French Credit Cards

[cherries]

We already have a french current account with Credit Agricole, but we would like to find out if it is possible to obtain a french credit card - my french is not quite good enough yet to ask in the french only speaking branch !

[Jc]

Most French credit cards aren't-they are charge cards;ie.you must settle in full at the end of each month.However just go into your bank and request "Carte Bleu".

[Jackie]

The ones we have from the post office seem to be instant debit cards. They do have an international credit card symbol on them so I don't know if they become credit cards outside of France. Can someone enlighten me on this?..........John in 79

[Kevinmc]

Yep, that's basically it. The bank cards are  debit cards not credit cards and may also carry a Visa or Mastercard logo, which provides entry to the respective worldwide network. So I've been able to use it internationally on the web.

However, the transaction should be signed for, not completed using your pin number. You should, in theory, be able to withdraw money via ATMs, though I've had varying luck with that. My CA card works OK in Ireland but has always failed me in Holland (I've never tried it in the UK, only in € countries). My La Poste carte bleu has worked 100% in both countries. 

 

 

[Val_2]

If I need to order something from the UK workwise I use our CMB Maestro card which is the standard issue debit card from the bank. However, it is surprising how many british companies have never heard of Maestro and have refused to take it and yet others know it well. Its being advertised a great deal lately on british TV as well.

[Teamedup]

Charge Cards, well that is a choice with them all .........ie debit immediat or debit differe. The 'differe' I suppose inferring a charge card. Where as the 'immediat' are debit cards, one's account gets debited immediately. And one pays more usually for debit differe. And these debit cards can be marked Carte Bleu.

One can get credit cards, but that would have to be negociated with a bank as the rules pertaining to loans in France are quite rigorous.

 

[Chrissie]

Don't forget to ask what charges will be attached - they will make you pay for each card annually and will deduct the fees from your account.

Chrissie

(81)

[Will]

"However, it is surprising how many british companies have never heard of Maestro and have refused to take it"

Maestro in Europe is the same as Switch in the UK. In fact if you get a new UK Switch card it will carry the Maestro symbol.

You're right about the TV ads Val, I just love those penguins. Totally off topic, but the chap responsible for the penguins has a site here http://www.rathergood.com/ with all sorts of similar stuff like punk kittens - it's brilliant, though some of the things take a while to load and others are not for the eyes and ears of kids and the elderly

[Richardbk]

This was rasied in a recent post.

 

French credit cards do exist. All major banks have a product which links a seprate loan account to a credit card. At the end of each month you can choose either to pay a minimum amount , all the total or something in between The main difference is that the maximum amount you can pay each month (as a regular payment) is fixed. E.g if you used all the loan and you made the minimum payment each month the bank would insist that this monthly payment is within your 33% of income borrowing limit, and thus there is a nominal payback period of say 5 years for the total loan amount In terms of operation it works exactly like a credit card.

regs

Richard

 

 

[opas]

Blimy will,when do you have time to work properly,what with moderating ,responding to posts and blowing your mind with weired web sites.....loved the kittens but not so sure about the rest!

[Will]

[quote]Blimy will,when do you have time to work properly,what with moderating ,responding to posts and blowing your mind with weired web sites.....loved the kittens but not so sure about the rest![/quote]

It's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it.  Fortunately I have friends with a knack of finding strange sites

Don't talk about kittens, the house is currently overrun with them, all over the keyboard, biting the mouse, chasing things around the screen. I wouldn't know if the forum is slow or not with all these paws on the keyboard making it crash.

[Liz]

I would recommend caution in applying for a French credit card. When we first moved here we had been accustomed in the UK to using a credit card for everything, paying off at the end of the month. We carried on doing this in France and Barclaycard invited us to take up a French Barclaycard. Thinking it would be the same sort of terms and conditions we agreed. How naive can you get? They wanted a substantial fee each year, round about £40 I think, and the credit limit was the equivalent of £500 a month (in the UK it was, of course, several thousand). We managed to get the fee waived for the first year and the credit limit increased to about £750 in the second year and then gave up.

I am now accustomed to having sufficient in my non interest paying current account to cover all expenditure which I make by cheque. I refuse to pay a fee for a card of any sort!

Liz (29)