French Bank Account Charges

[Glenn]

OK, I'm currently trying to get used to the weird and wonderful charges my account seems to be attracting. I'm with Britline and so far am being charged:

9.50 euros to set up each and every Direct Debit

1 euro each time a DD from another bank (ie not Credit Agricole) hits my account.

I've heard the French banking system is 'different' to the UK but.....!!

Does anyone know if all banks have charges like this?

[Teamedup]

Not surprised about this. They should give you a comprehensive list of their charges if you ask. What they want is for you to take a contract with them that covers everything, these things aren't cheap, but maybe cheaper than the amounts you are currently paying.

[Will]

We have accounts with CA (non-Britline) and Soc Gen, the former has quite a lot of prélevements (direct debits) and I can't remember being charged for any, with either bank. But all French banks have all sorts of charges for odd things, what one bank gives for free another will charge for and vice versa. If saving a few euros is important then look at each bank's charges compared with what you want to do with your account.

[moon]

We have a Credit Agricole account (non Britline) as well and pay some of our bills by direct debit. We have no charges to pay in addition to dd itself. Only thing they charge for is the bankcard.

Bob

[Tink]

Britline's charges are online http://www.britline.com/g1/banking_info.htm and you should of received that info also when you opened up the account in the information package. At least we did, so those charges are no surprise to me.

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Tink (22)

[Franglais24]

We were introduced to Credit Agricole by another Brit. There's a small charge per month for the basic account, and another small monthly charge for being able to use the cashpoint card as a debit card. We weren't charged for setting up a direct debit.

Highly recommended.

F24.

[Peabody]

British banks have more subtle ways of taking our money. For example, the 2.75% they charge for using a debit card abroad.

 

[Andyphilpott]

I am with Credit Ag in PACA and the only charge I have is for the debit cards - 1 at full price and 1 at half price.

They have often tried to make extra charges but a stroppy letter usually sets them straight, even with my limited command of the language. Last time it was a small charge for an enhanced version of their on line banking which I did not need (the basic version is free) and although it took a couple of months to sort it out they did refuned the previous charges.

The trouble is they don't ask you if you would like a service, they just provide it regardless and charge until you tell them to drop it.

More recently we had a problem getting our new debit cards which expired at the end of August as they were insisting on us collecting them - I did not feel it was worth a 1500 mile round trip! I understand that they only hold them for a limited time and if not collected they are destroyed so I did not want that to happen. A friend from the village dropped into the bank and explained the position and they arrived at home in the UK 2 days later by recorded delivery! And they made no charge for that.

Andy

[MikeHarrison<P>Yours<P><P>Mike<P>]

Have you got a business account? Are any direct debits to non French accounts?

 

Both could explain it. I find e-mailing them usually gets me a good response in about 24 hours.

 

(That's how I got them to post my debit card to me)

[gjp23]

I've had a CA (non Britline) account for about 15 months now.  Yes, they charge for band cards, which is sort of acceptable but what really gets me is that they charge for receiving transfers from my UK bank, despite all necessary RIB and IBAN details which are supposed to make the transaction fully automatic.

The service generally is good, although you need at least basic French as branch staff will often be French only speakers.

On a slightly different note, has anyone used the CA Internet service and, if so, what did you think of it?

 

[Andyphilpott]

CA always charged to receive funds electronically or otherwise and the only exception has been when I use the Moneybookers service where there has never been a charge. I think Moneybookers take advantage of a Government sponsored system which precludes charges.

As regards the internet service, if you mean the En Ligne service at CA I have found it very useful to keep track of my account, but I only use it for viewing the account and not for the other services which they can provide as I really do not need these. The basic service is free but they will always try to sell you the souped up version if you do not stand your ground.

I have always had good service from CA although now we have a cash dispenser in the village (funded by the Post Office, CA and the Regional Government for some reason!) I really have little need to actually go into the branch. Security has been stepped up though. It used to be a case of just press the button and walk in the door, but now it has been jazzed up with a fetching blue facade and lockers into which you must put any metal objects before you squeeze into a large cylinder before they let you in. Not sure how the guy with the tin leg manages it.

Andy