It is a business account, but I thought it was just the business HSBC accounts that were migrated to CCF?
No, basically all of HSBC banks operations in France were sold to an entity that created CCF. AFAIK, the bank name is old but hadn’t operated for some time so it was effectively a new bank using the heritage name. Ours is a personal joint account.
Crikey, I hadn’t realised it was personal accounts too. If a bank like HSBC has struggled in France over the past couple of decades, it makes you wonder what the future holds…
Sorry if I alarmed anyone, but the fee is just for business accounts as far as I’m aware. I have had strange fees applied to other personal accounts before now. When Banque Tarneaud became Société Générale, I got hammered with so many charges that I never had previously that I had to get the bank manager involved to set things right before I left altogether. Banking in France is quite a different affair to what I remember in the UK.
It’s not that they struggled at all, it’s that HSBC has for some years now pursued an ‘Asia Pivot’ strategy where it’s concentrating its efforts on the more profitable Asian market. It’s recently sold entire businesses all over the world.
HSBC bought CCF about twenty years ago. I’d been a HSBC customer in the M/E and UK and had experience from way back at how useless French Banks could be (in my case Soc Gen) so opened an account with them. At that stage they even still had the old CCF branding in the branch. HSBC have decided to concentrate on the Far East so are divesting not only in France but elsewhere. The transition to the “new” CCF was painless for us, our advisor has remained the same (and he’s excellent, frankly if he had left we might have moved elsewhere) and the products are still HSBC ones, just administered by CCF.
@hairbear I’m not suggesting HSBC is doing badly on the whole, but in terms of their business in France, I believe they’ve been doing quite badly.
@John_Scully I’d never heard of CCF until the letter arrived from HSBC… I didn’t realise they’d acquired it that long ago. The transition was quite painless, but as I’ve now discovered this additional fee from CCF that the HSBC didn’t use to charge me, I wonder if there’s any more small surprises to come.
Banque Tarneaud was quite alright until they became Soc Gen. BNP isn’t too bad either, although they always try to force you into the branch to sell you something every time you make some sort of enquiry.
My experience was way back, over forty years ago. The attitude of the staff in that era was that the bank existed for their benefit, not that of the clients. It was a little club. Some of the original CCF staff had the same attitude when HSBC took over, but over time they were weeded out and the HSBC attitude to customer service became dominant. I hope that will be maintained in the new CCF.
TBH I’m always learning and may revise when I get more experience. But my impression so far is that this is not an uncommon thing when dealing as a consimer here with many enterprises of all sorts and not just banks.
It’s culturally a bit of a shock coming from a UK culture and likely even more so for Americans.
True, the customer’s always right would not be guiding principle in France. I’m always prepared for initial pushback when querying something, it can very tedious. Nowadays, bizarrely, I notice it most when it doesn’t happen, when I have a problem and it’s resolved without a battle it just feels great.
John, I can well believe it (i.e. the banks acting like a club). Whilst that hasn’t really been my experience, they do make a meal out of whether to accept someone as a client. When my wife and I wanted a joint account with the BNP, along with a Livret A, the bankers are friendly but it’s often a case of we scratch your back, you scratch ours. Thankfully my wife knows how it works, and by bringing our kids to the same bank, we were able to get what we wanted. They did also want my business account, but I feigned a possible yes, but had no intention of doing it!
Many years ago, the BNP (we used to be with them long ago, and then left) did an amazing promotion for loans with a very low rate. It was only for businesses and we wanted one for our house rather than take a mortgage. We met with the bank manager who was really nice, and bent the rules for us, and allowed us to take it on an individual basis.
Yes, I suppose it all comes down people in the end.