Banking - Is a Revolut/Wise account enough?

We’ve all talked around this subject and doing whatever you feel most comfortable with, makes a lot of sense. :+1:

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Lied to and swindled? Not questioning, just interested as to what kind of thing happened.

I’d be interested in any detail of any negative experiences with La Poste also as I had been considering them

There’s other choices in the UK - Starling - Monzo - Starling is very highly rated - but as UK resident I’d have a look at them alongside Wise/Revolut.

As a second home owner I’m not sure why you’d want a local account - the only two issues with non French cards/accounst I’ve had are Health and Tax for direct debits etc - and the tax people sorted out the EU RIB via e mail when the system wouldn’t let me use it

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It may not be essential, but I see it as a way of reducing resistance, for example if setting up a payment system with EDF. If it turns out to be a waste of time and un-necessary then it’s not too hard to shut an account.

Very briefly, we transferred around £5,000 bank to bank when we came here to live and they took an enormous percentage for themselves. When I queried it they said that if we opened 2 LEP accounts they would refund the charges made and at the same time levy no charges on the 2nd, equal, tranche planned.
When that arrived not only was there no refund but a similar amount was deducted again.
I called into the branch several times but each time was told that the rep involved wasn’t there, despite the fact that I could see her hiding in a back room. Eventually I stormed into the back room and pinned her down (not literally) for an explanation. Very embarrassed she admitted that her superiors had overruled her decision, but without anyone telling us before the 2nd transfer was made. That was the escroquerie, and I told her so while demanding restitution. Non was forthcoming.

Shortly afterwards I paid a German euro cheque in from a Swiss publisher for whom I had done some English editoring on the translation of a German book for an English version. It was only €100 but the bastards took no less than €30 for themselves.

The final straw came when, at a time of power cuts following the Grande Tempete of ‘99, the electricity was out for weeks and we were cut off by blocked roads and the bank staff were on strike (I took a photo of the sign on the door), so no means of paying in, they nevertheless found someone to bounce a small cheque paid to a builders’ merchants for essential repair materials. They cancelled our chequebook for 10 years and reported us to the Banque de France. Only a letter written by a French friend later directly to the B de F with full explanation got us off the hook, but not a word of apology from them. Disgusted, I walked across the road to the BP and they cancelled everything at CA, including the LEPs, and transferred everything to our new accounts there, and have never looked back or regretted it since. Sorry, not brief, but all true.

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You will still probably need a French bank account as there will be some services/businesses which will only accept cheques for payment. And Revolut do not accept cheque deposits. And there are sometimes limits on the amount that can be paid in cash, to reduce money-laundering.

I’ve needed to pay my water bill by cheque although my ordures bill, from the same treasury, could be paid online.

Wow. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but on the member of staff that hid from you after her sleazy management failed to honour what she told you, I’d have raised a formal complaint with the head office and gone outside the bank (to the Banque de France?) if that failed. Easy to say now, of course…the sort of things that happened to you here is why I have a poor impression of consumer rights in France.

When enquiring about house insurance I had this comment along with the (sensible) quote:

Please be aware that not having a French account or at least a Euro zone bank account may be an issue as some companies do not accept outside Euro zone bank accounts and that premium may be twice higher.

Revolut might well be OK with a eurozone IBAN but it’s likely least hassle to get a conventional account.

My problems with La Poste can be summarised as follows:

  1. They’re slow to do things - some things that should be automated are still performed manually (I once needed to urgently pay a translator for something, it took La Poste 48 hours to validate her details to allow me to do a virement… which it then took them a day to process)
  2. Their processes are “state of the ark” - I know French banking in general is behind the times… I mean, who else but the French still pays for stuff by cheque?! But La Poste is the slowest in implementing new stuff. Occasionally they surprise me with something, but then they just mess something else up (recent example: their banking app recognised it was being run on a new phone when I recently replaced mine :slight_smile: it then blocked itself until I entered a 6 digit code that La Poste insisted had to be sent via snail mail and took 5 days to arrive :frowning: …which meant I couldn’t authorise online payments via Certicode+ or transfer money to the UK during that time either :frowning: )
  3. Their staff are impressively unhelpful and will be vocal if they think you’re being unrealistic by asking them to do something for you. They’re also very inquisitive about why I’m transferring money or where money I’m depositing has come from, which I find rude and leads to me making random stuff up. This could just be a local thing where I live as it’s rural here in the Medoc… so your mileage may vary.

