So I’m in the process of buying a holiday home in France. The financing is already taken care of. But I guess getting a local bank account makes life easier. So which one to select? I’m far from fluent in French, so anyone with English support would be a plus.
Wise. You can have genuine accounts in as many currencies as you like, all instantly setup. Exchange rates better than any normal bank. Debit card. All transactions instantly updated. The EURO account will be via a Belgian bank but that should not be a problem for you.
Look at Credit Agricole Britline
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If we’re going to go the UK fintech route rather than a local bank as the OP said then surely Revolut is a better option as it gives you an FR IBAN if you were to use the french address to open the account. As much as thankfully IBAN discrimination is finally much less of a thing than it used to be, having those two letters at the start of the account could make things much smoother with utilities and authorities than wise’s BE… assuming it’s still that?
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As a perhaps slightly unwarranted generalisation, the French bricks and mortar banks are still slow, expensive, and have an unduly “mother knows best” attitude about what they think they should allow you to do with your own money, once they have hold of it. I have had bank accounts with pretty much all of the main banking establishments here (except Société Générale), at one time or another, for over 35 years. Perhaps the fintech ones are the way to go, but I still have my reservations about not being able to actually talk to someone if something does go wrong, or if I need help with something. Mind you, the only reason I get anything like half decent service from my bricks and mortar bank is because I have a very healthy business account with them and they know it. If it was just personal stuff, I would probably have switched a long time ago (to what, I really don’t know). When I threatened to move to a different bank lock, stock and barrel a few years ago when looking for a mortgage, they actually got off their backsides and gave us a reasonable deal, so that does still work to a certain extent. The main thing is that I’m perfectly at ease shouting down the phone, or going in person to express my dissatisfaction, in French, when things start to go wrong, and they know it.
Wise isn’t a bank. It’s great at what it does, but probably not what the OP is looking for.
Revolut may be - especially if one of the things needed is a French IBAN - and it’s certainly a slightly cheaper option than CA Britline.
The advantage with CA Britline is a very responsive staff who are accessible by phone (albeit only during business hours), and that comes at a cost.
We’ve been very happy with Britline (and Wise), but they’re not the only option.
We use Credit Agricole and Credit Mutuelle and am happy with both but they vary massively and others have not got on with them. We know people who are very happy with the one at the Post Office but I can’t vouch for them personally.
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Been there. Same thing for us just last year.
If your french is not good, then definitely Credit Agricole through Britline.
However, to do this I would recommend you visit the CA branch local to your new house and make an appointment to set up your new account. Fortunately for us our french immo made the appointment for us. When we were in the arranged meeting with our local advisor in the CA branch, she had Britline on her speaker phone, so we went through everything in english. Takes about 2 hours.
I understand you can simply phone Britline and do the same, but them you might not have a local CA branch but instead be allocated to a branch in Normandy where the excellent Britline team are based.
The sooner you get a bank account sorted the better as you will need it for electricity etc. Also recommend you get a french mobile number asap, some things just cant be done without a french number.
Selecting a French bank…
I thought they select you?
I think CPAM requires a FR iban - or am I getting confused? Do utilities also require France Iban? France tax DD no probs with revolut.
I also have Credit Mutuelle and am happy (enough). It has an app - and easy to use. One can email one’s Counscellor, so can google translate. Not paying for a payment card from them mind.
Yes, they were the only reason I kept paying month after month for a CA account for no other use or benefit until Revolut finally allowed me to ditch it. They still insist on an FR or MC IBAN, they’re the only ones I’ve actually found who do at this point, but there may well be some other people too.
I would do as @GraemeL says if your French is poor.
In every other case, as with quite a few things in France, I would ask locally, which local or local-ish bank people prefer.
National banks vary by branch as to experience you will have but do check their offering and charges. I’d move from mine but everything Ricepudding says is true and the major banks seem much of a muchness. Prepare to step back to the early 1970’s though.
If you still have financial dealings with the UK then you’ll need something like Wise or Revolut as an adjunct
Btw I heard Revolut has been refused a UK banking licence despite very much wanting one and having put a lot of work into it. Something about discrepancies in balances that I didn’t really catch.
Thanks for all the replies, it’s been informative.
I might have added that I already have an euro-account at home and can easily do SEPA-payments. So I guess I can pay electric bills, taxes and so forth already. But I would also like have direct-debit or what it’s called in France, a local debit card and access to cash.
I had a quick look at the prices that are listed on the websites of some French banks and thought they were horrendous. Do people actually pay those prices or are you supposed to negotiate?
I’m guessing all French banks are pretty much the same - dreadful.
Our experience with Credit Agricole over the last 20 years has not been good with the latest nightmare being they refused to transfer a large sum of money to a currency company on the grounds that ‘it was not secure’. It took two appointments, a bit of begging and a complete paper trail from where we got the money to what we want to use it for before they would let the transfer go through.
As for the basic charges, obscene.
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Hi Graemel, good post and I agree. We have just been through this process and opted for Britline as we were unable to visit France before moving to open a bank account. When we last lived in France we used Credit Agricole local branch and found them very good and the manager was always available if we needed. Britline has been very efficient and it is easy to get in touch with your advisor with quick responses. We will open a local account when we come back home in July.
A bank account is definitely one of the first things to sort as you say.
For a French mobile number I opened a thread on this as I was having such difficulties getting one from the UK, it might help but I need to provide some feedback once I see if what I have taken a punt on actually works ! It’s easy if you are in France but from overseas there is not an obvious way
I used a sim from https://www.lefrenchmobile.com/ when I first came to France, they send you the sim to a UK address as well. They are not the most competitive regarding internet usage, but for setting up your utilities, etc it is invaluable plus you can port your number to a more permanent provider once you settle into you new home.
If you have several accounts and other products with a bank, they might generously grant you a “reduction” in the operating costs of those accounts, but other than that, yes, it is quite expensive.
I have a basic account wit CA. It costs 2,24 per month. You can use it for direct debits, and make transfers online. You get a free card to withdraw cash at your local branch only. Then you can try and get a free online account like Fortuneo, or a free credit card like the cartezero or the FNAC MasterCard.