Here in France, we have a very common method for paying recurrent bills, called "Prélèvement Automatique".
It is similar to other Direct Debit arrangements, in that you sign a couple of forms which then allow supposedly reputable organisations to dig freely into your bank account for whatever amounts they like.
I have used it for years to pay all our bills for Income Tax, Property Tax, Land Tax, Dust-bin Tax, Electricity, Water, Car Insurance, Health Insurance & even, against my better judgement, Internet/Telephone Services.
It has always worked perfectly – the correct amounts being debited at the right moment in every case.
But I have been aware, from forums & consumer magazines & newspaper correspondents, that a very large number of people have considerable difficulties, especially with Internet & Telephone Service Providers.
The problem is that once you have signed papers for a Prélèvement Automatique, you can't switch it off!
I will repeat that, in case it is not clear: You sign a paper to allow somebody to dig unlimited amounts out of your bank account, then you cannot stop it.
If you find yourself in conflict with (typically) an I.S.P. then the proper way of stopping them helping themselves to your cash, is to send them a registered letter asking them to please stop!
Imagine their reaction…
When I switched Health Insurance recently, I noticed the old company made a debit after the end of their time (I later found it was legitimate) so I asked the bank how to turn that P.A. off.
I have Internet Banking & can do almost anything on-line, including keeping track of P.A's, so I expected to be able to control my P.A's from that site too.
The bank replied that it was impossible for them to turn off a P.A.
The only possibility was a temporary opposition at €20.
I know this is true, but still find it hard to believe!
Looking at how things work elsewhere, I found encouraging information on UK & Australian Ombudsman sites:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm
"Customers can cancel a direct debit at any time by writing to their bank or building society."
I particularly like the clear commitment in the Australian Code of Banking Practice:
http://fos.org.au/centric/home_page/resolving_disputes/more_information_for_consumers/cancelling_direct_debit_authorities.jsp
http://www.bankers.asn.au/ArticleDocuments/20040603_FINAL_CODE_MODIFIED_PDF.pdf
"19 Direct debits
19.1 We will take and promptly process your:
(a) instruction to cancel a direct debit request relevant to a banking service we provide to you; and
(b) complaint that a direct debit was unauthorised or otherwise irregular,
and will not direct or suggest that you should first raise any such request or complaint directly with the debit user (but we may suggest that you also contact the debit user)."
So I was beginning to think I could start to agitate with French & European banking/political authorities to drag France into line with "civilized" countries.
Then I discovered SEPA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area
Cutting a long story short, SEPA is introducing common payment systems to 32 countries, including Euro Zone & UK & Switzerland.
Sounds good.
A lot of it is working well already.
Just the new Direct Debit part is running late.
And as far as I can see, that part is based on the French system, not the UK system.
In all my digging, I see no mention of the paying customer being able to just tell his bank to switch off the payments.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/docs/sepa/conf-westerhaus_en.pdf
https://www.ebaportal.eu/_Download/2006-00397_Debit_Transfers.pdf
Supposedly, you can always get a "no questions asked" refund from your bank, at least for a couple of months after any suspect payment.
If I designed a potentially damaging machine without an on/off switch, I would expect to be severely reprimanded & prevented from doing it again.
Do financial organisations not work like that?
I hope I have simply misunderstood the information I read, but I don't think so.
Parting thot: "Bank failures are caused by depositors who don't deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement." – Dan Quayle
When we moved to France in 1977, pensions were not on our priority list.
Now, they are.
Back then, we vaguely hoped that by the time we needed pensions, western governments & companies and civilization in general would have progressed to the point of taking international mobility into account.
We were certainly guilty of not taking the subject seriously enough and of not keeping our eye closely enough on European developments.
I would advise anybody anywhere to be more watchful than we have been.
So it is with considerable relief that I can now report that Europe does work, more or less, for wandering workers.
UK & French pension authorities do work together, do construct a multi-national working career, do decide that the whole thing is worth a full pension & do decide to each pay their share of a reasonable whole pension.
They even pay it in Euros into a French bank account.
Employers' pensions don't work quite as well, but better than might have been feared.
For us, it did not just happen automatically though.
I seriously woke up to the question 6 months before retirement date and a big multi-page XL spreadsheet shows 153 items of correspondence so far, with the various potential pension providers, most of whom had changed names, addresses, phone numbers etc since previous contacts.
Today's situation is that we have actual cash in the bank from 3 providers & reliable-looking promises from a fourth, so we can at last start breathing more easily again.
