EuroTrash

I refrained from comment before, but I do remember that I was recommended to talk to HSBC so I did but it was very clear that they didn't really want anything to do with a church mouse like me. Obviously all banks prefer high earners but there are degrees of exclusiveness and HSBC seem quite high on the scale.

Have you looked at Crédit Agricole? They come in for their share of criticism, as per Lowriderchevy's post, but I've never had any issues with them. Yes they are a franchise not a national bank, but their T&C tell you quite clearly what you can do and what you can't do outside your own region, and I've never found it significantly restrictive even when I've been living and working in different parts of France.

cyrian

We use CA but only for regular bills and standing orders.
I don't need them for anything else.
I used to use them for all our expenditure until they accused me of money laundering and even after I gave them proof of the source of money, they insisted on two further meetings and further proof.
If it had been in the UK, I would have changed banks.
I suspect that other french banks could be the same.

I now use a pre-paid Euro Mastercard for day-to-day use.
I can top this up online from France or the UK.

Sarah1707

Following on from this enquiry - what French bank would you all recommend as the easiest to open - we are moving near to Cahors in the next few months - thank you!

EuroTrash

Hello Sarah - welcome to the forum!
Not sure "easiest to open" would be my number one criterion, to be honest. I'd be more concerned to choose a bank that it would suit me in the long term, because changing banks is a hassle. So for instance if you want face to face banking, first thing would be to check which banks have convenient branches. If you're not bothered about face to face and you're looking for an account with the lowest possible fees, there are a couple of online banks that offer fee-free banking subject to certain conditions. So I would say it all depends on your priorities. Sorry if that's not very helpful, but banking is generally not free in France and I don't suppose anybody wants to end up paying every month for an account that they're not happy with, no matter how easy it was to open.

Gabriela1980

Hello everyone!Hope you all are having a positive Monday so far! I am still considering my banking options. Someone has suggested the Britline Agricole. And I wanted to actually ask people's experience?

Sarah1707

Thanks I am aware I'll need to do research, I wanted to get people's first hand experiences before deciding who to go with. So if anyone can recommend their bank and the reasons why I'd be very grateful!

EuroTrash

Well I have a personal account and a business account with Crédit Agricole Normandie (not Britline) and in 10 years I've never had cause for complaint, there have been one or two "issues" but they've always been resolved. I've seen other people grumbling on forums about all kinds of problems with CA, from minor irritations to major issues like depositing money using the automated deposit system and it never shows in their account, but of course they only tell you their side of the story. I chose CA partly because they seem to have the most active community involvement out of the local banks, they sponsor the sports ground and the annual festivals and you see their logo everywhere at local events.

Gabriela1980

Good evening EuroTrash and thank you for the useful answer, as always! I assume that one can open the CA Normandie account once in France and the Britline version is for people who are still in the UK or do not have a residence status in France, correct?
I am reading the Britline terms and cons and it says:

When opening your account an initial deposit of £2500/3000€ (1) is required.
NON-RESIDENTS in FRANCE: This can be sent in STERLING and converted into Euros by our recommended option, the "Britline International Payments Service". Click here for further info.
It is also possible to send a bank to bank transfer or a personal cheque(2). The 2 latter payments must come directly from a bank account in your name(2).
RESIDENTS in FRANCE switching to a CA Britline account from an existing French account can make a transfer in EUROS or send a personal cheque in Euros. These 2 payments must come directly from a bank account in your name(2).
A VISA DEBIT Card can be requested immediately once the account is opened. The annual card fee is currently 41.00€ for the first card and 20.50€ for the second card attached to the same account.

I found the charges for having a debit card a little bit excessive? Or would I have to pay similar charges in France no matter what bank I am with? It reminds me of my native land Czech Republic where my mum pays for every single transaction that is done via her account and for the card "rental".

The wanderer.

