French bank account on leaving?

[Jonzjob]

As a lot of you know we have left our lovely house in the Aude and returned to the U.K. But I now have a question?

We will have to settle up with the lovely French tax man/woman in September. For this we really need to keep our French bank account open. Is this a legal (?) possibility or do you have to have a French address to keep a French bank account?

We know that there's no problems the other way around, U.K. account with no U.K. address as long as you had it when you left, but is the French system living up to its normal standard of being different?

[AnOther]

Surely you've advised your bank of your change of address to UK although I have little doubt that responses to that will vary not only from bank to bank but quite likely down as far as branch to branch !

[andyh4]

Not a problem JJ as far as our experience is concerned. WE opened our account when resident in Germany and no eyebrows raised at all.

There must be hundreds or thousands of UK residents who have a French account to run their second home, although there you could say that they do have a French address - albeit not their primary one.

It seems to be a UK bank thing that you have to have a UK address to open an account (although that may be changing); and even then you can keep the account when you don't have a UK address any more (well mostly though there are a few reports to the contrary.)

[Patf]

We'll be keeping our CA account open for a while. We had a talk with the bank agent a few weeks ago, to ask about the transfer of the funds for the house sale. She advised to leave it in France for a month or so before transferring to our UK account.

I'm not sure about the reason for this - ? money laundering? Or is it a benefit for CA to have this credit for a while? She's a nice enough woman, but I don't trust any of these banks.

[YCCMB]

You can keep it.

https://www.hellolife.fr/article/je-demenage-a-l-etranger-que-devient-mon-compte-en-france_a12237/1

We've had a Fench account for the best part of 20 years with no problem. Although we did get a silly letter (each) from CA a few months back saying that they wanted all our UK tax details so they could notify HMRC of all the monies we have in France for tax purposes. We ignored them. The thought of trying to extricate ourselves from a discussion about how they planned to advise HMRC about both of us having money in a joint account when we are taxed separately just made my eyes water. Apart from which, we keep as little money as possible in France so I doubt we could be accused of doing a Lewis Hamilton...

[idun]

Hmmmmm......... I would keep an account open that does not incur charges, in fact I would keep one open for quite some time, with some money in it, but not a lot.

I say this because some people have ended up with problems after leaving, and I simply reckon that an account would be handy........... rightly or wrongly!!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a UK address and french bank accounts, we have three french bank accounts and they all have our UK address. NB we will always have at least one french bank account as most of our income comes from France.

Patf, why on earth would a french bank manager say that? You need to talk to your notaire about this,you have been residents for ages, so surely there can be no capital gains that would need calculating.....??

All I can say is that our house was sold, the money getting to the notaire on a Friday, who managed to hang onto it until the next week and then it was off and in our uk account via an FX company by the following Wednesday or Thursday.

I let our UK bank know that we were selling our french house, and our french bank knew too.

[Loiseau]

+1 for no prob having UK address; I have done so for decades.

Patf, that is strange that your bank advised you not to transfer the money out right away. Though you should leave a bit in there for 6 months or so, in case there are any mistaken payments going out from organisations that have not noticed you have cancelled them, or in case of any adjusting payments INwards, for utilities accounts etc you have terminated. ( I have had quite a few of the latter come in since selling my house in November.)

As I still go to France fairly often, I thought I would keep my account open anyway, and transfer a bit over to it every now and then to use for cash, shopping and expenses when there. I reckon that would be cheaper that using a UK bank card each time.

[cajal]

[quote user="Loiseau"]

As I still go to France fairly often, I thought I would keep my account open anyway, and transfer a bit over to it every now and then to use for cash, shopping and expenses when there. I reckon that would be cheaper that using a UK bank card each time.[/quote]

Open yourself a 'Metro Bank' account and you will not be subjected to non-sterling charges on cash withdrawls or purchases when using your card in Europe. Info

[?X]

When closing an account make sure that all cheques you've written out have been paid-in and cleared.

When I returned to the UK I closed one account and kept the other open for tax/misc stuff. Only then somebody I'd written a check out to ages ago (on the now closed account) paid-it in and ... as per regs it bounced and all my French bank accounts were blocked.

And it was a "Catch 22" as I could not pay money in to the closed account to cover the cheque (as the account was closed) so could not clear the block. And then I got my tax bill ...

Fun and games and quite a challenge getting things unblocked.

[YCCMB]

Cajal...I've had an account with Metro Bank since just after they opened. Very useful, except that on my last half dozen visits to Lidl, I always get "carte muette" when I try to use it in their machines. Nowhere else, just Lidl...??

[cajal]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Cajal...I've had an account with Metro Bank since just after they opened. Very useful, except that on my last half dozen visits to Lidl, I always get "carte muette" when I try to use it in their machines. Nowhere else, just Lidl...??[/quote]

Ah Lidl, I hold a season ticket with them. No, have never suffered with the "carte muette" with Lidl. However have experienced the occasional hiccough with Carrefour filling station and shop. I always put it down to a time-out due to excessive card traffic on the system within Fr and UK

[Loiseau]

Thanks for the suggestion cajal; will look into it.

[AnOther]

Lets not forget Brexit, who knows how that might change things we currently take for granted

[Chancer]

Ditto my C.A. card often at Lidl, never a problem elsewhere, its the only sans contact card I have so I use it for purchases under €20 (silly low plafond) its refused often at Lidl (no other purchases that day) but will work at another magasin straight after, I tried it in the chip & pin reader and it brought up the message solde insuffisant which really had me worried because I had a huge amount in the account, its one thing for an ignorant shop assistant to hand your card back saying that quite another for a system to malign you in that way.

 

But this is France where I have to have 2 bank accounts and multiple cards just to be able to spend a limited (by them) amount of my own money if they are feeling in the mood.

[YCCMB]

Even back in the 70's I had (in fact, I probably still have: I had to leave France in a rush and never did close it) a French bank account. That was in the days of currency restrictions and Francs. It was a "compte étranger" but it was easy enough to open...and I was on a carte de séjour and travelling back and forth.

I doubt that banking will become much more complex post-Brexit then it was pre-Brexit.

[suein56]

You can call me Betty wrote : I doubt that banking will become much more complex post-Brexit then it was pre-Brexit.

Perhaps not too much change but my feeling is that it might become more expensive. SEPA transfers between European countries/banks are free for us at present but with the possibility of new rules after Brexit who knows what will happen ? Similar charges to those that arise at present when transferring money to the US come to mind.