Hi there. Brit based in UK but own a French second home which is rented out when I’m not staying there.
For 10 years I’ve been with Banque Populair which was then merged with Société Générale SG. They have told me that they are closing my account as it’s a personal one and I can’t pay in income from rental services in to a personal account.
they are going to offer a business account but I can’t imagine that will be cheap at all so my question is whether anyone has experience of a bank knowingly accepting rental income in to a personal account.
There used to be a laissez-faire acceptance that amounts under €10,000 would be ok to be passed via a personal account. With a tightening up of the legislation around rental income this seems to have changed.
We were told the same thing last year, and it was another reason to quit the business.
Wise has business accounts. Probably a Belgian IBAN though, for receiving French payments but it’s Europe and above board, if that’s acceptable.
I wouldn’t mind betting Revolut might also offer something, even though I can’t stand them I do believe they have some sort of European banking licence.
Wise has business accounts. Probably a Belgian IBAN though, for receiving French payments but it’s Europe and above board, if that’s acceptable.
I wouldn’t mind betting Revolut might also offer something, even though I can’t stand them I do believe they have some sort of European banking licence.
If you’re UK based Starling Bank did have the option to have a Euro account to accept payments. As a UK account it would still have an IBAN so the same for your tenants as paying into a French account - both are IBAN accounts.
Starling are excellent and also business-friendly so if they still do offer a Euro account option might be the best of both worlds. The app interface is very good, it’s easy to use also.
I tihink most people use Wise as a conduit for moving money rather than as a place to leave large sums on deposit.
When I come to France I just load up my Wise account with sufficient money to cover my stay and then use the Wise VISA card for pretty much all my spending. I also use it for holding a (small !) amount in US dollars (my income from sales of stock photos) and for when I need to buy software from the US, thus avoiding currency conversion fees.
Although Wise are not covered by the bank guarantee schemes they do make a point of saying that they keep sufficient money readily available to cover their liabilities, FWIW.
Think your approach is right Chris. Having said that the wider internet seems to love Wise as a bank - I suspect they are safe - but you dont really know until a calamity comes. For example people investing in icelandic banks a few years ago learned the hard way about this…
They’re doing very well at the moment too, finally got their UK banking licence and started moving people over to the bank, opened their new European HQ in Paris and, all the better for us here, working towards getting a full French banking licence to make Revolut western Europe a French bank. It’s incredible to see how they’ve grown, there was a time a decade ago where I was just rotating my Friday evenings between Rev HQ, Monzo HQ and Starling HQ for their mixers which everyone fintech aligned (either as an enthusiast or industry) attended, I somehow can’t imagine Nik has time to sit around for a few hours on a Friday evening with a few beers chatting movies, gaming and tech with customers these days!
One good thing about Wise is that if, say, you are paying an amount in £, but haven’t currently got any £ in your £ pot there, Wise will automatically grab from your Euro or your USD pot if there’s money there to pay the £ you’re using your Wise Visa Card to pay for. And it’ll be converted at a very fair rate without extra charges.
So a good way to use up small amounts of another currency if it’s one that Wise handles.
I keep a limited balance in Wise, and do it all the time.
Yes this is a very handy feature. Sometimes I just upload sterling and let Wise convert to euros when needed, instead of doing the conversion manually.
