Finance -Bank accounts

[Fugly]

Can anyone advise how long it takes to be able to use a bank account in France, after opening it? ie - get the cheque book, sign cheques, draw money?

[Meo]

I opened my current account at La Poste at the beginning of January and am still waiting for my cash card. I have been in three times to enquire about its whereabouts, only to be told "oh, it's not been ordered". Each time, a note was put on the sytem and I was told it should be there in a week. Yesterday, when I lugged myself back in for my customary weekly frustration, they decided it was because i have less than 500 euros in my account that no card has arrived. Yes, I am venting my spleen and have not answered your question......just, in my experience, it has been far from a smooth operation!

[Lizzie15]

[quote]I opened my current account at La Poste at the beginning of January and am still waiting for my cash card. I have been in three times to enquire about its whereabouts, only to be told "oh, it's not be...[/quote]

Hi. I opened an account last month and was told the cheque book would take up to 10 days to arrive.3 weeks later we discovered that it is policy for non-Nationals ( she said this, not necessarily non-residents!!We sent a Frenchman in just to double check the info!!!) to be issued with a cheque book after 3 months!!Apparently the rules had changed in January and the lady hadn't realised!! Everything else ,cashcard,pin numbers etc, arrived within 2 weeks!!!

 

 

[Fugly]

What a shame  - I was thinking of going with La Poste, as, reading other people's comments elsewhere in the forum, it seems to emerge as one of the cheapest. The banks in the town I'm about to go and live in are Banque Populaire and CA. BP seems to be expensive and CA very fragmented, although frankly the whole system seems chaotic to me at the moment!

What does CCF stand for, and where can it be found? I'm with HSBC in England and I understand CCF has links with it. It's not a bank I've noticed when I've been travelling round France. Does anyone know of any other French banks that have links with HSBC?

[a.foreman]

CCF is changing its name to HSBC as they are the same banking group

not many banks about but they hope to open more.

Our account is in caen but we use a CCF in Rennes  

we open our CCF account through HSBC in the UK    

[Hagar]

You can find your nearest CCF branch at this link

http://www.cartegie.com/ccf_agences2/

CCF has a nationwide network of 774 branches, including branches of 11 regional banks which are part of CCF.

Unfortunately HSBC in the UK only seem able to set up an account in the main CCF branches rather than the regional subsidiaries which are probably more useful (at least that was our experience.

rgds

Hagar

 

 

[BJSLIV]

Another problem with CCF is that it sees itself as a Coutts type bank, rather than a simple HSBC/Midland  anyone welcome operation. The small number of branches can also be a problem with the increasing habit of French banks to restrict or charge for when one uses  cash dispensers belonging to other banks. A particular problem when, at least the last time I checked, our local branch in Tours doesn't even have a machine of its own.

[Fugly]

Thank you all for the info which I am checking out.

Hagar-the website was very useful, but I can't locate the 11 regional branches you mention. Do you know what or where they are? Do they have a different name? I shall be living in NE Creuse, and as far as I can see the nearest CCFs will be Limoges or Clermont-F. For me, Gueret, Chateauroux or Montlucon would be nearer.

I have a Maestro card, and in England you can withdraw money from many other banks ATMs without charge. I have also withdrawn money from my English current account, in France, with the Maestro card, but paid a £1.75 fee for that. I would naturally look to open a French account where I'm not paying a fee to get at my own money (as would we all!).

What are the charges like comparing writing cheques ,to using a debit card? Either with CCF - or anyone else's experiences?

[Hagar]

Fugly - have a look here -

http://www.ccf.com/ccf/fr/agences/index.do#sud

As you can see they have quite a network of subsidiary banks operating regionally. Only problem is that HSBC in the UK don't seem to have links directly to these regional banks - only through CCF itself which, in our case, meant the nearest branch the Uk could open an account for me was 120km away.

That notwithstanding - we opened a CCF account last year, to sit alongside A CA britline account that we have had for a few years. - I operate it entirely through the internet - get very nice letters from my account manager which I don't reply to.

Charges to date have been absolutely minimal - same day transfers from HSBC UK account to CCF Euro account incur no charges, nor do domestic transfers from CCF to the CA britline account. 

We have never been charged for using the CA issued carte bancaire anywhere in france. Indeed, unlike some others, I haven't really noticed any abnormal charges with either CA or CCF.

rgds

Hagar

   

[Tony the Turner]

Have been with CCF for over 11 years. We use the Caen branch which seems to be the only one in Lower Normandy. As our maison secondaire is in the Suisse Normande, it is quit a trek but the staff are very charming and actually remember us between fairly infrequent visits.

We joined them in 1993 because at the time they had a "relationship" with RBS in the UK. This gave us virtually instant electronic money transfers through the IBOS system at modest cost. However, since the HBSC got its hands on CCF this service has been withdrawn.

