It’s probably good for France to buy out the Hongkong Savings Bank of China, but I love the user friendly HSBC app, and I imagine that the French CCF platform will be complicated and annoying. I have some extra money, and would like to invest it elsewhere in France before year end in an interest bearing account- any ideas?
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Or even the The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 
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Heidi, received another letter from them today re the change over, i would bet money on it that it does not go smooth, wont be long i dont think before i am looking for another bank, have you seen anything regarding account charges.
HSBC France bought CCF back in 2000 - and CCF has been a dormant company name since. Now, they have packaged up the retail side (as opposed to commercial banking) into the old CCF company and sold it on, lock stock and barrel to Cerberus Capital Management, backed by the My Money Group.
Rather annoying as we chose HSBC France for our French account because we bank with HSBC in the UK and, whilst all our transfers are dealt with by Wise, we could easily keep an eye on our French account via our UK banking app.
What is more worrying for us is that the switchover is taking place right at the time we are travelling and spending Christmas and New Year in France - and, hence, using our French banking cards etc. Normally I would transfer sufficient funds to see us through the visit without having to rely on using our UK bank cards but, this time, I am not taking any chances on something going ‘tech’ right around Christmas and New Year and our access to the account being blocked for whatever reason. They have already informed us that internet banking will be stopped from, I think, the 27th.
I suggest you just use your Wise card. I never use my HSBC France card, I only have it so I can have a French Apple Appstore account to download French only apps.
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Bit of an assumption Heidi🤭 Wait and see.
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Bit of a difficulty with that one John - we dont have a Wise card. We only use them for the transfers.
The HSBC App is terrific……in any case, we shall see how it goes. I wonder if anyone can recommend a good broker who invests in the French stock market?
HEIDI LEIGH
CHATEAU SITE CHATEAUBELCASTEL.COM
“don’t panic, don’t panic” as Corporal Jones would say 
What do you think of the quality of communication so far? I think it’s been very good and the transition has been a long time in the planning. The last thing the reborn CCF wants to do is loose clients, so I assume they’ve pushed the boat out on the cutover. From a professional perspective I’ve seen the transition of several banks to new systems go well so let’s hope this one does too.
As a HSBC customer in the UK and elsewhere, when I needed a French bank account again twenty years ago I signed up with the recently acquired CCF. Compared with my experience of SocGen twenty years before they were a breath of fresh air. SocGen was full of overpaid, over dressed time wasters who really couldn’t give a damn about their clients. There were a few of those “traditional French bankers” in CCF/HSBC initially, but they disappeared
Regardless, IMO it’s the relationships that you have with your bank that count, our advisor is staying with CCF. To be honest if he had left I would have followed hm to his new bank because I trust him. Being able to use the one app for HSBC UK and France is/was convenient and I think HSBC is an excellent bank but I’m very willing to give the new CCF a go.
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But get one Carl. It’s great because you get the best rate at the time of the transaction. In the last two years we’ve loaded it up and used it in Australia, Morocco, Dubai, Oman and even the UK (cause most of our cash is in Euro).
You don’t need a broker to invest in the French stock market, you can just get an online account and punt away to your hearts content:slightly_smiling_face: If you mean recommend a financial advisor, that would be madness, caveat emptor
BTW, most “financial advisors” underperform compared to trackers but with higher fees.
They also underperform compared to random choices. Read all about it in The Drunkard’s Walk…
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I was being (uncharacteristically) kind
We used to attend soire’s in London held by a large stock brokers. My manager asked a question that went very pear shaped for them when one of the fund managers let slip his own pension was invested in a tracker 
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I agree. We’re in the midst of an experiment with our modest investments. We have one set of discretionary investment fund management advisers who invest in various equity based funds, and another set of discretionary investment management advisers who invest solely in tracker funds. Both operate within Assurance Vie wrappers…
No prizes for guessing that the latter’s performance is much better than the former, and of course their fees charged are far less.
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Just as a follow up, never gave it a thought but our AMELI account had our old HSBC account details as did our health insurance, so just another couple of hurdles to jump over, must admit it the change over was seamless.
Hi Heidi, as global customers of HSBC, and being customers in both Thailand and France, with global view privileges, the closure in both countries made international banking a nightmare. CCF france has proven hopeless and we are dismayed by the chaos as we transferred. CCF had plenty of warning, so there is no excuse for this level of incompetence and bungling. CCF offers none of the same exceptional benefits of HSBC premier. We were ‘granted permission (!)’ to transfer from the Sevres Babylone to CCF Auber (near Opera Garnier). There are international services at the Auber branch and it is a large, apparently well staffed branch. The service at Sevres Babylone is abysmal (an understatement) . After our first visit to Auber, we departed relieved and slightly more hopeful.
You bet correctly Frankie!! I am living proof…
Spot on John. And your words were kind , understated and carefully chosen.