"If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." - Vince Lombardi

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A friend's bad experience:


Stay away from BNP.

I would have let it go if I’ve stopped receiving ridiculously unreasonable letters from this money-sucking, cunning, repulsive, abhorring deception master of a financial institution. Is this really how they earn their keep, stuffing their faces with foie gras and escargots? (I honestly hope they die from cholesterol and every other health disease possible would plague them.)

So this is my story and I really do hope at the end of the day, you stay away from BNP Paribas in every sense of the word and I hope this financial institution crumble and rot in their paperwork of lies.

I was an exchange student at Sciences Po Paris and I needed a bank account set up. As a student of the school, setting up the account gives me 80 euros in my account. I had my rendez-vous, prepared all my paperwork, and had to wait for the letter for the confirmation of my residence. However, I had some problems with the hostel, which refused to acknowledge me as the legal tenant (in a friend’s name) in spite of the both of us going down so many times with more administrative papers but it never got changed so I never got my letter, I never got my bank card, I never used the account.

In the next month, when I finally got an apartment of my own, I went down to the bank to request that they send me the letter again so that I can finally activate my bank account. Incidentally, since it is under the French law that one has to get an insurance for the apartment, the lady at the bank, Clemence, who has been handling my account all these while, told me that SINCE there was 80 Euros existing in my account, and the housing insurance under BNP is 76, I just had to sign the papers and I would get my insurance. And she told me that I would just have to wait for the letters to be reposted which meant the post had to recall my previously sent letter.

After waiting for well, a month and a half with all the frustration (I was already borrowing money from my friends to pay my landlord. I desperately needed a bank account set-up for my family to transfer money over) I decided to set up with Société Générale instead which was done within 2 weeks.

Being an exchange student, sure I took every chance I had to travel. And imagine my shock when I came back from my winter holidays when I got home with letters from BNP claiming that I owed them 139 Euros and threatening judiciary case if I do not contact my agent soon. Of course I panicked. Being in Europe itself is already expensive enough. I cannot possibly go around paying 139 Euros for a service I didn’t even use.

To cut the story short (I really hate to recount. Makes my blood boil.) So yes, I went down to the agency, got into a huge argument about how is it that they could possibly say there was 80 euros when there weren’t. I couldn’t understand why Clemence had to deceive me. I couldn’t understand why was it that it took them forever to even attempt trying to set my account up (when I was desperate for money and they were completely indifferent to finding another way to set up my account). I couldn’t understand why they could send so many letters about my debt but none for my bank card. I couldn’t understand why they made me sign so many papers regarding services that I never asked for and didn’t know about. I could have paid upfront for my insurance there and then. I still cannot comprehend how 139 could possibly make a difference in their financial roll.

One of the lady was sympathetic to my plight and acknowledged the fault of the bank. She promised me that it would be cleared, which it wasn’t when I returned in about a week’s time. In fact, when I returned the following week, I was forced to pay up in order to close my account. The whole thing wasn’t pleasant at all in the sense that the service lady who ignored us (I was there with my French friend, L.) when I have already made an appointment. Her attitude was quite appalling. We then walked in on our own where the lady with whom I had an appointment with went into a sudden shouting match with L for no rhyme or reason. It was all very bewildering and frustrating. It really felt like there was no one who understood what exactly my plight was. I’m not trying to be narcissistic here but i’m only a student with no income and 139 euros (conversion rates do not stand in my favour) means a lot to me even if it’s the typical lunch tab for a banker. So she was unreasonable too and we decided to walk into the office of the director who well, simply told me to pay up too.

So I paid, told the lady EXPLICITLY in English (since my poor grasp of the French language got me into this mess in the first place) that I want to close my account COMPLETELY and have nothing more to do with the bank. She gave me a stack of papers to sign, as always with any French institution and system, which I did.

So I thought it was over.

But no, after coming back home, I’m still receiving letters about being in DEBIT!??!?!
(It stands currently at - 25 euros.)
AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY!?!
AND IT JUST KEEPS ACCUMMULATING. WHAT IS WRONG WITH BNP!?!!?
WHY DO THEY KEEP CHARGING ME FOR SOMETHING I’M NOT EVEN USING?

Stay far far away from BNP.

Close all your BNP accounts and never ever ever have anything to do with them. Even if I’m saying this out of spite and dripping with detestation, there are better, more honest banks and financial institutions out there. And BNP is not one of them. I hope they die in this recession.

p.s: please spread the word! i think it's important that people stopped getting cheated by institutions like that.