Cashpoint - from Reporter 105, Oct/Nov 2004

Written by Reporter, Sept 2004

Sharing that "Côte d’Azur welcome" - No more tax cuts but weather forecasts to be free - Of trolleys and mobile telephones - How patients will pay - Bankers are beaming - 12 1/2 cents a minute

- Aren’t we lucky to live here? Well, visitors to this beautiful region often tell us we are. Trouble is we have to put up with that famous “Côte d’Azur welcome” put on for the tourists. Part of this are the seasonal price hikes. One consumer survey this summer compared what you had to pay in Antibes with prices for equivalent items in Biarritz, hardly France’s cheapest city. A few examples: in Antibes a pizza cost 9.95 euros, a pichet of rosé (75 cl) 9.50, a Coke 3 and a small ice-cream 2.45; in Biarritz you would have paid 5.85 euros, 5.80, 1.50 and 1.95. How do the professionals explain this? Said one restaurant owner we know: “It’s been a lousy season. I’m easily 25 per cent down on last year. I’ve got to live, haven’t I?” Obvious conclusion: during the season stay away from the places tourists go to.

- Here’s the bad news. Despite earlier promises by Jacques Chirac Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has said there’ll be no further cut in income tax in 2005. “Simple,” he says, “we just can’t afford it.” And good news? Well, France-Météo has decided that from October it will drop the charges for consulting its 18-hour and 3-day forecasts — 3.90 euros a month — introduced in June. From October you’ll be able to log on again (www.france-météo.com) without payment.

- For more good news keep an eye on supermarket prices. Earlier this year Sarkozy asked the big retailers to cut their margins in the autumn. One cynic in the trade told us that “if they do they’ll make sure they don’t lose out by playing tricks with the packaging. You’ll pay less and get less”. We’ll see. Also the mobile telephone operators have been told to reduce their rates at about the same time. The regulatory authority ART has said that otherwise they will authorise greater competition.

- Muriel Ireton has asked me how the 1E patient contribution for medical consultations, due to come into force in January, will be paid. No, you don’t hand your doctor a coin … your reimbursement will be reduced by one euro. That’s for the time being. 1 euro isn’t much but the charge is likely to go up. Also you can’t claim it back from a mutuelle or private insurer. The whole idea is to discourage people from going to the doctor too often.

- Will the government do something about bank charges? This is a subject I’ll be coming back to in detail in a later issue. It’s hard to have any sympathy with these guys as they make us pay for everything from using ATM’s other than their own to closing an account. Three banks — Crédit Agricole-Crédit Lyonnais, BNP-Paribas and Société Générale — have 45 per cent of all retail banking business in France. Last year they turned in total profits of 7 billion euros; bank charges in the same period were hiked yet again by between 8 and 17 per cent (inflation was at 2.2 per cent).

- And there was some good news, finally, for those on the minimum wage — and, yes, that does include some of our readers who particularly appreciate a free magazine. As from July 1st, the SMIC has been fixed at 7.65 euros an hour or 1153 euros a month (that’s an increase of 5.8 per cent).

From Reporter 105 - Oct/Nov 2004

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