Oh i am guilty as charged of this one.
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Not in the UK it aināt.
Having calmed down slightly 
Before anyone says that the UK is not France - of course not so if that is the going rate in France I guess it is part of the rich tapestry etc.
But it is a bit of a rip off.
I see that the French cards come with "Assistance (not clear what that provides) and āBasic Travel Insuranceā - which is not much use to me as I can almost guarantee that it would not actually be good enough t rely on completely (and presumably Iād have to buy the tickets with the Britline card which is not something Iād do).
they should advise you every yearā¦ charges and benefitsā¦ so you know what is whatā¦ you can probably find the info on their websiteā¦ or in your personal inbox if you have such on your on-line banking setup
If you will use it mostly for withdrawing cash, make sure you know how many withdrawals you can make from non-CA cash machines in France before incurring fees. There is a limit, maybe 5 or 6 times a month, I canāt remember. Iām just thinking of your blood pressure 
It caught me out once, I completely forgot about this little wrinkle and got charged and kicked myself afterwards. I could easily have walked another few hundred yards to a CA and saved myself the charge if Iād been on the ball.
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The first 5 are free then itās 1ā¬ per transaction
The Britline Visa card looks much better value than the MasterCard which I have - though I think that the Visa card was not an option when we opened the account - higher spending limits, free withdrawals at non CA ATMās no matter how often used.
Fortunately the two places we use to get cash out regularly are both CA branches.
Iād ask to swap but have a horrible suspicion that if I do so now Iāll get charged twice.
Canāt hurt to discuss with them, next time you are over here.
I might give them a ring
After all the whole point of Britline is the Anglophone helpdesk
I was slightly miffed to find they donāt do live chat.
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Just completing a move from Banque Populaire to Credit Agricole and it takes 3 months! Banks will everything required even moving prelivements, easy but you must keep control of balance
S at old and new banks
The fee went up from ā¬41 to ā¬42 on the 1st Jan this year. It does seem extortionate but as others have mentioned, itās pretty standard here.
The current card expires at the end of the year and Iāve obviously paid this yearās fees - I donāt remember it being anything like that much when we opened the account but not sure how far back I can download transactions to check.
Itās a complete rip off - I am never going to use the ābenefitsā and I wonder how many of the French do so as typically bundled insurance is not quite good enough to prevent the need for full travel insurance - maybe the CA deal, or French deals in general, are sufficient but Iām not resident in France so am never going to book travel with the card - maybe train tickets very occasionally.
Oh well, cāest la vie I suppose 
I never really thought about is as paying for the ābenefitsā. I never use them either, I donāt even know what they are.
I accept that these cards cost something to produce and dispatch, and they have a value in that you can take out cash and buy stuff in shops and online with them. So for me I consider it worth 40-odd euros every few years. It works out well under a euro a month.
Comparison site for mastercard fees here
https://www.moneyvox.fr/tarif-bancaire/comparatif/carte-bancaire-mastercard.php
I believe CA has a cheaper card with lower ceilings if you really object to paying 42ā¬.
So it seems - the āMasterCard with Balance Checkā - not sure quite how that (the Balance Check) works but itās 30,5ā¬ rather than 42ā¬
Viewed from a British perspective it is all a bit on the expensive side. I suppose if you actually relied on it for travel insurance that would mitigate it a bit - the card T&C doesnāt cover the terms for the benefits, Iāll have a hunt around the CA site to see if I can find them when i have more time.
Iām slightly surprised that competition in the marketplace has not driven the price of debit cards down, France seems along in charging such high amounts for this service.
Hmmm, had a call from Britline just now to ask me if they can help - so they clearly monitor social media, this site anyway.
Itās positive that they want to improve the customer experience - but a bit unnerving to get called about posts online; a reminder, as I have said many times in the past - donāt put anything on the 'net that you would not be happy to see on the front page of a national newspaper.
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Me too. Mea maxima culpa - and I suspect that Chris Kite may be subject to the same condition as me.
The condition is known as G.A.S. - Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. Once contracted, itās like malaria: youāre never cured - just in remission till the next bout. There is temoprary relief - thoā at the time one believes the condition has been finally cured - by the palliative of N.G.D. ā¦ New Guitar Day.
The euphoric effects of this remedy can last days - weeks, even. The example below was my first of this famous make/model. N.G.D. was so intense that I left it lying on the floor in the open case, glowing like some numinous object found in an Egyptian tomb.
Then its failings became evident, it had to go and G.A.S. reasserted itself, worse than ever.
G.A.S. is a constant threat to oneās financial health.
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Iām surprised TransferWise Borderless isnāt on lesFurets. They also issue bank cards FoC and their exchange rates/transfer fees are very reasonable. I likeTW but I still feel the need for a high street bank.
I also discovered that TransferWiseās Euro bank card gets treated like a āforeignā bank card by autopay fuel stations in that it blocks 100ā¬ or so for a week while the actual transaction goes through. I had assumed it was only sterling bank cards that got treated this way, but maybe itās all non-French cards.
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The current account comes with a cheque/paying in book
Thereās repeated mention of cheques in this discussion. I had to write a UK cheque the other day to pay DVLA for taxing a re-imported vehicle. I received an apology for not being able to pay online for that service.
It was the first cheque I had written in years - 1 in '14, 2 in '15, 1 in '16, 0 in ā17/ā18ā/19ā. I actually made it out to DLVA. Stupid boy. Fortunately I had one last chq remaining in the book.
How common is it to have to pay by cheque in France? Iām thinking principally about payments to government bodies and āofficialā/corporate institutions.
ChĆØques are so common in France - also frustratingly slow method of payment in the supermarket.
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Iām cured, I even managed to sell one a month agoā¦
Cured? I donāt believe that for a sec. Thereās a hole where that one used to be ā¦
Like Arnold Schwartzenegger "Youāll be back ā¦ " on eBay or somewhere.
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