Bank account problem

[Krill]

Hi we have a couple staying in our Gite while they look for a property to buy, they have sold in the U.K and closed their bank account and now need to open an account in France but of course cant provide factures etc to prove their address, can anyone advise please

[Kevinmc]

So where on earth are they keeping the proceeds of the sale? In a large brown paper bag ?

I'll suggest Britline line (yet again !!), if they really feel they need a French bank account at this time. Funds for a future purchase can be transferred from their current fund holding mechanism (though if it's the large brown paper bag, they may struggle to explain it)

[Penny29]

Hi,

We were in the same situation (staying in a gite) when we opened our French bank a/c. We made an appointment with a local French bank and took along the following docs & opened a current and savings a/c with no problems:

1. Letter from our "landlord" confirming our address PLUS recent EDF bill in landlord's name.

2. Passports

3.UK bank a/c statements (recent) - both savings and current.

4.Driving licences.

Hope this helps

Penny

[Krill]

Thanks for the replies, our friends are now sorted, they went to Banque Populaire Atlantique in Civray and found them very helpfull with everything they needed and now have an account

[Carolski]

Hi,

Yes, I've copied below post I submitted a few days ago re bank accounts in France, hope our experience helps, we can certainly recommend Caisse D'Epargne.
Good luck,
Carole

No one seems to have discovered Caisse D'Epargne, totally French and to date we have not found any of the staff spoke English. However, we managed to open an account when we visited last September (with limited French and many hand gestures!!). There were no documents required apart from passports and UK address. We explained that we were planning to move over summer 2004 and 'et voila'! we had ourselves a bank account. We came over a few weeks ago having now got a place to rent for 6 months and visited said bank in our new location,explained (again with limited french and many hand gestures!)that we now wished to transfer our account from Royan where we opened it initially to new location and deposit 100 euro's in our initially empty account and that in 2 months time we should have more to deposit on the sale of our UK property. No probs, we were issued with a folder and paid 32 euro's for a Carte Blue ( usual practice). All very painless and they were so helpful.
So far so good, hope this helps.

Carole