After having had years of great service from Wise, I am reluctantly going to have to close the accounts since I seem unable to supply the level of identity verification they require. It should perhaps also be noted that they have changed quite a bit after their floatation.
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I had to re-open a new account with CA here to where I moved to last year from another dept, you cannot just transfer your account. It all has to be started from scratch again but worth having a bank just five mins by car up the road so I can easily pop in with any problems and the people are nice too!
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I couldn’t agree more @AngelaR. Unfortunately Wise seem to have become the Barclays or NatWest or whoever of fintech, as the service has dramatically decreased and the cost has dramatically increased they are relying, largely successfully, on a significant section of people who say “I’ve been using them for 84 years and they’ve always done me good in the past.” sorta stuff and sticking put rather than taking the rose tinted glasses off and voting with their feet.
It’s astonishing to me that with how incredibly easy it is to switch your current account in the UK still the primary reason people do so is for a cash bribe, and still it’s only a tiny percentage. Are people truly happy with their current bank, or is inertia and familiarity stopping them finding better? I’m currently testing Sling, an interesting app created by various former staff from Monzo, for sending and receiving international payments. It will never be for everyone, and at this stage is not really for anyone aside from people like me who don’t mind MVP apps with no financial protection lol, but it’s important to try all the options to find the best, and there are many, many, other then Wise these days.
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Wasn’t there some fairly recent UK statistic that people are much more likely to get divorced - than change their banks (due overwhelmingly to inertia)…
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Well I’ve been divorced once and changed my banks at least 8 times in 3 countries, so am not sure what that says about the quality of banks…or spouses. 
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Hi
@Mike313 - you will probably need to go into a bank in person to get one set up, French love the bureaucracy and for the traditional Banks this is more than likely.
I used to bank with HSBC in UK and wanted them to set up a French one for me but proved too difficult with “covid” slowing them down !!!
In end I opened one with Credit Mutuelle (really difficult staff) and one with Credit Agricole who were fabulous and very fast.
My wife went online an opened an N26 account in about 10 minutes which also works for her.
Take your pick.
Thanks for all the input folks. Plenty to think about 
According to the fact checking article below, it seems that marriages typically last for 11.4 years on average whereas banking loyalty lasts 26 years on average. However the article explains that this is really only part of the story and - inevitably - the reality is more nuanced…