Student Health & RIB/ IBAN banking! Help!

I am a long term resident in France on a student visa. I am trying to apply for social security so that I can receive healthcare in the country. Apparently, I need a French bank account or IBAN. I tried to look at different options that are affordable but no luck.

Does anyone know an affordable bank for students? I can keep a balance in the account, but I do not have plans to withdraw more than 100€ a month. I also do not have income since I am on a student visa. Please, I am looking for any advice to get healthcare without IBAN/RIB or a bank account that won’t charge a bunch of fees. Thank you!

Won’t they accept Wise? It’s a European IBAN. And easy/free to sign up to.

If not use a nearly free one like

https://ouvrir-un-compte.boursorama-banque.com/landing/welcome/?origine=2456&xtor=SEC-204&gclid=Cj0KCQiAubmPBhCyARIsAJWNpiOSFmxBexJv9lFUqK4QSVlWPFucsM4CJXER5blpUOc4_F4dG8AR-o0aAgGlEALw_wcB

I think you will find that most high street banks offer special low fee accounts for students.
Crédit Agricole used to have a student account with a fee of 2€ per month if I recall correctly, I do not know if it is still the same arrangement.

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Monabanque are very affordable. Basic current account with Visa card included is only 2€/month. Everything is done online but they are linked to CIC for things like cash & cheque deposits. I can’t fault them.

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OrangeBank is advertising heavily and I think they have a special deal for students. Got an idea there’s a bonus. The more modern online banks like boursorama and orange also often seem to pay incentives to refer people - so check for incentives to be referred (some pay referrer only some pay referred new account holder as well) before you choose one.

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I have never heard of this app it looks awesome, tho! If I have a US bank account I’ll it provide me with my own IBAN? That information seems unclear.

American banks are very reluctant to provide an IBAN, though they eventually will if pushed hard enough. Remember that the purpose of providing the IBAN to the Assurance Maladie is to permit direct reimbursements for health expenses to be paid into the bank account. So you need an account that is not going to make a charge for receiving the payments which will be made in Euros. My US bank account charges me $18 to receive a payment from the UK as a “Wire Transfer Fee”, so if you used an IBAN for a US account for Assurance Maladie purposes you could end up with the receiving US bank fee actually being more than the amount received.