Basic Money Tips for Brits transitioning into French living

Banking & Financial Tax & Social charges
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Heya Karen - so when we’re 67, it’s not just a case of get our S1 for life and oscillate between England and France when we need to earn a bit more money. I’ll only be doing <=6 months at a time. Don’t need the money - it’s all just to pump the Assurance vie up so the kids have a happy life when we die.

My wife and myself want to give them their dream holiday home (at the foot of the Pyrenees) and pay off their mortgages on their own homes when we die … …

ooooooo lovely - when I was living in Cardiff (in the hole!) I found a brand new Brompton in Halfords for £750 colour matched to my second hand one - so my wife and myself could whizz around wherever. They’re wonderful and actually do not lose value with time!
So we’d have paired Bromptons, electric bikes, mountains and hybrids!

Exactly my next question - you’re as good as @Jane - I’ve applied to 3 or 4 jobs to work remotely in France for a foreign company … … so will have to shut down those applications now!! To be fair, I’ve been told by a few that it will work but only if there’s a French entity in the country … … which means being paid as a French citizen … … cotisations … … S1 loss and a life imprisoned by PHI! Great advice.

That’s lovely to know re:retirement S1s - as one of the other forums I’m on features somebody who states that he’s been unable as a French citizen for a few years, to get his S1 sent out … …

Beautiful advice - myself and wife have fully paid into our state pensions and are so ready to leave - essential advice to all Brits to check their statement on line.

Ahhh - so we’re going with George1 + Larkswood’s advice and switching from taking 25% tax free lump sums into transferring the whole thing for the inheritance benefits offered by assurance vie … … so we have to do the opposite (Thanks George1) and transfer the pensions well after taking rather than well before taking French citizenship.

Nice - just reading about CCF/HSBC … … with HSBC as one of my bank accounts currently. A few threads on here re: problems with CCF but haven’t looked too deeply.
Just opening a mule bank account in Barclays and then touring it through TSB to Santander into First Direct and then ending in Nationwide for my wife and myself so we end up with the account which appears most supported by the forum.
These’re the accounts in the UK where we can get ~£200 a shot for opening meaning £200 x 8 for no effort other than paying for the Aldi shop in 3 tranches each week. There’s a minimum monthly usage of the debit card to get the money.

The Nationwide appears to not particularly care if we’re resident in France (thanks forum!) - and I really don’t want to have to maintain a UK telephone number for internet banking.

Just mentioned to the guys - I’m also with Coventry Building Society (near the Aldi :-)) and they’re merging with the co-op - so may be safer to stick with the Nationwide I think as nobody’s mentioned CBS accepting French residents to its books and the CBS has the weirdest security measures - I have a card matrix on top of all of the usual dual passwords and phone security codes.

Just talking to larkswood about exactly that - we have to slice and dice our pensions into <E250k chunks and mentioned to him (in this thread) how to do it for free. There’s generally a minimum required (monthly / lump sum) for a SIPP/Stakeholder pension and a minimum charge (to have eg 0.4%-0.55% and to hold >0.35% annually paid monthly). But we can actually have as many pension as we want as long as we ‘hold’ the money as cash (good interest rate! 4.1% currently thrashing the Livret A) rather than actively invest.
That is - that we can make a savings account into a personal pension (or a personal pension into a savings account if you prefer) - thereby retaining the power to transfer it all (you can’t transfer a crystallized pension at a favourable tax rate) - without worrying about market fluctuations as the money’s just accruing interest rather than going up or down based on the latest tweet from Trump, Musk or the Ayatollah.

Now wouldn’t that make for an interesting rock band. Certainly Trump and Musk are famed for dancing on stage and I’ve heard the Ayatollah croons.

265

Good luck with that. Tax offices generally have better things to do than answer hypothetical questions from people who aren’t even in the tax system yet.

Answers to all those questions can be found with some background reading. The impôts.gouv site has extensive guidance for example.

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266

Ahhh no we’ve been in and talked to them - I’m emailing an actual person we know.
I know an actual person! :slight_smile: but as mentioned tax and social charges are separately administered and so they were unable to help with Social charges.

