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FRENCH BANK ACCOUNT ADVICE


Laura2510
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This is my first time on this forum, or any, for that matter!!! At the moment we are in the process of getting a mortgage approval and within the application form it asks for a paying-in slip from a French bank account to be attached as proof of having a bank account - we have not got this far yet and although the mortgage advisor has told us it won't hold up the application process they have forwarded us an info/application pack for CA Britline - does anyone have any experience with this bank or any other advice or experience with other French banks?
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Hello, welcome to the Forum and to France!

If you put CA Britline into the search box (top RH corner of the screen), there are loads of stuff about CA, banking, etc.  Probably more than you'd like to know but it's as well to be informed?

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Another welcome, Laura.

As you'll have seen from searching as Sweet advised, Britline's big advantage is that they speak English. However, you might also find that banks near you also have English-speaking staff, if you need them - and many of us lose our French tongue from time to time in stressful situstions!

I seem to vaguely remember when we were deciding on a bank that for Britline you need to post things off to them, rather than having a local branch you can just pop in to - someone will pop in to put me right if that's a false memory! [:)]

 

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Welcome to the forum.

It is relatively easy to open a bank account, so long as you have proofs of identity and proof of address (which can be a UK address). Check very carefully what charges you will incur with your proposed bank account: many charge for services that you might be used to having free of charge in the UK - eg debit cards/cash cards. Some banks - particularly online ones such as Boursorama and Fortuneo - provide free services.

Regards

Pickles

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Hi, we opened an account with CA Britline 7 years ago and received a lot of helpful advice from them so much so that when we moved to France permanently we transferred the britline account to our local CA bank. We understood there was a charge for closing the account of around 70 euros so left that amount in the account but found to our surprise that they transferred the balance and there were no charges to pay. I know there are a lot of folks on this forum who wouldn't recommend CA but we have had no problems whatsoever, they even arranged for an english speaking person from another branch to talk us through accounts/assurance etc as our french skills weren't up to much at the time!

Regards, Chris
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I do apologize and for spreading the load we once had a Banque Postal account in a place called Percy in Normandie. We no longer have that account seeing once the local manager legless in the local bar chatting about the accounts of Les Anglaise and if he cannot even get one's nationality correct there is little chance.
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We used Britline as recommended by a friend.  My French is not up to detailed financial discussions (not that they have been required yet) but I like the comfort of guaranteed English speaking if it ever came to that.

I have nothing but good to say about them (other than the home insurance they quoted me for was very pricey). It is easy to set up from abroad, everything has been very clear and worked well.  I use their internet banking service.  The only drawback I could foresee is in having your bank in a different part of France to where you live.  You are limited to how to pay in cheques (by post) and how much cash you can withdraw per month from other banks machines.

As an infrequent visitor to my second home this has not concerned me in the slightest and I have never got close to the limits.  If a full time resident a "local" bank may be better though.

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Hello Laura - we opened a CA Britline account several years ago for no other reason to obtain a French debit card for use at petrol stations and at the toll booths on the motorways.  We have been happy with the service although - as Pickles mentioned earlier - we have to pay handsomely for the two debit cards (about £45pa).  French banking is much more regionalised than UK and it helps to set up arrangements with a local bank once you have decided where to buy.

Best wishes

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I've had no problems whatsoever with Britline (apart from the remarkable amount of paper they seemed to want to open the account) and stonking service from their insurance arm to boot (money in bank 3 weeks after the original claim, including visit from their assessor).  I live 6ks from the Normandy border so have a branch of CA Normandie (their parent company) not far away thus have none of the remote problems (although the bank employees don't speak much English they are very helpful.)

The English speaking aspect can be really handy.  Even if one of you speaks fluent French, consider what might happen if the French speaker weren't there.  When I was in a coma my o/h could sort our financial affairs no problem because there was a competent English speaker on the other end of the line.  Worth consideration, imo.

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