[Story Time] How I ended up blacklisted by the Bank of France and banned from banking (for a few days)?

A few days ago, an acquaintance got the nasty surprise of discovering, while applying for a loan at his bank, that he was blacklisted by the Bank of France. This is a good opportunity to tell you about the mishap that happened to me a few years ago.

It was July 2014, and I was on vacation (which was rare back then) in Chamonix. I was in the middle of a “Mont-Blanc course“. That day, the weather conditions didn’t allow for a long outing with the guide, so it was a “rest day”. We still got ready for a short hike, and it was just as we were about to leave that I received a call.

It was my business bank advisor (I have a personal account and a business account at two different banks). I was surprised because we rarely talk, and there was no reason for him to call me. He explained that he had received an alert saying I was “blacklisted by the Bank of France” and therefore banned from banking!

Wow, I was stunned by the news. Unfortunately, he couldn’t give me any more details; I had no banking incidents on his side, he had just received the alert. I had to contact the Bank of France.

This news seemed serious enough to ditch the idea of going out: my two companions would go climb the vertical kilometer without me.

So I called the Bank of France and quickly got a competent representative on the line.

First piece of bad news: she told me she couldn’t give me any personal information over the phone : I had to go to a Bank of France branch. Note: lately, you need to make an appointment over the phone before visiting a branch, or email a branch and receive the information by email.

She explained thatone can be banned from banking for two reasons:

Either you wrote a bad check (the infamous rubber checks)
Or you defaulted on a loan repayment :
1. This could be a loan you took out yourself
2. Or (and this is unfortunately common) a loan someone took out in your name by stealing your identity

Finally, she explained that the consequences of being banned from banking are twofold:

You’re no longer allowed to write checks (you also have to return your checkbooks to the bank)
You’re no longer allowed to take out a loan

At that point, nothing too drastic for me: I rarely use my checkbook, and I have no plans to go into debt in the near future.

The bad check hypothesis

I was lucky enough at the time to have a good income and be organized enough to never be overdrawn.

However, I had recently switched banks and it wasn’t entirely impossible that I had forgotten a check that hadn’t been cashed before the account was closed.

Since I was on vacation, I didn’t have my check stubs on hand to check.

So I contact my former bank and manage to get hold of my former advisor, to whom I explain the situation. He quickly replies that the problem doesn’t come from there and that “obviously, I would have contacted you if that had been the case.”

I consider this bad news; I would have preferred the problem to come from there.

The hypothesis of an unpaid loan

That’s when my heart starts racing.

I have no outstanding loans, so there’s nothing to repay.

However, a few months ago, I lost my ID : impossible to find it again. It could very well have been used by a malicious person to steal my identity and take out consumer loans in my name…

Then I’m reminded of news reports about people stuck in Kafkaesque situations, receiving dozens of demand letters for loan repayments they never requested… People unknowingly married to strangers because someone stole their birth certificate.

I’m at the end of my rope and start figuring out how to organize myself to take the train to the nearest Bank of France branch.

The plot twist

As I’m hanging up from a phone conversation with Anh, I receive a message on my answering machine.

It’s my former bank advisor!

After checking: there was indeed a bounced check from me!

Ahaha, you can’t imagine what relief it can bring to learn you’ve written a bad check!

I immediately call the advisor back, who explains the process. Since my account no longer exists and was closed, he’s going to send mea RIB on which I’ll need to make a transfer for the check amount. As soon as the transfer is received, I’ll be removed from the Bank of France file (without leaving a trace) and will no longer be banned from banking! That will be done a few days later.

Thanks to the check amount ($234), I easily identify who the check recipient was: it was the home care company that does cleaning for us. I contact them, explaining the situation, and that they can re-present my check that was refused in a few days. My contact isn’t aware but will pass it on to the accounting department.

Epilogue

This mishap has no consequences for me; I’ll just be out 2 or 3 hours of stress, a ruined hike, and a few days on the bank blacklist.

In hindsight, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my professional advisor who had the presence of mind (and professionalism) to warn me. Without him, I could have remained banned from banking for a long time without knowing it and realized it at the worst moment, a few years later, when we were about to apply for a loan to buy our rental apartment..

And to keep a bit of mystery in this story, a year later I receive a call from my former bank.

They explain that my $234 deposit wasn’t claimed and ask for my RIB to return it to me.

In other words: my bad check was never re-presented and will therefore never be cashed…

A few tips

Even though this mishap ended quickly, I’ve learned a few lessons:

Use checkbooks as little as possible: even if you don’t have tight budgets, it’s easy to forget a check. The simplest is to not use them.In our time, it’s very rare to be in a situation where it’s the only payment method. For my part, I don’t even have a checkbook anymore.
If you receive collection letters from credit organizations for consumer credit companies like Cofinoga, Cofidis or Sofinco, France’s consumer credit register, as well as bailiff demand letters, is a major red flag. Don’t take this lightly and assume these are scam attempts. There’s a strong chance you’re the victim of identity theft. Don’t take it lightly, contact the organizations to find out more (by calling their official numbers, provided on their official website, and ask if you actually have a file with them), and file a police report if this is confirmed.
As soon as you lose an ID document (ID card, driver’s license, or passport, even if you might have just misplaced it at home), go to the police station to report the loss of your document.
The files you send when looking for an apartment to rent are particularly sensitive. Copy of ID, pay stub, proof of address… everything needed to steal your identity. A good practice is to add a watermark to each document to identify the recipient of the file (“Landlord X file” for example). This is likely to strongly deter a malicious person. If it doesn’t, you’ll be able to easily identify who stole your identity by getting the documents used in the credit application.

What to do if you’ve been blacklisted due to identity theft?

I file a police report as soon as possible at a police station or gendarmerie brigade. It’s possible to file a pre-complaint online. For it to be registered as a formal complaint, I must sign this statement at a gendarmerie unit or police station of my choice.
I notify all banks where I’m a customer
I write to the local branch (contact details on mesquestionsdargent.fr, the Banque de France website) with a copy of my ID to get a statement of my situation in the FCC and FICP (the French credit and banking incident databases).
I request a consultation of the FICOBA, the French national file of bank accounts and similar, which lists all types of accounts (bank, postal, savings…)
The Banque de France gives me a list of incidents and the banks that reported them (within one business day)
I contact the banks and organizations that have blacklisted me and request access to the files and documents provided when the file was created (for Sofinco, it takes one business day). I join these files to my report and supplement my police complaint.
I send by mail or via the Banque de France website a file for identity theft to the Banque de France with:
- a signed letter naming the banks where I did not open an account or take out credit but that have blacklisted me
- a copy of my police report
- a copy of my ID
  - any additional document must be sent by mail because the file created on the Banque de France website cannot be modified

After the Banque de France processes the file with the reporting institution (the one that blacklisted you), if the identity theft is recognized, the Banque de France adds a specific mention for the incidents in question. A certificate will also be issued. If a bank consults these files, it will see that I am not responsible for these incidents.

So the blacklisting will still be there, but with a comment specifying that the blacklisting isn’t related to you, but to identity theft.

This helps prevent your identity from being stolen again. For example, if another criminal applies for credit in your name, this comment will show up. Banks and credit organizations will pay more attention to the file before approving it.

What timeline should you expect?

For the record, in the case of someone I know: the file at the Banque de France was submitted on a Friday. On Monday, the Banque de France sends the relevant credit reporting file, naming the credit organization that requested the rating. The Banque de France file is completed. The same day, the Banque de France transfers the file to the credit organization.
At the same time (Monday), they contact the credit organization by phone to report the identity theft. Finally, on Wednesday, the credit rating is lifted by the credit organization.