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French Bank Account

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  • 24-10-2008 10:58pm
    #1
    lady novice
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭


    My family are buying a property in France and need to open a bank account to pay utilities etc. I need some information on banks and procedure for opening an account. Can account be opened with a subsidiary in Ireland?
    Help please.


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    #2
    danjo-xx
    Registered Users Posts: 5,393 ✭✭✭danjo-xx


    lady novice wrote: »
    My family are buying a property in France and need to open a bank account to pay utilities etc. I need some information on banks and procedure for opening an account. Can account be opened with a subsidiary in Ireland?
    Help please.

    have a look here

    http://www.howtobooks.co.uk/abroad/france/bank-account.asp


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    #3
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 47,305 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    lady novice wrote: »
    Can account be opened with a subsidiary in Ireland?

    No, you'll have to open it directly with a branch in France.


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    #4
    jaffa20
    Registered Users Posts: 4,532 ✭✭✭jaffa20


    Sister Zaphora wrote: »
    No, you'll have to open it directly with a branch in France.

    True and it's the biggest load of hassle ever. It's not just fill in a form, show some id and proof of address. There is load of paperwork to go through, several trips to the bank etc etc. Whatever you do, avoid HSBC and the rest. Their charges are ridiculous. Your best option would be La Banque Postale or Crédit Agricole.


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    #5
    lady novice
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭lady novice


    jaffa20 wrote: »
    True and it's the biggest load of hassle ever. It's not just fill in a form, show some id and proof of address. There is load of paperwork to go through, several trips to the bank etc etc. Whatever you do, avoid HSBC and the rest. Their charges are ridiculous. Your best option would be La Banque Postale or Crédit Agricole.

    Thanks seems very complicated.


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    #6
    VanHeusen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 28 ✭VanHeusen


    We opened an account with Crédit Agricole last year - or to be honest, my wife opened it and I then signed some papers :)

    Major pain in the neck. The only reason we did it was that her employer insisted that the salary had to be transferred to a French account and wouldn't make a transfer to an Irish account.

    From what I remember:
    - different branches of same bank may have slightly different rules depending on how knowledgeable their employees are. So keep trying...
    - we needed to be "introduced" by a friend who had been banking with that particular branch of Crédit Agricole for some fifteen years - and CA still said "no" initially.
    - quite expensive: E 4.10 per month for the account plus E 34 for the card (debit MasterCard)
    - you are assigned a "bank advisor" - your person at the branch - which is OK as far as that person is doing their job. We were lucky, our Monsieur B. was great. The downside of having an "advisor" is:
    - no-one else at the branch would even come close to your account. So when CA screwed up and charged the account three times E 34 for my card, we had to wait for two weeks until Monsieur B. came back from his vacation to get our money back.
    - we were told by "our guy" that cash lodgements can be made ONLY at the branch where the account is (!). We never verified that though as we used the account for withdrawals and bill payments only.

    In brief: avoid it if you can! :) You may need an account though: I think we managed to pay our electricity bill using a credit card, but water had to be paid using Direct Debit from the bank account (or other way round). You also may need to write a cheque from time to time (plumbers etc.) and Irish cheques cannot be used abroad.


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    #7
    Hagar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,793 ✭✭✭✭Hagar


    Where in France do you need the account?
    On the south coast Banc Populaire de Cote D'Azur have an English speaking advisor in every branch. They seem to charge a little more but offset that against lost time if you don't speak Franch fluently and it may suit you.


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    #8
    lady novice
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭lady novice


    Hagar wrote: »
    Where in France do you need the account?
    On the south coast Banc Populaire de Cote D'Azur have an English speaking advisor in every branch. They seem to charge a little more but offset that against lost time if you don't speak Franch fluently and it may suit you.

    In the general Nice area so I guess I could try Banc Populaire. Can you just go in or do you need someone to introduce you?


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    #9
    Hagar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,793 ✭✭✭✭Hagar


    No introduction needed. Have a read of the link below, it will answer 99% of your questions. Please feel free to drop me a PM if you like.

    Anglo Info Riviera - Banking


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    #10
    lady novice
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭lady novice


    Thanks Hagar, I think that website gives me all the info I need.


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