Before I left the UK I had a personal account and a business account with Santander, which I opened having been assured I could easily transfer between the two via telephone banking (internet banking was in its infancy in those days). This proved to be a lie, incredibly there was no facility for linking the accounts and transferring money between then on their telephone banking system. So the only way to do it, was to go to the bank, take money out of one account via the hole in the wall, walk to the counter with it and deposit it into the other account. And as David says, in spite of the fact that the money never actually left the premises and was only out of the bankās actual possession for a minute or two, it officially went AWOL for a week or so - the debit was applied instantly and the credit was applied after 5 or more working days.
I seem to recall that they then improved the system and created a new difficulty over paying cash or cheques into my business account, canāt remember exactly what it was but I remember having a row with the cashiers over something.
I grew to hate Santander, there are few institutions that Iāve ever hated more.
Donāt get me started on Santander! I had a simple savings account with them and once when withdrawing some money in a branch that wasnāt my own the cashier pointed out that the account I had was very out of date, that I should change to a more favourable account, that my own branch should have done it a long time ago and that she could facilitate it there and then. I was issued with a new savings book which I used on and off for a few years. Every time my branch handled the book it was placed in their printer and updated. I then mislayed the book. I phoned their helpline and was asked some security questions. I pointed out that the two questions that they were asking would have been very straightforward to answer if I had the book in front of me but were impossible without. The first question I could answer to a fairly accurate degree but not exactly. They wanted to know the date I opened the account, I could give them the account number and the 10 day period during which it would have been opened but that wasnāt good enough they demanded the exact date. The second question was about interest payments. I didnāt know if my interest payments were made monthly, quarterly or yearly, all I knew was that when the book was updated so were any outstanding interest payments. As I couldnāt answer these two questions I was told that, despite having over Ā£20,000 in the account nothing could be done. In fact the mess took several months to sort out after, with the help of Google to find telephone numbers I found someone high enough up the food chain who could override the power of the computer. She located my savings account, asked other answerable security questions and transferred the money to a new online account so I could lay claim to it again. I still remember the first of the final security questions. She explained that she would have to ask security questions based on the account and I began to complain that Iād been there before. She pointed out that Iād not answered these questions and they were perfect. She knew that the book had, by then, been missing over six months and asked me if I had made any transactions during the previous three months and if so, where and when. I answered correctly.
LOL David I had a very similar thing later on, when I was in the process of moving to France. By then I had internet banking but one fine day Santander decided for reasons best known to themselves to block my access while I was in France, and in order to unblock it, one of the questions I had to answer over the phone was to list 3 recent transactions on my account. Well since the reason one usually wants to access oneās account is to see whatās transacted and what hasnāt, how the F was I supposed to answer that! you would have thought anyone with half a brain would understand how stupid it was, but trying to get them to see that was like shouting at a slug, They insisted I had to answer that particular question otherwise my account stayed blocked.This rumbled on for months, fortunately as it happened it didnāt matter much that I couldnāt access these accounts because by then because I only had a couple of clients left in the UK, but it wasted time and was bad for my blood pressure so of sheer hate I sent it to the ombudsman, with a list of all the dates when Iād contacted them, and Santander were obliged to pay me a small amount of compensation for the inconvenience. After which I closed both accounts and good riddance.
French banks can be very frustrating to deal with, and after living 12 years in Belgium you quickly find out how far behind they are. I have a small B&B and therefore receive cash now and then. To avoid any problems with the bank, I have now set up a mobile payment LYDIA which is free to use (private) There are two versions one for business and one private. You can then receive an amount by scanning or transferring. Only to be used inside France. Check it out, it might be something for you.
And now I am here, for any need to transfer from one currency to another.
Check out TRANSFER WISE. Easy to use and small fees.
Have a good day 
Hi Elaine,
You might like to give Credit Agricole Britline a try. I have been with them for some years and have always found them helpful and efficient.
Dear Gitte, thank you so much for your suggestions. I too run a small B&B so I will definitely look into LYDIA. I have been using Transferwise for the past few years and find them extremely efficient. Thank you again for your helpful advice - much appreciated 
Hi Tim, thank you for your kind advice. Credit Agricole do seem to come out on top. Why didnāt I open my account with them twelve years ago ā¦doh? Well thatās another story that I wonāt bore anyone with today 
Dear Elaine, you are very welcome. The French as you know are very slow to use any new technology, and will always prefer their precious check book, but I advertise now using Lydia and just hope any living in France will open up to it. At the moment I have only down loaded the private version, but will probably get the business model too so I can ask for money plus using credit cards. Ah more commissions to pay, we just love it! I wish you a good season. Regards G.
