Help Please....I received this email from the owner of the apartment I am renting and am not sure of the meaning....I used Babel Fish and got this:
I am obliged to ask for to you asupplement of 15 € for the bank charges related to the cheque d'installment. I can also keep your cheque in guarantee and ask you to pay totality on your arrival in cash.
Here is the French:
Je suis obligée de vous demander un supplément de 15 € pour les frais
bancaires liés au chèque d'acompte. Je peux aussi garder votre chèque
en caution et vous demander de payer la totalité à votre arrivée en
cash.
Does it mean that she wants me to send a cheque for her to hold and then she will give it back and I pay the total in euro when I arrive? Would I still pay the 15E for bank charges? She sent the contract but I don't see any details about a bank to send it to.
I appreciate your help!
Barbara

I think you've got the gist of it. If you want to pay using a check, she will want you to pay the 15E fee the bank charges her for cashing your check. If you want to avoid the additional fee, she is glad to use your check as a hold on the apartment then have you pay for the apartment in cash on arrival, returning your check to you at that time.

quote:

Je suis obligée de vous demander un supplément de 15 € pour les frais
bancaires liés au chèque d'acompte. Je peux aussi garder votre chèque
en caution et vous demander de payer la totalité à votre arrivée en
cash.

"You must pay a €15 supplement for the bank fees related to the down payment cheque. I can then keep your cheque as guarantee and will ask you to pay cash in full upon your arrival."

It does not say in so many words that your owner will give you back your cheque, but usually that's what happens.
One cannot accuse babblefish of being misnamed.

quote:

"You must pay a €15 supplement for the bank fees related to the down payment cheque. I can ALSO keep your cheque as guarantee and will ask you to pay cash in full upon your arrival."

It is not then but also (that's an alternative not a conclusion)

Which means if you do not want to pay the extra bank fees, she keeps the cheque as a guarantee and you pay cash on arrival (IMO a good deal!)

Yes, yymca has it exactly right. Very French, too, holding a check as a guarantee! Just don't do something silly like marking the check "non-negotiable." The whole idea is the opposite, in case you don't show up.

Dave

We have just been in contact with an owner for a house in Goult and to book it we send a personal cheque in, for us, A$ for 30% of the total price. The full amount is payable in cash (Euros) on arrival. The cheque will be kept as a deposit against breakages during the stay and returned on departure.

Our apartment in Beaune was very expensive for the owner as well as us when we transferred a deposit in Euros to the owners bank account - $A30 (18 Euros) and 15 Euros for the owner. To make matters worse, the amount credited was 10 Euros less than we had transferred.

Jill

All....
Thank you for helping to clarify this for me!

The underlying fact is that in France, once you've written a cheque and paid with it, it's illegal to cancel it, even in the case of a dispute with the merchant (of course, lost or stolen is a different story). Hence the value of the cheque as a "deposit" in this case. I understand it's not the case in the US.