That works as long as you have enough capital in France to meet your monthly needs should the exchange rate plummet or stay low for long periods. And as long as you have the time and patience to keep an eye on exchange rates. Can't see how the French bank charges make any difference? Ours certainly doesn't charge for receiving a monthly payment from a foreign source. Fair enough, we're at the mercy of the exchange rate each month, but it's a trouble-free, relatively favourable way of receiving a UK pension and definitely makes the annual tax declaration a breeze

I've just had a totally unsatisfactory conversation with the NHS pension scheme. I wanted to know precisely- what exchange rate they use aka how close to the 'interbank rate' it is and what the 'small charge' for doing this is. The young woman I spoke to hadn't a clue.

What I would prefer is that my wife's NHS pension is paid into my bank account in the UK and I can then decide when to transfer money via Wise to our joint account in France.

In hindsight it would have been better to set up a 'power of attorney' but we left the UK 23 years ago, how could either one of us have known that my wife would begin to develop dementia then. I'm also informed by Lynn, my wife's niece that the terms and conditions of power of attorney have changed. Lynn retired as an assistant bank manager and is very savvy about these kind of things.

Just looking at the NHS pension scheme gives me a headache and I'm savvy about reading financial info. When the NHS decided it wanted to get rid of all the oldies, my wife retired as a lecturer in paediatric nursing, I sat down with NHS pension info and saw that my wife and 4 of her colleagues were entitled to an extra payment. None of these women had a clue. I was responsible not only for getting them extra on their lump sum but also an enhancement in their pensions. Their boss would have denied them this had I not written it all down for Angela to read out at a meeting.

There is not one pension scheme in the NHS - there are three and trying to figure out a survivor's entitlement is unbelieveable. I cannot discuss this with the service unless my wife is present - data protection act. As she has hearing aids and using a phone is very hard for her and the young woman I spoke to doesn't seem at all literate financially it's turning into a nightmare.

Contacting her bank - First Direct I got put through to someone other than the legal dept. but who informed me that getting a legal document via a Court here in France - the equivalent of a 'power of attorney' there would be no guarantee that their legal dept. would accept a court appointed translators version in English.

So I asked could this person contact the legal dept. to ascertain this - answer, no they would have to see the document first, with no guarantee that it would be acceptable. I replied, so I would be put to considerable expense in obtaining a legal document with no guarantee of acceptance.

This would have been the same response even without Brexit. Once upon a time I was all for the EU but having experience of EU practices from 1979 onwards it confirms my opinion based upon factual experience that the EU was formed by big business for big business. For the EU to work for ordinary people there has to be one unifying language which is taught in all EU schools along side the national language, one set of laws both fiscal and civil, other wise it's not going work long term. In reality there are two financial systems operating in Europe, the north and south being almost entirely different, we saw this with Greece.

My wife has been a client of First Direct almost from it's beginning when her school of nursing got moved from Hove to Sussex University which is right out of town. I saw this was the only way for her to be able to use a bank. For whatever reason her bank will not let her convert her account into a joint one - why not. Then all problems are solved. One solution is for her to write cheques which I can pay into my bank account in the UK and gradually remove all her money from that account I can then transfer money to our French joint account.

There are many ways that Sterling could lose a lot of value. If you don't have the ability to switch currencies in minutes how will most of you survive in France? This is not paranoia, you only have to look at the international situation to see this. I feel for the Palestinian people, I've worked with them but it's Ukraine where it could all go wrong and again in the Balkans. History does have a pattern of repeating itself because people never seem to learn.

That's the way We do it. It doesn't usually make a huge difference compared to the rate suggested by the tax offices (not always the same) or the myriads of professionals on Fartbook but on small pensions every penny helps.

Thanks jardiniere for the info.
As I understand it POA can only be entered into whilst the person is compus mentus, when they aren't it all becomes difficult, takes time and is very expensive and her bank, First Direct might well refuse to accept a foreign document even with an authorised translation.

As much as I hate to admit it I might well not be able look after her properly due to her form of dementia.

There are two forms of dementia, my wife has the second type - vascular, it has a time frame of up to 5 years. We are lucky in that we can afford to cover this and for longer if I get access to her account.Then I will go back into he markets, my brain hasn't slowed down and I've never lost my interest I always keep up to date.

One point I didn't mention re. the NHS pension scheme which I have never encountered before - on getting through I was told that 'any abusive phone call would be immediately terminated'. Who would be contacting the NHS pension scheme - only retired people or their family. Then I found out that to change the banking details I would have to download a German app. Even if my wife didn't have dementia she would have found this impossible to do. It took me 4 attempts before I was given a code. I can imagine that a lot of retired members could get very upset. Obviously this system has been set up - not for the members benefit but for those operating 'the system'.

I always sent money over in lumps via Transferwise, because I didn't like getting screwed by banks.

I also knew that our bank in France, Banque Populaire also charged us sending them Euros. 

Nutty, I'm surprised that you say that your State pension is sent in Euros because yesterday I contacted the Pension Service to be told that they only send Sterling. I asked the 'agent' to repeat that statement and she did.

I don't know who you bank with but all the banks that I know of in the UK charge an awful lot more for currency exchange  than currency transfer companies set up precisely to offer far better rates than UK banks.

As Wise (name change) operates in the UK though is registered in Belgium Both my wife's pensions can be sent to her Wise account in Sterling and then exchanged into Euros at a rate far better than that offered by UK banks. 

I can understand the rule that pensions can only be sent to accounts that are in the name of the pensioner, joint accounts are OK.

I'd like to know how much French banks charge for inputting Euros as they have far more charges than UK banks. My wife was never happy using a mobile phone even when we lived in Spain, otherwise I would have a Wise account as well. A debit card with Wise is €6 p.a and I could charge everything to the Wise card. 

Quite so.
The comment from iolar is misleading.
DWP will pay UK pensions directly into a French bank account in euros via CitiBank.
My UK state pension arrives in my Crédit Agricole account in euros every 4 weeks on the same day that it would arrive in the UK, with no additional charges deducted.
I have two private pensions, one with Reassure (part of Phoenix Group), and one with Scottish Widows. Both are paid into my CA account in euros with a 2 working day delay on the UK payment date.

Mine is payed from DWP direct to my bank ,la poste, in euros with no charges.