A friend had a terrible problem with COMPTE nickel. They blocked his account. Then said that they had sent an unblock code 3 times, all the Ivr channels led to a website address on the number the website gave for serviceā¦ no response to my tweet. There was no āresend my unblock codeā journey. I went through every journey on the site!
After 3 begging for help messages on FB and still no unblock code, my friend completely moneyless for a month! No going to his branch!!! I received a message to say that they were not accepting any more messages from me!!! Finally go 4 using my husbands FB someone finally clicked the right buttons and i got KCI then 2 arrived 10 and 21 days later!
He had no access to his money for over a month!!
Dear Gitte, you are so right and I do hope things will change for the better one day soon.
Yes, when you are such a small business (and with only a seasonal income) all the commissions really do add up. I have been looking for a ācheapā way to allow us to accept credit or debit card payments but itās not easy. I shall investigate LYDIA more and see if it could be a way forward for us.
Thank you again Gitte and I wish you a very successful season
Our pensions go into our UK banks, and we make a couple of transfers into Banque de Savoie each year, usually in anticipation of the French income tax payments. We have always used SWIFT and had no problems at all. By the end of 2016 Swift had been replaced by SEPA but it was just as easy to complete the instruction online and we waited for the money to arrive in France. Nothing happened over Xmas or New Year, and in January we started chasing Nationwide. They make SEPA payments through HSBC and ours hadnāt gone through. Nationwide refunded the money to our UK account and tried again, by which time the French bank balance was low enough to threaten a couple of regular bills, so we transferred 500ā¬ from Santander UK to the French account, which went through without a hitch. The main transfer then arrived in France, too, so all was well at last.
At the end of Feb we had a message to contact Banque de Savoie, and when I spoke to them they asked where the large sum of money had come from. I explained and was told that SEPA doesnāt tell the receiving bank who sent it. Apparently the French bank needs a justification for the payment. In future we will take a screen snip of the SEPA on-line form and email it to our French bank to warn them of the upcoming transfer so they understand it. We chose to use our banks rather than exchange agents because it would be all above board, transparent and with a clear audit trail, but apparently using SEPA is no better than paying in cash and suspected as possible money laundering!
I too had problems with cheques posted to my bank in Vichy (HSBC) and time lags before the credit showed on my statement on line. After the third time I wrote asking the branch for its Head Office address and contact numbers so that I could report the problem to them. No reply, no apology, but Iāve never had another problem with them. Worth a try - itās free!
Does anyone know if the Lydia card (on the Lydia account mentioned above) is seen by merchants as a credit card? It obviously acts like a debit card in that you have to have the funds to cover the charges (just like the N26 card) but I see that you can set a ālimitā (again assuming you have the funds to cover it) which suggests it may be useful as a credit card.
Specifically, I am wondering if the Lydia card would be accepted by car hire companies as a credit card.
If not then Iām not sure why Lydia charges 3.99 a mont - the N26 debit card is free.
I was with a regional bank for years, but I decided look around last year for more modern options, and switched to Fortuneo. I lost the ability to speak to someone in English, but with online banking and the occasional email (in English or French), I havenāt found the need. Really efficient, fewer restrictions, and the charges are a lot more reasonable.
If you give it a try, feel free to use my parrain code 12645541.
Andy.
Christineā¦
It does seem odd to me, to have to post cheques to your bankā¦ I know friends who have to do the sameā¦and they seem quite happyā¦ but I much prefer to use a bank and/or branch close to home.
Cash and cheques paid in so easily and someone to talk face-to-face with if necessaryā¦ that is most important as far as I am concerned.
Mind you, life would be boring if we were all the sameā¦
Easy explanation, Stella - my bank is 60 miles south of where I live. I prefer to keep my monetary business outwith the local scene.
Ah well, if that is your choice, so be itā¦
The Banque Populaire, in my experience, are the ultimate pain in the backside bank for withdrawals. My wife opened an account with them (here in the Auvergne, as they are all regionally run), and had nothing but grief with them - they, or someone with access to the system, sets a limit on the amount of debits, including cash withdrawals, you can make with your debit card - per week, or per rolling 7-day period, or 30-day rolling period, even if you have sufficient funds in the account. The amounts seem to have no valid statistical or financial correlation that I can see, which is why I suspected someone at the bank branch deciding whether or not to be generous towards person X,Y,Z.
They are not the only bank to do this though.
It must be regional or an individual bank thing. I have a BP account and, yes, I do have a monthly limit for transactions but as it is set at ā¬25,000 I have not yet experienced a problem.
I have a rolling monthly limit too, it seems to be common. And they do seem to pick a number out of a hat when you first open the account but it should be easily negotiable (usually/sometimes/if youāre lucky).