pete charente

Have a look at neuf.fr they do sim cards with no time expiry but I think you have to be a customer of theirs first, as I am, with broadband and free phone calls. They also give you 10 mins per month of calls for free, and the sim card was free. This could suit you.

I found Neuf to be simple to set up with the disc giving a good picture description if not au fait with french techie language. I was cut off from FT for two days during the change over but was told about this when signing up. No more line rental for FT either. Since then no problems and was pleasantly surprised to have my first bill showing zero cost for many calls to UK landlines. Now I have two puters connected to the same neuf box both with fast access.(one for the missus shopping,- hours spent on it). Another nice offer from them was a mobile card gratuit with ten minutes free calls each month for 0.00 euro's and no time expiry. All in all a really good service, a refreshing change from the UK providers.

Hi folks, should have made it clearer. On opening account with nationwide i gave my UK address but said that soon Iwould be residing in France and would that cause a problem with documentation, the answer was that it made no difference where I lived once the account was open so long as I informed them of my change of address. This seemed acceptable to me as you say other banks don't really want to know if you move abroad, or if they allow you to keep your account you get stung for withdrawing or transferring funds. Hope this clears up my previous post and sorry for raising undue expectations I will try it out in France and if I get problems will post another message Regards pete

Hi folks, should have made it clearer. On opening account with nationwide i gave my UK address but said that soon Iwould be residing in France and would that cause a problem with documentation, the answer was that it made no difference where I lived once the account was open so long as I informed them of my change of address. This seemed acceptable to me as you say other banks don't really want to know if you move abroad, or if they allow you to keep your account you get stung for withdrawing or transferring funds. Hope this clears up my previous post and sorry for raising undue expectations I will try it out in France and if I get problems will post another message Regards pete

Hi, regarding sterling accounts I've just opened an account with Nationwide Building society.They don't care where you live, the flex account allows you to withdraw from cash machines without charge and at a reasonable exchange rate, it is operable on internet and the instant transfer savings account pays 4.75% interest. so far the best i could find and the young lady who set it up for me in half an hour was most helpful. Hope this might be of help.