Bank Account

[lil]

Hi

signed for our house at 3pm today! yippee

will be going to France at Easter. Is there any way we can set up a bank account with CA before we get there?

[BJSLIV]

You could either go down the CA Britline approach in which case you will find many refereces in this sectio.Personally I would wait til Easter and sign up with the local branch of whichever bank is nearest to your new abode.

 

 

[LJB]

We are moving to 24 in March and require to open a french bank account. I looked on their website and found the section for english speaking customers and a telephone number so I rang them. I probably could have had the conversation in french but did not feel very confident so that is why I called the number for english speaking customers, however the gentleman was very nice but hardly spoke a word of english!! I managed to grasp the fact that I would have to wait until I moved and go into my local branch (where the bank manager speaks good english) and open the account then. It seems an altogether much easier option although I do intend that my french will be a lot better and I will have the entire conversation in french!That is the plan anyway!

[LJB]

Sorry, forgot to mention in my last post it was Credit Agricole I dealt with!!!

[cabman]

We opened a Credit Agricole account at our local branch earlier this year.

We had to produce quite a list of  paperwork.

If I remember it fully it was:  Passports, proof of ownership in France, Marriage certificate, utility bill from UK, income tax receipt/p60 for self and spouse, UK bank statements. Maybe more.

Surprisingly no initial money deposit at that stage.

They love to make sure! 

[JeanS]

We didn't have any problems when we opened our account in November 2003.  We had to take proof of residence in the UK -Phone & electric bill plus passports/birth certificates/divorce absolutes.  We find Linda (who speaks perfect English) at the Credit Agricole's branch in Saint Gaultier really helpful and approachable.

We've just taken out our house & buildings insurance with them.  Got a 6% discount because we opened a savings account at the same time.  The insurance was cheaper and the cover better that the one we already had. 

[BJSLIV]

With all the saga related by others on this forum, I hope you remembered  to cancel your old insurance before you switched!

[lil]

thanks everybody. I think we will wait and open an account at our local branch when we are there.

[Teamedup]

Local branch of which bank though. I would visit a few if I were you.

[RogerW]

This may not still be the case, but when I opened an account at the Credit Lyonnais in Calais five or six years ago, all they wanted to see was my passport and proof of address (I think I used my library card!). I was able to make a deposit immediately and my chequebook and debit card arrived in the UK a couple of weeks later.

The only charges I pay are around 30 euros a year for the debit card.

I deposit cheques with them by post and the money is usually in my account about a week to ten days after I've posted the cheque in the UK. SWIFT transfers to and from my UK bank normally take around four working days and can be requested by fax.

Every customer in the Credit Lyonnais has a named contact in their branch and their name and phone number appears on every statement. Our 'conseilleur' recognises us as soon as we walk through the door even though we only visit the branch about twice a year! I only had to phone her about a problem once and she sorted it out immediately - highly recommended!

Some French banks (Credit Agricole, Credit Mutuel, Banque Populaire) are a loose federation of independent regional banks, others (Credit Lyonnais, BNP, SocGen) are national and theoretically it's easier to carry out interbranch transactions through them. Each bank has it's own charging structure.

Under French law, banks are not allowed to pay interest on current accounts, ao it's a good idea to open a savings account at the same time and swap funds between them as and when necessary.

Oh - and NEVER EVER go overdrawn without arranging this with them first!

Hope this helps.

Roger.

[Mazan]

Under French law, banks are not allowed to pay interest on current accounts,

This outdated French law was declared illegal by the EU and was scrapped on Jan 1, 2005. No French bank has yet launched a current account product that pays interest though many are thinking about it. It won't be long.

For the record I will re-state for the umpteenth time this simple fact: all French banks are lousy and the Credit Agricole is the worst of the lot.
The best deal for French current account banking is a CCP, to be had at your local LaPoste, though this won't suit you if you are the sort of person who needs loans.

[Owens88]

CA Britline can be managed from UK or France but sadly you do not get a local branch.

The supposedly national banks are in fact regional entities.

We paid a cheque into a CA branch (which they happily accepted) and provided the Britline details. ... long story short we only got the money when Britline 'pulled' it through from the originator (our notaire , luckily) months later. The accepting branch did not accept any responsibility despite us having a receipt from them.

 

[Owens88]

CA Britline can be managed from UK or France but sadly you do not get a local branch.

The supposedly national banks are in fact regional entities.

We paid a cheque into a CA branch (which they happily accepted) and provided the Britline details. ... long story short we only got the money when Britline 'pulled' it through from the originator (our notaire , luckily) months later. The accepting branch did not accept any responsibility despite us having a receipt from them.

 

[Teamedup]

As has been said, some of the banks are in fact national rather than regional and will transfer accounts between their branches.

[Nicky France]

We came back from France yesterday, having bought a house and opened an account with the CA.  All they wanted to see was our passports (I am English, husband is Dutch) and proof of the fact that we pay taxes in Holland (where we currently live).  The documentation was entirely in Dutch and they probably didn't understand a word of it but despite this they were very helpful and our account details should be sent to us within a couple of weeks.

Hope this helps.

[tjsgifan]

Mine was a similar experience to that above - we walked into our local Banque Populaire last Tuesday and opened an account there and then - we took in all sorts of paperwork with us after reading this forum, but they only asked us for passports.  Very friendly staff and have already received a welcome letter to our UK address..

If only everything was this easy....

Toby.

[PaulC<P><IMG src="http:forums.livingfrance.comimagesline.gif"><BR>Paul, Debbie and Josh, <BR>London & Dept 24<BR><a target=_blank href="http:www.les-brandes.net" target=_blank>http:www.les-brandes.net<A><BR><P>]

hmmm, we had the opposite at the CA branch we went into, they couldn't do enough the put us off - we were trying to open the account with a reasonable amount of money, we spoke in French (at least the wife did, mine is v bad but I tried) and were very polite - told them to go jump in the end and walked out, miserable bunch of.....

We ended up with an account with Barclays FR a few doors up from CA, they have recently relaxed the rules about minimum holding in the account and as we are with Barclays UK we were hoping that it may make transfers easier - so far they have been 10/10, can't do enough to help.

I think a lot of the trouble is down to the actual branch, there still seems to be little kingdoms in the FR bank system, looks like the best bet is to have a walk up your local main street and have a chat with a few, even better, ask anyone you know which is the best / worst..

Paul (Dept 24)