French Bank Account and Mobile Phone

Banking & Financial Tax & Social charges
22

From the impôts website:

Attention : pour le prélèvement comme pour le paiement en ligne, vous devez disposer d´un compte bancaire domicilié en France ou dans les Etats qui composent la zone SEPA (les 27 pays-membres de l’Union européenne ainsi que l’Islande, le Liechtenstein, la Norvège, le Royaume-Uni (y compris Gibraltar), la Suisse, Monaco, la République de Saint-Marin, la Principauté d’Andorre et l’État de le Vatican.

Précision importante : votre établissement bancaire doit également adhérer, pour chaque moyen de paiement, aux règles interbancaires européennes applicables. Ainsi certains établissements bancaires peuvent être situés en zone SEPA mais ne pas avoir adhéré aux règles applicables pour ce prélèvement. Dans ce cas, le compte bancaire communiqué à la DGFIP ne pourra pas être utilisé dans le cadre du prélèvement de l’impôt sur le revenu et des prélèvements sociaux.

Dès lors, il convient de vous assurer auprès de votre établissement bancaire qu’il a bien adhéré au prélèvement SEPA, c’est-à-dire au « SEPA DIRECT DEBIT » avec l’option SDD CORE (ou B2C).

Si vous rencontrez des difficultés pour ouvrir un compte en zone SEPA du fait d’un refus des banques sollicitées, sachez que vous pouvez faire valoir votre “droit au compte” mis en place en France par la loi bancaire du 24 janvier 1984.

Le bénéfice du “droit au compte” est ouvert :

** aux personnes domiciliées en France, sans condition de nationalité ;*
** aux français résidents de l’étranger ;*
** aux étrangers résidents dans un pays de l’Union européenne autre que la France.*

https://www.impots.gouv.fr/international-particulier/questions/quels-sont-les-moyens-de-paiement-privilegier-en-tant-que-non

Have your Friends actually tried to pay from their Portuguese bank?
It does seem that there is something unusual about their circumstances that none of the usual avenues appear to work for them.

If they live in Portugal and not France then clearly they cannot have a cds for France, it is pointless even attempting to pursue that route. Do they explain to the banks that they live in Portugal?

23

Hi Karen I am not focused on Britline it I was just convenient as I can talk to them on the phone. Like you I could not believe that the French banques would not let them open an account. So I called Britline and found they could not open an account with them either.

They assure me they have been to several Brick and Morter banques and have been told they can only open an account if they have a Carte de Séjour. They also say they tried an online banque and that also required a number of their Carte de Séjour.

Regards. Nick

24

I know nothing about this sort of situation.
Have they tried a Portuguese bank in France?
https://www.cgd.fr/Agences/Paginas/AGENCE-DE-BORDEAUX.aspx

25

Just sitting here at Breakfast in Paris talking about it.

My Friend has been working/living in Norway for the last five years or so she had a Norwegian bank account and had no problem paying her tax Foncier and d,habitation from there. Her husband has a Jersey bank account and can’t pay from there either.

Apparently she sets up a SEPA mandate but it just will not go through, is it possible that it is over the limit for payment as it is over €2000.

Nick

26

The clue is in the name “Britline”…it’s a unit within CA set up specifically for UK market.

What have your friend’s tried to show that has been rejected? As maybe the bank thinks they are British, so would want a CdS. How’s their French - as perhaps things lost in translation.

27

Hi Wozza that is on the list apparently there is a branch of her Portugese bank in a nearby town, so she is going to try that.

28

Not sure what this means. Normally it is the tax office that sets up the mandate, not the account holder.
Has she given the Portuguese bank account details to DGFIP and have they been declined?

29

Hi Jane

My friend is fluent in English, Portugese and French, her parents were living in France when she was born but mum went back to UK to give birth. She went to school in Paris and later in UK.

Nick

30

Sandcastle

Apparently the SEPA mandate is used in France my wife uses it to pay our taxes in France. Our friend set one up from Norway with no problem but there is no agreement with Portugal!

31

I think I might have some understanding of one of the issues…

  • Non acceptance of payment (in Euro) from Portugal

Some time ago we were paid for something by a German friend. Can’t remember all the details now but AFAIR, whilst the amount she paid was the correct amount in Euro, our French bank made a deduction in respect of a transfer fee so the full amount was not received in our account.
Perhaps the Fisc are simply concerned that they will not be paid in full accordingly.

32

Hi Graham

Yes that might be a possibility we will explore that. She has also tried to open a French Postoffice bank account but they also wanted a Cart de séjour.

I had a similar one when working in Indonesia I was paid via an American bank and they deducted a fee so never saw the full amount of my invoice, in my UK account.

33

has she, or is she in possession of, a Portuguese National ID card?

This is becoming a bit like the game rock, paper, scissors :thinking:
My NID beats your CdS :wink:

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34

yep… possibly misunderstandings on each side…
like hunt the thimble… oh, was it a thimble you wanted… but this is a thimble… oh no it isn’t … blah blah… similar but with different properties…

image
image

35

Yes she has a Portugese national identity card, Portugese passport and UK passport

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36

It sounds as if by trying to help you are adding an extra layer of complication, perhaps because as you say, you don’t really speak French.

I don’t really understand why they - who do speak French, have Portuguese nationality, and time, can’t sort it themselves by going to the tax office and bank local to where their house is, and sorting everything out seeing it concerns them and they have no problem communicating.

I’m not a bank person but I am a fonctionnaire and the whole thing as you describe it sounds weird and dodgy, so maybe they would be better off going to Paris and sorting it out themselves.

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37

Veto

Yes you are quite right and they are continuing to pursue it,

I was just chatting to them about it and at first though it was quite simple and the best solution was to open a ÇA Britline account on the phone. A quick call soon showed that was not possible.

I thought that posting here might throw some light on the problem. I am not really getting involved on their behalf and they will follow up with visits to the tax office and banks. I have suggested that they visit their local Marie and see if they can help.

38

What is baffling me is, that banks are asking them for a carte de séjour if they have stated that they do not live in France.
Banks do KYC checks all the time. They all know the difference between a resident and a non resident, and they know different sets of paperwork that are required.
Non residents are normally required to provide justificatifs to show that they are paying their taxes in their home country.

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39

Sounds sensible to me. I think you’ve done more than enough already to try and help them.

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40

Just coming back on this, so are you saying that the Portuguese bank is able to tranfer the money to your French bank without a problem, but not to the tax office’s bank?
Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.

Or do they give you the money in cash?..

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41

just make sure you can prove the money you’ve received is clearly not part of “worldwide income”… :roll_eyes:

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