Depending upon what you need from a bank, points 1 & 2 may not be an issue for you but for me it’s been a challenge - not least because I spent 10 years working in the banking industry so I know how things can operate.

Gareth I’ve twice had your must-send-code-by-post by BNP a couplr of times and am about to likely have to do it again. Each time it’s taken 2 weeks so far which is why I’m thinking of leaving them.

On your 3 I’ve noticed that ‘entitlement’ 'too. It’s kind of like your money isn’t yours and they’ll let you have it if they feel like it. i don’t think it’s just one bank though…

I agree wuth you. French banking feeks like it’s about 1979.

I think that you should be very careful in choosing Britbank Credit Agricole. I have banked with them since I came to France seventeen years ago for everyday banking needs with total satisfaction. Until last year when I bought a new car.
Knowing that the transfer of large sums of money is now difficult due to money laundering regulations I conferred with my English speaking advisor to ensure that there would be no hitches and followed their instructions to the letter.

When I checked with the garage they told me that the money had not arrived. I panicked as it was a lot of money to loose.

My bank account showed clearly that the money had left my account and on checking all the numbers it seemed that that there was no error in my instructions.

The bank then admitted that the money had not been transfered but was still being held by the bank not returned to my account. The reason given was that it was a suspiciously large sum and the feared fraud.

THEY DID NOT TELL ME.

I have asked for an explanation but it has never been given neither have I had anapology.

Make your own mind up.

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That is bad. But one bad thing in 17 years is not a bad overall record, and I prefer overcautious with my money than the reverse!

The SoGé does.

We like it, it is up to us really. Why should we stop doing something that suits us inside our country, just because people somewhere else do something else?

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Under the rules of money laundering in the UK and I suspect the EU as well as we were once one. Investigation happens when a large amount is moved and its an unusual action. This. depending on the source and its destination could be quick as in most cases but take longer if something suspicious may have flagged it. What people are not allowed to do is inform people, simply known as tipping off it carries big fines and penalties so people do not tell others because they are not allowed to.
Some things do take longer in France it seems add the money laundering checks and it could delay the payment. Not defending it, just explaining it.
I had a case years back and was told under no circumstances to contact the purchaser.

Not sure if I have understood but I can log into CA and look at my running balance, pre arranged future payments and payments we have made.

This has already been thrashed about on the forum… but to recap from my own experiences I know that folk of All Nationalities use cheques to pay for: trips/visits/subscriptions etc when dealing with our local Associations and Clubs of various sorts.
Entry to local events which require payment (Village Meal etc).

and I often see folk pay by cheque at the shops further afield (hypermarkets even…) - impossible to determine their nationality - although they are definitely outnumbered by those folk with Cards

and when the connection “goes down” as happened last year in our nearest town… folk had to dash for cheque books or cash as the card readers were on the blink.

French banks are not stupid, the slow transfering of money has it sitting in the their accounts earning them interest on it.
I did a transfer of two €5k payments for a new MicroStation installation, payment went through and 3 days later the company asked where the payment was, on further checking with their bank the payment showed pending, it took 10 days before they could access it, all the while earning the bank interest :face_with_raised_eyebrow::thinking:

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Maybe they should have asked for a cheque🙄

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I’m not sure where you are looking @corona ! The official once-a-month statements give a daily balance, but the overall screen showing transactions only has the current balance at the top not a running one - or at least it does for me :thinking: