Just to bring this up to date, we have signed up for an account via Britline/Credit Agricole. While there was more French-only paperwork to read & sign than we had expected, it was a relatively painless experience.
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@KarenLot …French banking has pros and cons compared to UK. The former being that it is still quite personal, easier to talk to a real banker both online and phone and more branches (if you need one) Britline in particular but Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne is similar.
However online functionality and sophistication is a decade behind, the look and feel of transactions is basic, and often load into excel (!) and transactione are overnight batch processed whereas uk banks record dr transactions in real time (but not the narratives on account) and even basic French banking isn’t free. Design and layout of transaction processing on the ones I see is poor, its muddled and confusing…and thats not because of language difficulty. The uk may have lost its manufacturing capacity but its lead in “fintech” shows.
Security is handled differently with no external key units …like Barclays, HSBC, Nationwide, with pin numbers being the main input.
…I’ve yet to venture to cash wallets aka Applepay et al but increasingly we know people who rarely use cash and they aren’t our kids but of our vintage and I expect before long the retail world will begin to push this as the transaction method of choice.
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I have to admit I very rarely use cash anymore, either card or Google pay.
I had a quick panic yesterday when the postwoman needed cash for import duty and I couldn’t remember how much I had in my wallet as it had been months since I used any cash.
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That’s interesting! I use cash all the time, possibly because I make a number of smaller transactions? As I’m a great frequenter of markets, I find that the smaller suppliers use only cash too.
I think I’m right in saying that there was a strong (government?) drive in the UK a few years back to eliminate cash transactions but it seems to have subsided. I have difficulty seeing a cashless society occurring in France in the near future but I could be wrong of course!
I am curious what an “external key unit” is?
We rarely use cash but nor do we use applepay or the like. Swiping a bank card seems simplest and that is what we do, even for just a few euros. Even parking meters. Many of the regular market stalls started having card machines early in covid if they hadn’t before.
I presume one of those little number generators with an LCD screen.
Thank you but I am non the wiser!
One of these. When wanting to get into my HSBC a/c I have to generate a code on a key pad like this. It’s one of the security steps.
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Ah thanks.
I had never come across these.
Do UK banks provide one of these to every customer these days?
Depends on the bank but certainly the two accounts I still have in the UK supply/use them.
However, I do have a little equivalent here for using on remote transactions for my Credit Mutuel account - a digipass.
Yes, or most seem to. I’m with HSBC OH with NatWest we have a joint First Direct and all supply these number generators. Though some are going over to mobile banking apps, which is not great if you live in a “dead” area for mobile phones.
By the way, I’ve never understood how these code generators actually work. How does my bank account know that this is a code number from their machine rather than one I’ve just made up?
This is a whole new concept for me. When do you use these gizmos? Is it to log in to your account, or to confirm online purchases, or to validate online transactions on your account like bank transfers? Do the gizmos get some kind of mobile or internet signal to connect with your bank? Why is it more secure than receiving a code by SMS and inputting that. Is this not just another device that you have to carry around with you and keep track of?
Apologies for all the questions, I am feeling very ignorant for never having heard of them when everybody else seems to know about them so I am trying to catch up!
I have 3 accounts still in Scotland with 3 different banks and have never had one of them.
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I have 2 of these devices; one supplied by Bankleys Bark (difficult to call them a bank these days 
) and one supplied by our French bank Banque Populaire.
Curiously, the two devices are interchangeable. When the battery ran out on the Banque Pop one, we used the Bankleys one and the code generated was accepted. There is obviously some commonality between the algorithms used to generate the codes.
More recently, having progressed to the mobile app for BP, the codes are generated through the app, so haven’t needed to use the device now for some time.
As an additional layer of security, I have the app on my mobile but my wife’s mobile number is registered as the point of contact. This means that when a code is generated, it appears on her phone, not mine so provided she is close by, she can give me the code to use. If anyone has access to my phone and attempts to make use of the app to transfer funds, their attempt will be thwarted (unless they also have access to hers and understand the arrangement).
They are all being phased out for in app authorisation. As usual the fintechs are ahead and many have never had the ‘calculators’ as I call them, but the high st banks are catching up now. I know at least a couple have in app auth now, and the rest are phasing it in gradually.
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Do UK banks not send codes by SMS then, or is this in addition?
By far the majority of SMS’s that I receive, are codes from the bank to allow me to proceed. I do not use a banking app, I did briefly but it seemed to me that the consequences if I mislaid my phone would be too complicated and so I deleted it.
The SMS authorisation isn’t considered PSD2 compliant which is why it is being phased out in favour of in app. The theory being something along the lines of that you’ve got to be able to get in the app first, so know the app code , to be then able to authorise the payment or whatever, whereas if I nick your phone, or as can happen these days nick the SIM card, I can spend 5000 (£/€/$/whatever) online, and can put your SIM in my phone to receive the code and authorise the transaction. If I have to authorise in app, I have to know the lock code for your phone (assuming you have one), the code for your banking app, and then potentially another PIN to authorise the transaction. Someone else will know far more about PSD2 and SCA than me I’m sure, but it’s all about having multiple things happening at once to add extra levels of security. So not just a single code, but as I say, perhaps a code and extra things to ensure it is you making the transaction.
This isn’t my area of expertise and is from memory so forgive it all being a little vague, but I think I’ve explained the general gist of it 
A good explanation is here:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/online-banking-card-readers-work-secure/
As @graham mentioned: "I have 2 of these devices; one supplied by Bankleys Bark (difficult to call them a bank these days ) and one supplied by our French bank Banque Populaire.
Curiously, the two devices are interchangeable. "
From the link above: “Some card readers are universal, meaning they can read and generate codes for any EMV card, as long as the card is compatible with the reader’s online bank. So in that sense, you could use someone else’s card reader when necessary, and their reader wouldn’t store anything about your account or card.”
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Ah so you insert your card into this device to generate the code?
I am no doubt being dim here but - what is to stop another person who has got your card, puting it into their own card reader to generate a code ?
No - you enter some of the digits from the card into the device and it generates a number based on those.