Best way of putting small amounts of money into french bank account.

[Mr.Ian Burke]

dear everyone, please could someone advise as to the best way to pay in small amounts (£1,000) of cash into a french bank account in france. can this be done using sterling as we have heard the rate is better than in england. many thanks for your help.

[derf]

I don't know about a better rate in France than the UK, you can pay a sterling check into a french account but the charges would be on the large side, here is a reply i made to another thread.

We have used Nationwide to do a Swift transfer to our French Bank for large amounts but there is always a charge about £20 I believe and usually a poor exchange rate, however if you only want to keep your French account topped up to pay the bills then taking money from your Nationwide Flex account via a French ATM cost nothing and a reasonable rate of exchange, you can then pay it into your French bank account. We do this all the time, also it is much better when using a UK credit card in France to use Nationwide Visa again no charges.

If you are in France you can normally withdraw €400 a day (maybe more if you get an agreement with Nationwide, first check daily and weekly limits with them) so over a week you can withdraw a reasonable amount without inuring charges  you then pay it all in one lump sum into your French account.

[David M Reynolds]

If you are considering doing this on a regular basis, then the best way to do this would be by setting up a regular transfer using a curreny broker.  I can reccomend HIFX, they do it every month by a direct debit. They do not charge to transfer the funds and throught them the French bank doesn't charge to receive them.

Also you fix a rate so you know what you are getting every month and don't have to worry about it for another year! The service is called Regular Payments Abroad - tell them I recommended you!

[Jc]

My Co-op Branch uses TIPANET with a flat charge of £8 on each transaction.

[Ron Avery]

You can only pay sterling cash into your own bank account in France now, my experience was that it took ages to clear even being cash and with CA I got the tourist rate not the bank rate.  Best to do a transfer from your UK bank account or open a Nationwide account as suggested by others , take euros out of the hole in the wall and pay them into your bank

[Krill]

Is it possible to open a UK bank account with say nationwide if you perminently live in France then ? I thought you had to come up with copies of domestic bills etc, something to do with money laundering or something like that

[derf]

[quote]Is it possible to open a UK bank account with say nationwide if you perminently live in France then ? I thought you had to come up with copies of domestic bills etc, something to do with money launder...[/quote]

It's not possible with Nationwide B.S. to open a Uk account as an overseas resident, you may be able to open an offshore account with them in the Channel Islands, I don't suppose you would be able to benifit from the credit and debit cards though. 

[Ariegoisie]

I think you're right. If you're non-resident in the UK it is difficult to open a UK bank account. There are however some banks that offer specilised accounts for this purpose. Generally there are account charges and conditions applying, such as the minimum balance that must be maintained, etc.

Strangely enough all our banks were quite happy with a simple change of address notification when we moved to France though none would have let us open an account if we had moved there first !

G.