I opened my bank account in france with no deposit or payment required, just made appointment and opened in about 15 mins, although i did have a job in France.
Dealing with the banks in France well that's another story.

scrubbedexpat056

Hi Gabriale1980,
I posted the reply about setting up a Britline account. I did it because I a

scrubbedexpat056

Oops, something wrong with my computer...honestly,

We set up a Britline account with the option of only starting with 250 Euros. This limits the debit card slightly, not allowing out of hours petrol stations and toll roads, but apart from that it is the same. We simply didn't have 2500 Euros spare at the time. We have now sent a larger amount and can uprate our cards accordingly.
We set it up because firstly we are still based in UK with no French property, secondly our French is not up to it yet and thirdly we wanted to get an account sorted for living expenses and for when we do take the plunge and buy a property. Our situation is slightly unusual in that we will be living on our boat in the canals while we house hunt and doubt if a marina would be accepted as a residential address for banking purposes. Our thinking is that as soon as we are settled we can always change banks if we are not happy. So far It has been impressively efficient as I laid out in my last post.
Hope this helps.

Gabriela1980

Hello Alianco, thank you so much for your useful reply. It is really good to know that it works and is accepted in France! We are in a similar situation with no French property yet and basically house or land (or both) hunting while there renting for the first 3 months Airbnb and then hoping to find some more long term rental while looking to buy. My husband is really keen to build - we are dreaming of eco friendly passive house! My husband is French though with French passport but that's it. He lives in the UK since 12 years old so basically in reality more British than French!

EuroTrash

TBH I don't know exactly how it works between CA branches and Britline. When I opened my account in-branch, Britline was a relatively new venture I think, and the person in the branch was having trouble setting up my account because the system wanted to automatically shunt all Brits onto Britline - but I specifically wanted a local account, and he specifically wanted me to have one, I got the impression there was a bit of needle between local branches and Britline. He had to phone Britline at one point and get them to unblock things so he could continue the process, and give him the relevant codes so he could finish setting my account up.

But I imagine things have settled down since then, this was ten years ago and I'm sure whatever initial friction there was will have been resolved by now.

I think the charges for debit cards are fairly standard across the main banks. That's why the old dears still use cheques at supermarkets checkout and hold everyone up, bless them. You don't actually need a bank card, even though you may think you do - life goes on even without a debit card, as I discovered when I got mine nicked and was without for a few months because I was working in a different part of France. I was actually surprised to discover how unnecessary bank cards are.

Tweedpipe

Over the years and coming & going to France we have had accounts with Credit Lyonnais, one other (which I can't recall), and currently Banque Popular Occitan. I believe that we have never been asked for anything more than a small nominal deposit to open an account, and personally if a bank asked for 2-3k initially I would seek elsewhere, as this sounds very much like a bank who would also sit on transferred amounts and not inform you of it's presence, for several days. Our experience in the past has shown that this practice is all-too common, and extremely frustrating.
Our priority has always been to find a reasonably well-known bank with a nearby branch, reasonable parking facilities, with safe deposit box facilities to store our important documents etc, and an establisment where first impressions were most favourable when initially asking for advise on terms & conditions etc.
The other thing which is so important to us is to have an on-site personal adviser with whom we can sit down and discuss any matters with, no matter how trivial. I can't stress enough that in doing this we have been given advise that would never have been known to us by on-line dealings or emails with a faceless individual. One brilliant lady adviser we had was transferred to another branch, and her replacement over the last 6 months lacks similar efficiency, so we may request another adviser.
It should be noted that the level of monitoring of customer's withdrawals/transactions by the banks themselves has increased significantly in recent years. The banks are required by law to notify the regulatory authorities about 'suspicious' transactions. Rather than having monthly sums transferred from our UK account, to reduce the charges as best as possible, we tranfer every four or six months, and although these are still pretty modest amounts they do get quizzed by the bank, requesting what the funds are for.
The other odd feature is that for cash withdrawals which exceed a relatively low amount, one has to make the request a day or two before the date reuired.

south_bound

Take a look at online banks as a low cost low hassle option - ING Direct, Boursarama, N26 etc all offer current accounts with debit cards and no fees. Some need a minimum deposit held on account, or minimum monthly incoming amounts, or minimum activity levels but nothing too onerous. I have never had an issue that can't be solved through the online banking website or a quick phone call and in my opinion it beats the dealings I have had with any of the real person banks such as LCL.