waggy

Can anyone give me the name of a decent French bank so i'm able to start the procees of opening an account?

karunia

Hard to tell Waggy - IMHO all French banks are crooks (yes I know banks will be banks LOL but French banks are worse - insofar as they have charges for just about everything, (relatively high costs for credit card), and do not give interest on current accounts. Having said that, it depends a lot on your local branch. We bank with Credit Agricole, joint account where we live. I also have another personal account with another branch of Credit Agricole in another part of France, which I opened while I was resident in the UK, so it was a slightly different deal but they were still very happy for me to have an account with them. In that bank (region Rhone-Alpes) I feel I have had a better service, it seems they have never tried to rip me off as I feel they do here. Different branches of a same bank will have different policies and different ways of dealing with their clients, so I guess it might be the luck of the draw.

Someone else might advise you to bank with a UK bank which has branches in France?
Initially I also had an account with Credit Lyonnais, and when I heard of some scandalous wrongdoings closed my account with them - which cost me money of course; then later I found that there are bad stories on all of them.
I hope you might hear from someone who is deliriously happy with their bank here in France, as I would love to know myself - also, I don't really mean to be only negative here...

benny the ball

We have a credit agricole account. We have found them to be pretty good. Charged a fee every month though for a current account.

bourgogne

I had grave problems with CA-est, the manger almost got lynched for being real nasty when my mother died, and then when I met him sat there with a smug grin. He then began SHOUTING while I was on my mobie phone. Had to be very rude and tell him to shut the Fnac UP!!! He was being vendictive to a poor english lady that had died and left a LOT of money in that account.

So livid was my sister over that matter she almost flew up from spain...... and SHE is not someone he'd want to meet trust me he'd have been laid out cold over what he did.

I still use la poste (lyon) and they are now charging ridiculous charges .... plus holding back payments going in, so they can bounce those coming out. They say not. However they are, they added 3days to inward electronic transferres from UK. Instant but no.... it was until 2006, now its playing at being a real bank, so they can shaft you over. Ring them up and first question is trying to sell insurance!!!!! Smacks of Lloyds LOL

Think you just take your pick, they all operate in a similar manner.

Caisse depargne I read now pay interest on current accounts.

PS just seen someone else laying into CA for outrageous charges on another forum. they really are popular NOT

karunia

I discovered after 3 years, that the 4 or 5 euros that CA charged me monthly was, in fact, some kind of insurance (in case chequebook gets lost or stolen) which they had automatically assumed I would want. I certainly did not remember anyone asking me about this.
When I eventually enquired with some insistence, I found that I could cancel that charge - which I have done. Benny the Ball maybe this is what you think is a monthly charge for your current account?
Bourgogne, you and I are so discouraging, it might begin to look like we are being paid (by the French state?) to keep Brits Out of France LOL...
So at this point I feel I have to own up and say that I am almost as French (by birth, and by first language) as I am British. In that way, even if I am accused of being anti-French, I still have some credibility...
After many years' absence from France (all my adult life in fact) when I came "back" here 5 years ago it was like being an immigrant, albeit one who kind of understands the language...apart from that it did feel as if I'd stepped on another planet. The way banks treat their customers here (worst in Europe in terms of milking them dry) tends to indicate what happens in other walks of life. France is a rather harsh and unforgiving place, it is part of the culture. French people certainly can't be accused of being "soft". It takes a while to get used to it, and to become very assertive oneself. This is more true in out-of-the way places with some locals, than in large cities which are more cosmopolitan. I find that many expats who just think that "the French are lovely" don't really know much about what is going on, have shallow relationships with French people or with the community (of course there are exceptions!).

