For once, I’ve read the Tariffs document of Credit Agricole. It concerns their bank charges, applicable from March 2023. I found it in their app under Messagerie.
Despite the UK is still part of SEPA, even for SEPA payments to the UK, Credit Agricole will charge their customer 13 euros to make a payment to a UK bank.
Even worse, despite the UK is still part of SEPA,
to receive a SEPA payment from a UK bank, Credit Agricole will charge their customer 18,35 euros.
Credit Agricole takes this money from their customer even if the customer makes the payment from the internet.
So even without human intervention Credit Agricole is charging this.
Credit Agricole declares it will take these fees for SEPA transactions to or from UK or Switzerland.
But it seems their real target is their UK clients, with Switzerland being a ‘veil’ to hide this targeting.
Pages 9-11 of my regional Caisse Credit Agricole tariffs attached.
Am I being unfair?
Or is Credit Agricole and CA Direct really targetting British clients resident in France for this monster rip off?
Noting that the point of SEPA payments is they are automated, so no difference between countries in SEPA guide_detaille_part_2023(2).PDF (3.9 MB)
I have said it before on here that CA have been prone to such outrage for many years now. They twice did it to me even after promising not to do it again after the first time. They also charged me 30% on a German euro cheque, so not just the British as targets, although they know I am one.
That’s why I ditched them and took my business elsewhere.
That’s why I never read the small print, @KarenLot: it’s too depressing!
I’m not at all surprised, though.
However my UK bank would do the same re a payment to France and, tbh, I wouldn’t use either my French or my UK bank to send a payment abroad: I use a company like Wise.
I have Wise, and would like to do everything with my French bank instead.
But this blatant unjustified ripoff that has nothing to do with any extra costs for the bank, hidden in small print, is making me think I will never be able to just deal just with French banks, as I would prefer.
To be fair I think it is the type of transaction that it is targeting, rather than the nationality of the customers.
They are ‘targeting’ French residents who make or receive cross Channel payments.
Inevitably in many cases it will be British customers resident in France who transact a lot with the UK.
But it will also be French and other nationality customers resident in France who happen to deal frequently with the UK.
And it does not touch Brits who are resident in France and only make or receive cross Channel payments once in a blue moon. It won’t affect me for instance.
I don’t know if this is a possible answer…I wonder if using CA’s own FX payment service, Britline International Payments Services (which partners with Xe neé HiFX) might circumvent the issue? I’ve been using their services for some years, and have not been charged specifically/directly for transfers. Obviously no guarantee come March when the new SEPA charges to/from the UK come through.You’d imagine it would hardly be a great attraction for Britline’s core cross channel business to impose such charges…
CA Normandie. I’ve just checked the tarifs applicable to our CA account from April 2023. The SEPA section does not contain the UK specific SEPA charges that you have shown. That’s a big regional difference.
We’re getting out of Crédit Patate (as some call it) anyway, but…
Been a Credit Agricole Normandie (CA Britline) customer for long time (18 years? ) long before we moved permanently to France so we stayed with them (+ opening a second account with CM de B) and have always found them excellent in every way… dial the customer service number, enter account number, then Pin and it’s normally answered personally within 90 seconds by account officer.
The only charge we ever pay is a monthly standing charge of about €6.
So…so… different to poor service provided by all the UK banks, though the French online experience is a bit clunky and payment processing is slower, but that’s a function of the French banking system not the bank.
When we opened our CA accounts a lifetime ago… they explained that there would be charges for funds coming from abroad (vaguely that’s how I recall)… but when we explained that the funds coming in would be pensions… quick as a flash, they said… Aha, that’s OK then, no charges… and so it has continued…
…yes the €6 is monthly and i forgot the annual €22 i think for a debit card…but even with that I’m happy to pay €94 pa for the provision for a good service rather than “free” rubbish banking from uk banks. I rarely use an actual branch other than the cash dispenser, online and telephone gives me all i need. The fact that uk banks don’t charge has been a major contributor to their closure progamme which has seen all of them each close at least 58% of branches over the last eight years.
It means people who want to visit a branch, as it seems many older Frech people do, still have one available locally.
I was told CA Britline has about 60,000 customers and is a significant business unit for CA
€ 82.20 pa with La Poste, taken quarterly, nothing else to pay and no charges on transfers, from whatever source. That includes a debit card. And 6 half day opening hours in villages little larger than hamlets. Worth it for that alone.
Just use WISE, very quick secure and lowest fees on the internet for shifting money around the world into any account from any source.
Only good experience from me.
I use Wise too for money transfers as a lot of people here do but as far as I see it, the transferred money has to go somewhere and if we are using Wise to transfer money into a Credit Agricole account, does it matter how it gets there? Wise would surely fall into the category being mentioned? Going back some time, I was (just the once) charged by CA on a receipt into my account but not since and they might well be reinstating that sort of thing…
Hi @AngelaR - I need to clarify that so far I’ve only sent money into Credit Mutuel account and they don’t charge a fee. I’m about to open a Credit Agricole Account (waiting to be verified this week) so I will now ask CA before transfer just to check if they do. Will update end next week.
