and they sent us to their own system,this is not fair.We are completeley unsatisfied with Lido personnel and managers for their incompetence and their extremely low customer satisfaction.

Be prepared to spend more in France as well as all of Europe.
The exchange rate is VERY, VERY UNFAVORABLE for Americans at this time and most likely, it will remain that
way your entire lifetime.
It will cost you approximately 30% more to do everything in France than in the USA due to the sustantial decline
in the dollar. Plan your trip and make sure you know what you want to accomplish when you arrive.

I just got my statement from Bank of America and was shocked to see a "Foreign Currency Conversion Fee" on there. When I called BofA, I got the runaround as to why they charge 3% per transaction. That 3% added up quick... and I should have used American Express or MasterCard, neither of which charges this ridiculous fee. Visa was no help either. Their guy hardly spoke English and just transferred me back to BofA. Basically, this is the "we'll bend you over 'cause we can" fee. I asked where that 3% goes and one lady said it goes to the time it takes to convert the currency. I'm sure it doesn't take a computer much time to compute the conversion!!! Unbelievable!

If you've got AmEx... use that card instead!!!