Chicken or Egg

[sturrdave]

I`m a newbie, and wondering if anyone can answer this query?

I`m hoping to buy a French property within the next 6 to 8 months, but obviously I`ll need a French bank account in order to pay a large sum to the notaire, upon agreeing to purchase a property.

However, as I understand it, in order to open an account, I will need (amongst other things) either a utilities bill (which I won`t have!), or a document from the notaire saying I have purchased a property.  In other words, I can`t open an account in advance.

My concern is that : a) I would have to wander around with 10% of the house cost on my person.

                            b) The delay in opening the French account would exceed the period allowed

                                for payment of the remaining 90%.

Are my fears justified?

Hope someone can help.  Thanks in advance.

 

sturrdave

[Ron Avery]

Are my fears justified?  No.

You are right about having to have an address to open a bank account in France, but most people moving from the UK to France do an international bank transfer from their UK bank to the Notaires account, it will cost about £20 , but if you are sending a large amount of €'s you will be able to get your bank to prebuy your euros and hopefully get a good exchange rate, now is a good time to buy euros

[DZ]

I have done a bit of research on the topic, as I am trying to open a bank account in France too.  According to their literature, CA Britline bank will open an account for you even if you haven't bought your house yet.  If you haven't got a copy of a Compromis de Vente yet, it is enough for them to provide proof of visit to France within the last 6 months, eg. copy of bank statements showing card payments in France or copy of travel documents, such as boarding card or ticket showing your name.  You can check out their website on www.britline.com

Best of luck

Anna

[Jc]

I used a foreign currency bank draft from my own bank payable to the notaire-got commercial ex-rate.

[PeterG]

I opened an account with Credit Agricole Britline from the UK. Quite painless and they all speak English. The necessary brochure request to open an account can be done from their web site.

[Will]

You can open a compte etranger with many French banks, for which you will have to prove your identity and your British address.

But most people find it much better to use currency exchange companies or euro drafts/transfers from their British bank to pay house purchase deposits and balances, and open a French account once you have the house (or just before finally signing) in order to pay utility, insurance etc bills.

I'm pleased to see you referring to paying the deposit to the notaire. You should never need to pay this to an agent, postings on this and other forums demonstrate some of the things that can go wrong when this advice is ignored.

[sturrdave]

Many thanks to all above for your very helpful remarks.

sturrdave

[goose]

We had exactly the same problem, you need an account to buy a house and you need a house to open an account, but in the end Banque Populaire accepted a letter from a campsite owner saying we were living there whilst we looked for a house. Subsequently we found out that Credit Agricole are often prepared to bend the rules that leave you in this chicken and egg situation providing you get your immobilier to vouch that you are actively looking for property.

The man in charge at our local La Poste was very sympathetic to our plight and tried to help but sadly was overruled by his area manager.

[mascamps.com]

You should be able to use a UK utilities bill. What they're looking for is the same as in the UK: ID plus proof of address.

My original CA account was opened with a passport and UK electric bill. Downside is that your new French chequebook will turn up with your UK address on it and it's illegal to use a cheque in France with the wrong address on it ie you need to get it changed as soon as you move here.

You can't always transfer money to the notary. Due to security (read 9/11) concerns, my bank refused to do that and would only transfer the money to an account in my name.

 

Arnold

 

[mascamps.com]

Incidently, my account opened after we moved here is still a non-resident account. Seems that CA (at least locally) can't open a resident account if you're not French.

 

Arnold

 

[Ron Avery]

[quote]Incidently, my account opened after we moved here is still a non-resident account. Seems that CA (at least locally) can't open a resident account if you're not French. Arnold[/quote]

Arnold

I don't understand either of your posts.  How can a UK utility bill be adequate proof of address to open a bank account in France?  The whole idea of proof of residence in France is so that you cannot just open an account in France where cheques have to ( in theory anyway) be backed up by adequate funds and go round issuing rubber cheques which cannot be traced to an address in France, of course if you are opening a non-resident account that is different, but if you are moving here permanently why would you want a non-resident account?

Then you say " it seems that CA (at least locally) can't open a resident account if you're not French"  That is just not true, hundreds of us have ordinary CA current accounts, exactly the same as the French have.  Perhaps if you are not a fiscal resident here that would be true, but otherwise it is not.  Which CA are you talking about? 

[mascamps.com]

Courtesy of European legislation, you're allowed to open a bank account in any European country, even if you don't live there. I opened our original CA account with a UK passport and UK utility bill as proof of address when we were living in the UK (this was maybe 10 years back). Naturally, it was classed as a non-resident account but we were subsequently able to change the address to here with no problems (and no need to prove our new address either).

In French law, it doesn't matter if you're not resident. The no-bounce laws still apply although I don't know how they'd enforce it if you weren't living here.

CA sud-med couldn't open our accounts here after we moved as anything other than non-resident for reasons that neither they nor us could understand. Seems that once they put in nationality as British, that made it a non-resident account. We are tax resident in France and were at the time of opening these accounts.

It's not immediately obvious that the account is non-resident. It's not listed on the statements and, I think, was only stated on the account opening documentation. To all intents and purposes it's identical to an "ordinary" CA account so I don't know what the implications of it having a non-resident status. It was recogniseable as being such by one of the numbers on the RIB but I can't remember which one. It is still a non-resident account though as the RIB details were never changed as we were told they were going to be once they'd worked out why it was non-resident.

 

Arnold

 

[Mikejac]

I had no problem whatsoever.  I arranged with Currencies Direct to transfer the deposit to the notaire's account. They offered a better rate of exchange than my bank AND there was no charge, just the cost of a BACS transfer from my bank to them.  In all it took no more than a couple of days.  Also, within an hour or so of signing the initial contract for the house I had a bank account opened with the local Banque Poplulaire.  The only ID they wanted was our passports.  

[Brilec]

We had absolutely no problems either.

We went looking with no money, and signed the compromis, on the understanding that we would send the deposit to the notaire by SWIFT transfer as soon as we got back to England. Then, immediately after signing said compromis, we went round to the local Credit Mutuel, and opened an account there, using our english address. Absolutely no problem, just used our passports, and driving licence.

2 months later, we transferred enough money to cover the final payment to our french account, and came over to sign the Acte, picking up our cheque book on the way. We then gave the notaire a cheque for the outstanding amount, including the fees, which he happily accepted, though he did ring the bank to check that funds were there, the vendor asked him to do this.

So no chickens or eggs. Just a remarkably simple transaction.

Brian.

[Quillan]

We opened a Britline account via the internet prior to our move to France. They offer a overnight deposit system although you have to sign a contract each time but can put it on either at a week at a time or a month at a time (might as well get some interest while waiting to pay the notaire).

After we had bought the house we then opened an account (with a different bank) locally and then closed the Britline account. My personal reason for going this route was because if I had any problems I could speak to somebody in English. Makes you a bit nervous moveing large amounts of money from one country to another especially if you can't speak the language that well.