That situation is so good, compared with what it might have been, and compared with the sad plight of all the people currently losing jobs & in some cases associated pensions, that the following remarks should be taken as academic quibbles & certainly not as moaning complaints.
The combined state & employers' pensions should be enough to live on, carefully rather than comfortably.
That implies keeping a regular, careful eye on income, expenditure & balance.
No problem – I have done a monthly account for at least 20 years.
During that time, the main income (salary) & the main expenses (credit card) happened predictably on fixed dates each month, so it was easy to see at a glance whether the month was positive or negative and to react when necessary to stop trends developing.
That control will be more necessary with a pension income.
But will not be so easy.
French state pension is paid into the French bank in Euros on a fixed date monthly, as you would expect.
French employer's pension is paid into the French bank in Euros, but quarterly.
UK state pension will be paid into the French bank in Euros, but every 4 weeks, not monthly.
It is obviously defined in Sterling & I don't yet know what kind of exchange & transfer rates they will achieve.
UK employer's pension is paid monthly, but only in Sterling & only into a UK bank account, from where shipping to France will cost relatively more with increasing frequency & with my poor bargaining position with banks, bless their little hearts!
So keeping track of creeping deficits is going to be difficult, just when it gets more critical.
Again, I am not asking anybody to feel sorry for me here, just pointing out that there are some obviously better & some obviously worse ways of paying pensioners, and I wonder why 3 out of 4 providers would choose an apparently worse way.
Parting thot: "Happiness is proportional to rate of improvement of material circumstances."
A post about Frontiers.
When we moved to 'The Continent' in 1977, there were borders, frontier posts, customs officials, cute currencies, exchange offices & queues everywhere.
This was quaint at first, but a nuisance afterwards.
Going 'home' meant queuing at the French/Luxembourg border, first on the French side to make sure you weren't taking out too much money or works of art, then on the Luxembourg side to make sure you weren't bringing in hand grenades or ham sandwiches.
Each time facing the icy stare of armed border guards & with the very real possibility of having your car & belongings stripped in public if any of the kids made a silly comment or especially if you happened to have a beard &/or sunglasses at the time.
Repeat performance at the Luxembourg/Belgian border.
Then at the Belgian/French border.
Then at Calais.
And in Dover.As far as I recall, England/Scotland was not a problem then, but maybe soon...
Similarly, going skiing to La Plagne (in France!) involved customs posts at Strasbourg/Kehl then a notorious tailback on the A5 autobahn for customs Germany/Switzerland at Basle then re-customs Switzerland/France in Geneva.
We used to have a drawer full of jam jars, each stuffed with left-over currency for different destinations & transit countries.
Before a projected trip, we had to see what was left in the jam jars, estimate what we might need for the trip & order the difference from the bank.
We had Belgian Francs, Luxembourg Francs (you could use Belgian in Luxembourg, but not vice-versa) Deutschmarks, Swiss Franks, Austrian Schillings, Italian Liras, Danish Kroners, Dutch Guilders, Swedish Kronor, Spanish Pesetas and something or other for Yugoslavia.
On the day, we needed to carefully select the right jars & stuff the right cash into many-pocketed purses, not to be lost sight of or mixed up on route.
For longer holidays, we had to order & pay for Travellers' Cheques to avoid carrying too much cash.
Today these borders & customs posts have either disappeared or are empty hulks waiting to be recycled.
Except Dover, of course!
OK, you may get stopped by a smiling Gendarmette going into Switzerland if you haven't thought to buy your annual Autoroute Vignette on Internet first, but that's about it.
We recently visited Krakow (future article...) going via Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Austria & Switzerland, without stopping for any border. Of course we stopped for all the wonderful things to see en route.
Thanks to Euros, Credit Cards & Cash Machines, we didn't need to juggle with the jam jars either, though we still have several, including Sterling & Swiss Francs.
A great symbol of the disappearance of frontiers is the graceful new 
'Mimram' pedestrian/cyclist bridge over the Rhine between Strasbourg & Kehl.
Here you can (& many do) stroll casually between one-time enemies France & Germany, with no sign whatever of any barrier or difference as you do so.
Of course nothing is perfect - on the photograph you can see work in progress to protect the cables of the new bridge.
As I heard it, either to meet the budget or the opening date or both, it was decided to put the bridge up first, then protect the cables from corrosion later...
They are very proud of their newly developed technique, with a special machine which slowly climbs up each cable (complete with daring jockey) automatically wrapping giant handlebar tape round the cable as it goes.
Not sure whether this actually protects the cables from rust or just hides rust from dubious eyes. Time will tell…
Parting thot: "To make enemies - put up fences; To make friends - start talking to your enemies..."
