Bringing money into the country

[anotherbanana]

If I do manage to find a car how difficult is it to bring money into the country from UK without causing the wrath of the French banking gods to fall on my head, svp?

[BritinBretagne]

There is absolutely no problem. Just use someone like (Transfer)Wise to move pounds from your U.K. account, exchange them into euros and pay them into your French account. It will all take less than an hour.

[anotherbanana]

Can I pay direct to the garage, is it legal?

[Ken]

Easy to transfer money. There are many companies that will do it for you (as someone suggested already)

As for paying cash to a dealer, well, if you are shrewd there are certain benefits to be had with hard cash!!!!!!

[BritinBretagne]

Yes, of course you can pay a garage directly. With Wise the only restriction is that you have to pay them from an account in your name.

[pomme]

There is a limit of 10,000€ bringing cash into France and it could cause problems trying to prove where it came from and to pay that into a bank account. Stick to a "paper" trail. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/IP_07_832

The maximum cash transaction for buying a car is 1500€ see Plafonds here: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F10999

Make sure the UK bank account the money comes from is declared on form 3916 and you might as well declare TransferWise as well (since that declaration seems a bit ambiguous). Make sure you can justify where the money in the UK account came from (and, if necessary, declare that).

Transfer it to a real French bank account. I'd probably opt to pay by cheque rather than by bank transfer from the French bank account even though a cheque might take longer to clear.. Doing it directly from TransferWise could cause problems with proving provenance.

[nomoss]

[quote user="pomme"]There is a limit of 10,000€ bringing cash into France and it could cause problems trying to prove where it came from and to pay that into a bank account. Stick to a "paper" trail. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/IP_07_832

The maximum cash transaction for buying a car is 1500€ see Plafonds here: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F10999

Make sure the UK bank account the money comes from is declared on form 3916 and you might as well declare TransferWise as well (since that declaration seems a bit ambiguous). Make sure you can justify where the money in the UK account came from (and, if necessary, declare that).

Transfer it to a real French bank account. I'd probably opt to pay by cheque rather than by bank transfer from the French bank account even though a cheque might take longer to clear.. Doing it directly from TransferWise could cause problems with proving provenance.[/quote]

Not quite correct, I think you read that too quickly [:)]

The link you provided says:

Le paiement en espèces est soumis à des plafonds dans certaines situations.

Le

paiement en espèces entre particuliers (achat d'une voiture ou d'un

tableau par exemple) n'est pas limité. Un écrit est nécessaire au-delà

de 1 500 € pour prouver les versements.

Règlement des impôts et taxes

Le paiement en espèces au guichet des centres des finances publiques est limité à 300 €.

Paiement à un professionnel

Le paiement en espèces d'un particulier à un professionnel ou entre professionnels est autorisé jusqu'à 1 000 €.

Ce plafond est relevé à 15 000 € si le domicile fiscal du débiteur est à l'étranger et qu'il règle une dépense personnelle.

[mint]

Admittedly it's 4 years ago and I don't know whether Brexit has made any difference.

I used my UK bank account to transfer the money into my French bank account via Currency Fair.  from thereon, after paying the deposit by French credit card, I paid the rest by going to my French bank and asking for a payment to be made directly to the car company.  Had to pay a few euros for this and had to provide the car company's bank details which were taken as proof that the money was for the purchase.

The car was quite a bit in excess of 15k.

Hope that helps, Wools and, if you do buy from the company I recommended, they'd advise you on the process.  Job done, even had the car delivered to my door[:)]