I am now ditching UKTelecom who have become a really dubious MickeyMouse operation under new ownership, and am looking at Orange or Sosh. Selectra, who seem to buy all the first browser search results, stress heavily that a French bank acocunt is essential (which I would have thought possibly illegal under EU law). Does anyone know for sure if this advice is correct?
I do have a CA account, but as I rarely use it (particularly this last year) they have frozen it, but I would rather close it, unless I may need it for Orange perhaps. I use Wise (TransferWise) for all my Euro work (which now uses a Belgian bank and RIB for such) and I pay all taxes and other utilities through that account with no problems.
Before I embark on the set-up process, I’d much appreciate learning of any live experience of the use of other nationality RIBs other than French for Orange accounts.
Thanks.
If you use selectra you can use your Wise IBAN as I know SFR and Orange got hammered for not allowing them but if you are getting the likes of a sim card deal they ask and will take only a French card for the 1 euro charge to send the SIM out, crazy I know, just get a friend with a French card to pay it for you 
I can’t help on the bank front @rjhfandclf as I used a CA account when I signed up to them last year but I just wanted to warn you about closing the old contract. We were with Teleconnect as they worked mainly with British customers and sort of assumed that Orange would sort out the transfer etc but they said that is was up to us to do the "resiliation"with Teleconnect. We contacted them, wrote to them, emailed them etc but the bills continued to come for both Orange and Teleconnect. I eventually found a small item on the website that said I had to send a registered letter etc, which I did and eventually the account closed. They said they would charge us a further 90euros unless we returned all their equipment in working order within a few days. We did, and they still debited us the 90euros. Bunch of crooks. I do hope you do a GREAT deal better with your transfer 
Selectra will take a Wise IBAN number now but if you try going through SFR or Orange websites they accept the IBAN and then will not accept anything else than a French card number for the 1 euro charge, any other and it fails at the verification stage as does Selectra.
Thanks for comments. I am only looking for basic ADSL and phone (probably VOIP) – nothing else, so it is just the completion of the set-up that I’m querying, and (hopefully?) hearing from someone who might have succeeded in using a non-FR RIB with Orange group.
Thanks and noted re closure. Just for info; UKTelecom is a UK based ‘agent’ (although it uses a Portuguese address as well now) and I paid via UK £ DD. The new owners took over the company (in administration, although no-one told us this) in January with a new share cap of just £300 (and I have dug somewhat deeper, hence my discomfort), and up till February they sent out nothing but mixed contradictory info from one person or another including telling me I had no viable contract. They have kept churning out monthly invoices since – all incorrect – but luckily, I cancelled my DD before the first was paid, and subsequently cancelled the (non?) account too, just in case. I have sent every department including the two ‘bosses’ very polite emails asking for the account to be corrected, when I would happily pay the small amount that I owed (no equipment was rented). They have not had the courtesy to even acknowledge my contacts, let alone respond. I deem my contract as having been with them, although they contracted with SFR to supply our ‘service’. There are numerous similar complaints to this elsewhere.
Thanks – and yes; I did see that useful topic. I was really trawling to see if anyone had actually succeeded in getting their non-French RIB accepted by Orange group (I note since I last looked that Colin Hunter mentioned that SFR accepted such now, other than for card payments). I may have to just go through the process though to see what happens, but that means leaving names and email addresses etc.
Sorry can’t help there as Orange could not find my address (it’s only been here 300 years) so went with SFR as I knew the signal was good, as an aside I phoned the Orange english speaking line and they could not find the address either so told me to go into a shop and try, one week later I got a letter from Orange giving me a load of offers 
I subscribed to Orange internet via their shop near Limoges. It is indeed correct that they only accept French IBAN numbers. They rejected my Belgium bank IBAN and Revolut IBAN. They attempted to open an Orange Bank account for me, but I could not provide all the documentation they required since we had only just arrived in France and wanted internet whilst in lockdown. Instead they gave me a 4G Router to use, said the ASDL line will be connected in 3 weeks and once that was done I would be invoiced and I could pay the bill via credit card. I have since opened a French Bank account and pay the bill using it. They were incredible helpful and I was most impressed with their customer service. Bouygues and SFR were nowhere nearly as helpful when we attempted to get internet at their shops.
Thanks - good to hear some positives re customer service - a change these days! The address isue is well recognised. Ironically, Orange didn’t recognise our (still live) number or correct address, so I put in the address as ‘Village’ and they offered me three options, including my own Ro*** Fa***! I tried a dummy order, but got no further than enter your mobile number … which of course has to be in French format - which is the last thing I want, so back to square one. Hey ho!