The French system is much more secure though. They had chip & pin a long time before other banks, and the number is non-reprogrammable. I don't have a problem with that.
My bank has been great too. I use Banque Rhone-Alpes, in Grenoble Europole, even though I now live in the north. They have always been helpful, and they have an English speaking service for newbies.
Althought I'm not keen on defending banks, I do think a couple of thoughts are relevant to this situation:
Like any business, a bank can choose its customers and can decide to get rid of customers it prefers not to have. It might well do this if it thinks a customer is not being fully open and honest with it about their financial and tax affairs. Banks throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world are subject to considerable scrutiny by regulatory authorities and if they are caught allowing customers to avoid their obligations, tax and legality-wise, they get in serious trouble themselves. If they do not understand a particular customer's business, financial and tax affairs to their satisfaction they may feel exposed and at risk, and are then entitled to ask for explanations and proofs, and may refuse to handle that customer's accounts if said customer does not co-operate.
Apart from this, the advice I received when we moved to France was that the French apply the rule that tax is applied in your country of residence, no matter where it is earned and through whatever vehicle, with the only (?) exception of income derived or earned in a foreign country where tax is compulsorily paid in the country it is earned in - like UK 'government' pensions (not state pensions). However, even then it has to be declared in France along with the tax paid (which will be credited) and the French may top up the tax demand if not enough tax has been paid in the source country to meet France's tax bands. Furthermore all the bank accounts used to handle any persons' finances have to be declared to the tax athorities in their country of residence. The French take information automatically from French accounts and insist that you declare all foreign bank accounts and any income passing through them. However the UK and other countries' tax authorities and their banks are also obliged to pass on details of a customers affairs to the tax authorities in the individual's country of residence if they know or believe that person is resident there. If they don't know that the person is resident in another country they will expect to take the tax themselves. We were told all this applies equally to earned income, pensions, and most investment / unearned income. Earned income includes profits from self-employment which of course, includes on-line businesses. The penalties for getting caught not declaring are swingeing.
In our case we are better off paying our tax in France than we were and would continue to be as UK residents, so I'm happy with the arrangements, but I realise some people will be better off the other way round, but if you're French-resident you don't have that option.
No doubt someone will correct me if I've got this wrong or the rules have changed since we received our advice.
Your middle paragraph all depends on the dual taxation agreement which exits (or not) with the source country Rhys.
Accepted. I was, of course, thinking primarily of Britain, not Ireland or elsewhere.