We have probably stayed with them through the inertia factor. We thought about a move when they introduced a €6 quarterly charge until we found out that all French banks seem to do this - what about competition policy Mr Europe?. However, having download a 36 page mini-guide!! from the Federation Bancaire Francaise, I am not sure that I could stand the strain. Has anyone any thoughts on hassle-free bank swapping?

[Tourangelle]

I am with the Société générale and don't pay a quarterly charge.

[Tony the Turner]

On checking Societe Generale's website, it seems that they do make various charges, although not a standing charge. Having costed the various charges with their tarif, it would seems that CCF costs us about what SG would cost. Still , thanks for the info.

[jaylottJohn]

Having read all the doom and gloom accounts of French Banks on this forum, I was somewhat surprised by the experience I've just had with Banque Populaire des Alpes.

Got keys to our Chalet in the AM, decided to check the local bank for current account & insurance as all quotes out of the UK seemed high.

Got an immeadiate appointment, did all the account opening paperwork with English speaker, deposit, current etc. Got internet access, debit cards etc for 7 euros/month, hardly a huge amount.

Insurance cost me 300 Euros for better cover of Buildings AND contents than I was being offered for £700 out of the UK. And yes we did declare 2nd home and all that.

Overall an exemplary service at a great price so far.

[Teamedup]

We moved to one of the other HSBC banks in France three years ago. The CCF, well, as was said, a Coutts type bank and their interest in the little affairs of ours were of no interest to them what so ever. I can't say it has been trouble free in our new bank, but probably as smooth as it can get using a french bank.

 Personally I hope that only  the  ccf agencies in France become known as the HSBC, rather than the other banks that they took over.

[Fay]

Hi. Is it possible to open a French bank account before one has bought a property?

We are going house-hunting in April and thought it would be useful to set up an account while we are over there, since we know very specifically where we are looking to buy. If so, what documentation does one need if one is applying on the spot?

We were thinking about signing up with Britline, but as we are with an internet bank (smile) the problems of getting a bank reference, passports witnessed by bank, and non-internet-printout statements make it a bit of a fiddle.

Thanks for any advice!

Fay

[a.foreman]

we opened our account with CCF before we bought using our UK address 

We did it at our local HSBC bank 

[Will]

[quote]Hi. Is it possible to open a French bank account before one has bought a property? We are going house-hunting in April and thought it would be useful to set up an account while we are over there, sinc...[/quote]

It was a while ago now, but we opened a compte etrangère with our local Credit Agricole - I think that was after we had found the house but well before it became ours. Despite all the horror stories about Credit Agricole it was very simple, and no undue charges, though I'm not saying those with bad experiences are wrong - with all banks, in Britain as well as France, some branches are far worse than others.

Going back to a previous point, we have a Société Générale account too, which carries few if any charges for what we want to do. I believe that there is a heavy annual charge, though, if you want a second carte bleue for the account (though we did get a leaflet about a temporary discount on that).

[Tourangelle]

I had posted as a separate topic, but it would have been better in here, that the magazine "que choisir" has an article on banks in its latest issue and there is a comparitive table. Incidently having previously recommended Société Générale they don't come out too well, though I have not found them expensive. But it really depends what you're after in terms of services. Anyway, an interesting article.

[rozi]

Charges. We opened an account with Credit Agricole, deposited 500 euros in Feb 2005 and were amazed to recieve statement with a debit for 16,74 euros as we have not used our card or written any cheques at all. This amount seems very steep for a quarterly charge. Is this right?

[Will]

Some French banks do impose charges for non-use of accounts so try and have a couple of movements of funds every  so often to avoid these. They also charge for closing accounts. Up until very recently, 'free banking' and interest-paying current accounts were technically forbidden in France.

[mascamps.com]

I would expect that HSBC in France will do as they've done in all the other countries that they have moved to ie the entire CCF and subsidiaries network will be rebranded HSBC. Not quite so simple here in France as that will, in due course, require the subsidiaries to move their various accounts onto the CCF computer system ie you're looking at a few more years before everything becomes HSBC. You can see the initial stages of this already as the two CCF subsidiaries locally don't even have leaflets in the branches for their own accounts anymore and appear to have stopped product development (eg Premier is only available via CCF directly).

One plus point is that you can use any HSBC cashcard in any HSBC machine anywhere in the world without charge. This is contrary to what the branches will tell you and in I was categorically told that my savings account card definitely wouldn't work abroad but it does, though only in HSBC machines. Interesting point is that the savings account doesn't have any provision in the rules for charging for overseas use.

Has anybody tried the option of having an account here but using Eggs card as a means of accessing it, thereby avoiding the fee for having a debit card?

 

Arnold