Wealthy Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 Are there any HSBC Banks in France and if so, can one drw money from, say, machines with Cirrus logo or any other? Also, is it absolutely necessary to have a French bank account - if using cash and/or visa/mastercard all the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 Firstly, you have mentioned 'relocate' to France, then you ask about family allowance. Secondly, you cannot pay your french bills by cash, usually. So why not bite the bullet and just admit that you and your family will be french residents and sort everything out as such, you did after all use that awful word 'relocate'. So I would get very good tax and accountancy advice and from several notaires about inheritance too. And if 'relocating' here, I would certainly get a french bank account. There are HSBC's in France. Strangely the only one they mentioned last time I looked on their web site was the CCF, which I personally would not use...... traditionally a banque patrimonale and for an ordinary family like us, rather too snooty. However, there are other banks in France that the HSBC took over, you'd have to get your manager in the UK to really look into it for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkkent Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 [quote]Are there any HSBC Banks in France and if so, can one drw money from, say, machines with Cirrus logo or any other? Also, is it absolutely necessary to have a French bank account - if using cash an...[/quote]The general answer to your questions are "yes" and "yes".You can use any UK credit card or debit card in almost any "hole in the wall" you find.HSBC took over CCF a few years ago - but I believe that CCF is primarily for commercial customers not retail customers. If you have an HSBC Premier card (you do call yourself Wealthy) then you can use it in any HSBC machine anywhere in the world without incurring local costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 So how would this family pay their bills here. Most utilities won't take CB's either. And paying by cash is not done here. Also, if the family is living in France, then tax declarations will need doing here etc etc.The CCF are still rather like Coutts as far as I can tell. And that is the reason I'm with one of the other off shoots that the HSBC bought here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isabelmaidment Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 [quote]Are there any HSBC Banks in France and if so, can one drw money from, say, machines with Cirrus logo or any other? Also, is it absolutely necessary to have a French bank account - if using cash an...[/quote]You can get by without a French bank account but you will get ripped of on the exchange rate/fees on credit cards and banks on small sum transfers. You will also have afair chance of being cut off by phone, power and water utilites. Anton Redman ( suffering gender realignment following new forum software) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moon Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 [quote]Firstly, you have mentioned 'relocate' to France, then you ask about family allowance. Secondly, you cannot pay your french bills by cash, usually. So why not bite the bullet and just admit tha...[/quote]Hi Teamed Up...Are you seeing more than us mortals, you are answering questions an commenting on things I cannot see in the original post you are replying to.Puzzled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mysfloss Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 [quote]Firstly, you have mentioned 'relocate' to France, then you ask about family allowance. Secondly, you cannot pay your french bills by cash, usually. So why not bite the bullet and just admit tha...[/quote]If you can't pay your bills in cash how do people who have had there bank accounts stopped ,pay theirs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Widnesbob, Wealthy made a several posts on the board about, this, and everything else associated with moving a family to France, including family allowance. Am a reading something into it, well, I didn't need to be a devine , did I. And, I still say, if they move here, they shouldn't be considering messing on making cash withdrawals for everything. Mysfloss, I realise that there are money orders, and money could get transferred from the UK. But just to pay every day bills, aren't these very expensive options. And I really don't know where one would pay these bills with cash. Everything goes via banks and La Poste, salaries, unemployment, there is no tradition of paying out in cash or paying with cash for basic bills.I only know of one person who had their account stopped and was prepared to talk about it. It was all arranged with the bank. They would be allowed to pay their bills and make a certain cash withdrawals to live on and the rest of the salary had to remain in the bank and bit by bit they paid their debt off. It did work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeb Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 My French neighbour (elderly widow) doesn't have a bank account. She collects pension and pays all her bills at la poste.regards.......helen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Her pension will get paid into La Poste, so she will have an account. I am sure that they don't issue cash payments. If there is a TIP for the banks then there is a similar thing via La Poste too. Otherwise, as I very unwiseley did once, if one pays a credit transfer bill at La Poste in cash, then there is a charged for doing so and who can afford to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 People who have "lost" their account with a bank for a certain period are not likely to let anyone know are they !La Poste do offer the facility to pay your utilities, Telecom and some other bills for a small fee. Some like Taxe Foncière and Habitation I think, cannot be paid there but don't quote me on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Before I knew what I was doing, like last week, I used to pay my bills in cash at la Poste and you just pay a charge. Is it 2€ something now? Anyway, I found it cheaper than petrol to EDF.Then I discovered TIP . . .! Told you I was useless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Sorry, didn't get to the second page.Talking of taxe fonctionaire, just discovered I have been paying for a building I sold nine years ago... My poor neighbour, who I sold it to, hasn't slept since! What a worrier. Turns out we have BOTH been paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linnorton Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Actually Teamed Up, I can afford to pay the small charge for paying my utility bills at the Post Office in cash and that is what I do. It may not suit everyone but it does me. Why are you so keen on telling other people what to do and what to think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 HSBC are represented in the SW of France via Credit Commercial du Sud Quest or CCSO. (www.ccso.fr) I have been with them for 5 years and very good they are too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cacknanty Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 We bank with HSBC in the UK, when we started our property purchase last year I enquired at our branch if they would assist in opening up an account with CCF in France (knew nothing of the 'banque patrimonale' status). They were only too happy to help, got everything sorted, filled in forms and sent off the relevant docs.A couple of calls from head office in Paris later, I had an email and letters from the branch in Beaune welcoming me.Whenever I call in the branch they speak French until a blank look appears on my face and switch to English. They have been most helpful to us. Apart from buying the house and a month before any major works are taking place there is just a few hundred euros in the account. Being an IT guy in Local Government, I'm not really up with the hoy polloy (is that how you spell it ?). The problem is that there aren't many branches compared to the other banks.Having said all this,I am probably going to move to CA or La Poste next year as its a 60 mile round trip to get to the nearest CCF.Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now