To anybody who wants to go into their tax office in France prior to moving to France - post away and I’ll explain how to book an appointment. Really important to book as they don’t actually let you on. What happens is that the door is locked and they call you from outside in, at your appointed time - but only if you’ve an appointment. They even tried to get us a partial English speaker but myself and wife don’t need any help with the language.

No cost - appointment 30 - 45 mins and what was excellent is that they were happy that we’re doing our homework, so don’t expect them to be nasty!

267

One important lesson about France is that there is immense variability. I can walk into my tax office, take a ticket, and wait to see someone. Appointments only necessary in tax season, However, in general tax officers are helpful and pleasant.

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268

Thing is - is that a helpful person could answer those questions in less than 10 or 20 words.

269

Ahhhh - but it wasn’t my tax office!

270

Monthly contact lenses are everywhere and don’t cost much but I just can’t do it. Incidentally :slight_smile: work’s paying for my eye test today. Need to ensure we’re in full PPE at work so we’re immune to the incredible array of nasty insults we’re exposed to - I’m currently working on major toxins (arsenite etc … … ) !

I don’t know if you’ve seen the next set of Meta specs - magnificent.

Woohoo - ‘most profound experience of my life to date’.

I’ve been pushing google since google glasses to get to where Meta are - but google’s better at innovation not dissemination and so dropped the ball. Special company though!

Just getting Meta Wayfarer after the precription today - can’t wait!!!

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(now the usual next comment is that Mark looks silly … … ahhhhh but men don’t really care)

272

“Ahhh no we’ve been in and talked to them”

Never thought I’d say this about the fisc but the poor b*stards

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273

:blush:

I got the feeling from my guy that he was a bit relieved to be talked to not shouted at!

274

This guy can’t be real … :roll_eyes:

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275

Oh but he is.
I did try to warn y’all.
On the last forum, one lovely lady called Euro Trash, and who reminds me of Jane, tolerated him for days before finally spontaneously combusting.

276

I don’t think you’ll find many here who share that sentiment.

277

Boogie Bargain but beware.

@SBcamsci seemed to be well chuffed with the Bouygues i/net-mob phone deal I suggested and myself bought into.

I need to point out that the modem that this deal comes with is from the era of Fred and Vera Flintstone. It will reach from one side of your cave to the other but no further. When one considers that my gaff, The Plywood Shack, has walls thu’ which even vague thoughts of sunny days would pass at full strength but the signal from this modem do not, you get an idea of how feeble its output is.

It has no WPS button to make linking an extender the mere press of said button.

But getting a TP-link extender to connect to this modem can be done. It involves connecting the extender to a laptop with an ethernet cable and ‘following the instructions on the screen’. Go to TP-Link for futher details.

Linking a TP-Link or any other extender that does not have an ethernet port is altogether a different matter and is less to be recommended than chewing your own kneecaps off.

278

Wilma surely?

279

Can you not get an extender that just plugs into the wall?

280

Sometimes a money saving deal is not the ideal solution.

We recently decided to move to fibre. At the boutique husband happily took the new router under his arm saying, “Pas besoin d’instillation merci. C’est ma femme qui s’occupe.” Yay!

After two days inexplicably being unable to connect I contacted Orange who sent out repair technician for advance payment of €69. Two days later, which I thought lucky, he arrived and decided the installation was badly done, so he redid it. ‘The wife’ then had router and almost all equipment connected within the hour. Orange refunded the €69. Lucky.

I just wish I could have been spared all the stress and no internet days by paying for installation up front. :face_with_head_bandage:

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281

I have the very thing. And with a little help from our friend Mr. G [as opposed to Big G, who doesn’t do IT] it is now punching out max '0’s & '1’s or whatever.

Sadly, the tweak of driver that was s’posed to fix the flickering monitor didn’t work. It took about 10 mins of flashing the lock screen photo before it stayed on.

Back to Mr. G.

282

Yes. :roll_eyes:

283

Flickery monitors can often be down to a dodgy cable - have you tried a different one?