Happy Expat Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 How easy (and how long) is it to open an account in France having moved there? Any suggestions as to helpful banks and possible cautions of unhelpful ones. Bob & Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Mine was opened many years ago and as far as I can remember, it was instant. You will need your passport and proof of address but that may have changed.Oh, and some dosh!As for favourites, I am with Crédit Mutuel. Other people will no doubt suggest other banks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 There have been many postngs about banks on this Forum, some good, some bad. I am not sure how easy it is these days to pick up past postings but it is worth spending a bit of time scrolling through and trying the search facility.We are with La Poste. They are very widely available all over France and offer plain, simple and modestly (for France) priced services. They are open 5 and a half days a week (although the very small ones have reduced times). You will need the usual papers to open the acount, ie proof of address and passport, and we found it more or less instant although you will have to wait to get your cheque book etc. of course. Make an appointment to set things up. Also make sure you are very clear what you want, the various cards we Brits are accustomed to have supplied for 'free' generally require an annual fee in France and there have been a number of tales on this Forum of people being charged for services without realising there would be a substantial charge for extras.Liz (29) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meo Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 I found the whole thing rather a hassle.Most banks wanted me to pay an annual fee for the pleasure and convenience of owning a cash card - it was only at La Poste that the card was free. However, because I am an étrangère, I am not allowed a cheque book and am only allowed to withdraw 200 euros a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Expat Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 Thanks for your replies so far, much appreciated. Meo - you say they won't let you have a chequebook, surely that almost negates the whole concept of a bank current account? Has anyone else had this problem or is Meo just one of the victims of the 'system' .... Bob & Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 [quote]I found the whole thing rather a hassle. Most banks wanted me to pay an annual fee for the pleasure and convenience of owning a cash card - it was only at La Poste that the card was free. However, be...[/quote]Surely what you have is a savings account? A current account, which I think the original enquiry was about, would offer a cheque book (La Poste charge about 2 Euros a year for a basic cheque account). Any sort of card on a current account is, AFAIK, always charged extra. Liz (29) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.foreman Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 we open an account with CCF which is the same bank as HSBC in Ukour local branch of HSBC did all the form filling for usCCF only work in french, but an e-mail address for support in English Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangur Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 We found the CA in our local village really helpful, and they accepted our rental agreement as proof of residence. We got a mastercard which works like a Switch/Maestro card, a cheque book and overdraft facility without any difficulty. Their online banking is good to(they have a whizzy graph thing probably not crucial ) and to date we've found them very friendly and willing to help with all our problems (including us changing address after the pins and cheque books had been posted and before they were delivered) Do you speak any French? I assume for those who can only speak English, the choice of banks is going to be rather limited. It is a bit strange coming from a UK bank where there are no charges at all to see lots of frais on your statement, but it doesn't seem too bad compared to say Irish banks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benson Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 hi when we moved to France 2 years ago we had no perminant address or proof of earnings or utility bills etc and found it very difficult to open an account with credit agricole so opted for bank popular who spoke a tiny bit of english we were given debit cards and cheque books but found that there were high charges on the account and we had quite a few problems during our time with them and alot of friends here said the same (although I'm sure there are many people out there who have had none at all) Eventually we changed to credit agricole when we moved in to our property. There was english fluently spoken as there seems to be in most large companies now. We needed proof of address ie utility bill previous bank statements english or french and passports and or birth certs. A very simple process an automatic overdraft activated the same day and virtually no charges in fact they actually pay us a few cents everytime we use our cards in the cash machines!!! I would recommend them every time. Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereford Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 We are very happy with Credit Agricole Normand, but certainly don't get "a few centimes" when we use our cash card. CA is regional and each region is independent of the other regions (not very well put but you get the drift). You cannot pay in a cheque for example in a branch that is not in your "region". You can get cash of course anywhere.The online banking is pretty good, though nothing like as good as a UK version.Hereford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie15 Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 [quote]We are very happy with Credit Agricole Normand, but certainly don't get "a few centimes" when we use our cash card. CA is regional and each region is independent of the other regions (not very well p...[/quote]No-you can't "of course get cash anywhere". As you say CA's are regional.Our next region starts about 10 miles down the road and I tried to get cash out of a CA hole in the wall there using my CA cash card but of course I couldn't because I had forgotten that it is a different region!! Using a UK card is fine "everywhere"though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangur Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 Lizzie, ask for a Mastercard from CA and you will be able to withdraw money anywhere. Bank cashcards are practically useless unless they have this. Mastercard works/is the same as (?) Maestro. I assume the reason you can use your UK card anywhere is because it has a maestro/mastercard symbol and has nothing whatsoever to do with being a UK card or a regional CA card. I use my CA card everywhere - in France and abroad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opas Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 Liz wrote in her post that you can get a current acc with La Poste and be charged only about 2 euros per annum for it. Can you tell me which acc exactly you have with La Poste , as only this morning I have had an appointment with them for simply an account that I can have a cheque book and be able to put a bit of money in when necessary and was told that I would have to pay them 56 euros per annum for a card(after a qualifying period!) and a cheque book and they do not operate such an acc. Mrs O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arty Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 I would have recommended CA, but I suggest you read my woes in the article "lost cash deposit at CA auto bank" which is in this finance section. I have lost confidence in the branch because they cant be trusted with cash! I am looking for another bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie15 Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 [quote]Lizzie, ask for a Mastercard from CA and you will be able to withdraw money anywhere. Bank cashcards are practically useless unless they have this. Mastercard works/is the same as (?) Maestro. I...[/quote] Yes,sorry- this was the point I was trying to make!!CA cash cards have a limited use , but you still have to pay for them.Of course Mastercard/Visa is an entirely different kettle of poisson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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