priscilia

Through my experiences with some banks, I have found Societe Générale helpful enough and they have the advantage of being national;
Crédit Agricole are good to some and terrible to others, it seems to depend a lot on who you deal with personnaly rather than the bank itself.
Caisse d'épargne and the post office seem alright if you have plenty of cash and never need overdraft.
Nearly all banks have monthly fees now, it's supposed to allow you to pay for all the extras monthly (credit cards, insurance, bank cheques, etc...), if you don't want that you can pay each thing separately.
When you are from the UK it might also be interesting to compare how they charge you for currency, cashing cheques in pounds, etc... some banks charge a set fee, some according to the amount.

karunia

[QUOTE=priscilia]

Nearly all banks have monthly fees now, it's supposed to allow you to pay for all the extras monthly (credit cards, insurance, bank cheques, etc...), if you don't want that you can pay each thing separately.
QUOTE]
Is that so Priscilia? I had no idea, and I am also surprised since I was able to do away with the monthly fee on our account - I have to say also that I had returned the credit card on that particular account some time ago, so perhaps this is why it was possible to cancel the "insurance".

In any case, apologies for my previous post where I got carried away, starting a rant well outside the topic in hand, and thank you Priscilia for steering us back on course in a gentle and considerate way.

johnny nofrfolk

When I moved to Germany I went to my bank in the UK (HSBC) and they had links to Commerze bank in Germany. They gave me a letter of introduction and it was not to difficult, but as in France the service was not as good as in the UK and they charge for everything it was a bit like the banks were in UK about 40 years ago. I dont think people realise how far behind Europe is with banking and finance.

james.herran

we have a credit agricole account, no problems had it about a year

treaclepuss

We've had our Credit Agricole account for nine years and they are getting better.... not for nothing are they known as The Spud Bank by the locals.

nickcarol

We recently joined Credit Agricole, despite still living in England we had no problems starting an account, getting cheque book and credit card within a month. Local manager very helpful. We use Currency Direct to transfer money; and if you transfer £5K at a time it costs nothing in UK charges. Have also done bank transfers and had no problem. We finally move to France in 3 weeks time - hurray!

frank_penny

French banks ARE expensive, and your treatment pends on the local branch manager - but NatWest in the UK is appalling in their treatment of customers living abroad!!!!
So bad that I am looking to run our English bank account through a French bank with branches in the UK. Nothing could be worse than the service from NatWest.

We have lived in France for 6 years, and have no more than the ordinary gripes with Credit Agricole.

Uriah

I have been wih Britline (CA), very helpful and friendly. I pay €5 per month and this covers all my charges should I need to stop a chq or get a new pin etc etc and also online banking - limited but useful for checking when your money arrives. I use Currency Direct, and as has been mentioned, £5k means no charges. There are no charges for putting in a regular amout too as CD have a French account that tranfers the money within France. This saves €17.95!
We get regular info-leaflets from CA and a monthly statement and a statement everytime I make a credit. Not bad for €5. Type britline into google and you are away.

frank_penny

Sorry - I can't have been clear before.

I am looking for a French bank that operates in England to run my English account; we use Credit Agricole for all our normal banking here in France, having started with Britline before we moved over permanently, but also have bank accounts, credit cards, etc in the UK.

I have had so many problems with NatWest when trying to transfer money to France (we use Currencies Direct, but NatWest are very slow to make payments, and Currencies Direct want quick transfers of money!) that I am hoping that by switching my UK accounts to a French owned bank in England, they may be more adept at money transfers.

I have banked at NatWest for 35 years - they know I live in France yet ask me to go to the bank to fill in a form if I want to transfer money. Otherwise it takes forever - they demand written instructions, even though we have internet banking; they then phone to authorise the written instructions, but only if they have the correct phone number on their file, which they are terrible at keeping up-to-date; which means I have to sit by the phone waiting for them to call (for the latest transaction I have waited two days and they still have not called).

I could go on - suffice it to say that even with the problems of switching banks because of the completely ineffective "money laundering" rules, I am looking to ditch NatWest.

Bargee

We are in the process of buying a boat in France. How do we go abouit opening a bank account there when we won't have an 'fixed' address?