tottyite

If some kind soul could help out with this question I would be grateful.

Very soon we are moving over to Tulle. Selling up and renting. I have a query with regards to bank accounts.

Is it advisable to sort out a French account over here, with one of the French Banks, although our accommodation is not yet confirmed or do we do it over there.

Which ever way we do it, what is the best way of transferring my sterling funds from my English account to Euro funds in my French account?

Any help gratefully received.

Many Thanks

Andy L
Bury
UK

Pulaski

I can't speak from specific experience of French banks, but most foreign banks in the UK are not interested, or even able (for practical and /or commercial rather than legal reasons), to offer accounts to UK residents.

So far as transferring funds goes, I'd get your British bank to convert the funds to Euros and then wire them to your French bank. If you don't have one yet check with your local bank branch to find out how to do this by phone/ internet, or to set it up in advance.

Assuming that you have £20,000 or more to send, be sure to ask for the "wholesale", or "commerical" exchange rate, otherwise you'll get the tourist rate and lose a good 5% on the transaction. If the teller doesn't understand, ask to speak the manager - large foreign exchange transactions are rare enough for branch bank staff to be unfamiliar with the best options for customers.

Andrew Storey

Andrew Storey

Hi Andy L

My name is also Andy and I am from Bury(Walmersley) Have been living in the Vendee for 18 months

Re Bank account

You can open an account with Credit Agricole Britline

Contact Telephone 0033 (0)2 31 55 67 89
EMail [email protected]

The quickest and cheapest method of trasnferring sterling to a euro bank is by swift transfer Charge is £20 no matter how much you are transferring.

Hope this is some help

bfg69bug

Tip: transfer money b4 u really need it. if ur waiting to complete on a sale and ur waiting for your money, garenteed it wont arrive in time

jdr

Not sure about france, but when i moved to Spain.
One of LLoyds advisors contacted Bancopopular, they deal with them in Spain, and we opened the account in Spain over the phone, through their branch in London.
Transfer of the money by electronic transfer 20 pounds and almost immediate.
And LLoyds gave us the best exchange rate.

ken rehill

definately use britline, credit agricole have a biggest network of branches, and at britline its all done in english. I know it would nicer to use french, but a language cock up could be expensive.

Also, think carefully about your money movements. interest rates in UK are going up. the expectations are around the 5% mark plus by the end of 2004. This will make sterling a very attractive proposition for investor in a euro market with 1% interest rates and weak economies. If sterling strengthens during this time, you might be able to take advantage and save/make quite a good profit.

For example, back in august, sterling was trading at around the 1.37 mark, it's now at 1.46. if we had bought £300,000 at 1.37, we would have got 411,000 euros, but if we waited until the recent interest rate rise and the higher trading value, we would have got 438,000 euros or 27,000 euros more, that's equivolent to a decent car, or small house in normandie!!! think about it, it might worth waiting a little longer for the next 1/4 point rise in interst rates.

Expats-France

May I suggest a new site:

http://www.expats.tv

For English speaking Expatriates in Paris - France