Another WISE question

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere. I will be renting in the EU as a non resident and will need a bank account. Is a WISE account suitable for my needs? Can I use it to pay bills, internet, electricity etc on line?

I think probably not - at least, not when I last checked - because it doesn’t give you a French IBAN and you can’t do direct debits with one. Things may have changed since then, of course.

OTOH, a Credit Agricole Britline account and a Wise account to handle your international transfers works fine.

My WISE Euro IBAN is Belgian. But I can do direct debits to French businesses from it - I have one set up to pay BipandGo (SANEF) in France.

That may be the exception that proves the rule of course, given that SANEF are more likely to be dealing with international customers than most. :slight_smile:

I also have a VISA debit card with my WISE account (both physical and digital) which I have used to pay for things in France both in person and online, so it may be sufficient as your sole bank account these days.

Like @plod I’d be interested to know if anybody else who is permanently based in France is able to get by with just a WISE account?

My Revolut account has a French IBAN and is used to pay impots such as Taxe Fonciere etc - and the Fisc are pretty picky when it comes to bank accounts.

I don’t like Wise, either as an organisation, their tech, or their charges, but putting that aside, I’ve mentioned before that literally the only people I ever used my CA account for was CPAM. They were the only ones who would not take a non-FR IBAN. Had I argued with them at length they perhaps may have done, but people wrongly told me when I moved I had to have a french account with a chequebook etc so I already was paying for it so just put in those details for the carte vitale. As soon as Revolut got an FR IBAN I ditched it entirely. So that is your one potential sticking point with Wise perhaps; the health system. But absolutely everything else is done using other IBANs and i have no issues, be it the Starling GB, the N26 DE or Bunq’s NL.

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That’s useful @kirsteastevenson

Will things have changed since Brexit (or are you talking about post-Brexit experience)?

To be fair they seem pretty happy with my Rev UK Euro account Iban (and the euro’s they debit).

PS some good exchange rates today - picked up some euro’s using Rev at 1.1745 ! Rev’s rate is at 1.1737 at the mo so tempted to buy some more before Uk inflation prints tomorrow - or maybe our lovely pound will go higher? The excitement…

Its a tad above 1.175 at the moment (Wise) got that today :grin: