Open a current account in France with N26

It’s simple @Aquitaine many French banks impose a limit on how much one can withdraw in cash and spend on debit cards. That’s all David, many banks do it, not yours apparently.

I think all banks do to some extend don’t they? In the UK, as I recall, there was a daily limit on how much cash I could withdraw, and here it’s a rolling monthly limit. I accept these things as a necessary security measure, and whilst banks do ‘impose’ limits in that they have a standard figure they apply, it’s usually negotiable - if you ask them to increase it, then they usually do, without fuss.

I thought the phrase, ‘but it’s French so they dictate how much money I can spend every month’ was not only untrue in my experience but offensive. As someone who has been threatened because of my choice of vocabulary recently I thought that it was odd that a member of admin should be so blunt about the whole of our host nation.

In my experience it is true. I’m sorry you found it offensive, it was simply intended as a factual statement, perhaps slightly negative but surely not offensive.

Did you actually discuss it with your bank, James? If you don’t tell them that you’re finding the current limits restrictive, they won’t know, will they… They expect customers to tell them if their needs change and the present arrangements don’t suit them. Of course if you have, and they said “tough”, then that’s different, but in my experience that wouldn’t be typical of French banks.

Yes, they increased my limit. Still a limit though and still too restrictive, I find it very inconvenient to not be able to pay for something because I’ve spent too much in a given month. I then have to use a different card which makes a mess of my statements/budget. I prefer to use services that suit me and my spending habits, and the French banks approach does not.

I bank with HSBC/First Direct in the UK and have done for over 20 years, they don’t do it, nor do N26 so I choose those services. If they started to do things differently and impose limits on what I do with my money, I would look elsewhere.

Hi Martijn,

UPDATE! Got home to France - Mastercard waiting - activated it in app :slight_smile: Hubbie tries to transfer money to the IBN etc. NO CAN DO!! His bank did not recognise it. N26 say it’s because his bank hasn’t updated SEPA and therefore we’ll have to send a report via the N26 app and then it should take a week! :confounded: Hubbie very busy with his own work so not sent report yet!
I’m sure it will be fine when we have been able to transfer some money! :relaxed:

2 Likes

It certainly is a hassle free process opening an N26 account and it’s fast. The issue is that you get a DE Iban number. Some services such as Sumup credit card payment system, the water supply people, and others require a French Iban.

Is there a similar bank to N26 in France?

Now a month later! Sent report to N26 about the IBAN and BIC not being recognised. Got a reply week or so later, Salinger ‘Sorry for delay, Try again it should be fixed.’ NO, it is not! And now I worry that I will have to open another account to receive payments for work! Still awaiting a reply from N26 :pensive:

Saying not Salinger (my iPad keyboard’s prédictive text has gone FRENCH)

What is the sending bank? My N26 account IBAN has worked from day 1 even with Swiss banks which are notoriously slow in updating anything.

Were you using the French keyboard. The spell checker / predictive text changes with the keyboard. I use French, German and English on mine.

It’s HSBC My husband chose it years ago because he was able to open a French bank account without physically going into a branch but the two accounts are not connected. He does regular transfers from it to the French bank account! He’s going to try again tomorrow.