French bank account

[capsco]

Has anyone experience/tips on opening a French bank account, documents required, monthly charges etc?

 

[Koeketiene]

Will you be doing so as a resident?

 

[saskia]

La Banque Postale works well for us. Reputed to have lower charges than the commercial banks and there are post offices almost everywhere. It provides cheque books and cards and online banking options. I don't think there was any need to prove residence, though obviously a passport was required and plenty of forms to fill in.

 

[Baggywrinkles1]

I would also recommend Bank Postale as France seems to act like it is 10 different countries when it comes to banking if you change area, which you would in a boat, but you will need a residence address this usually easy to get from a port you are in from the Capitainerie. One you have this bank a/c you can then obtain a 'Carte Vitale' (health) which lasts every 6 months for 2 years. If you look at Anglo Info France you will get all the answers.

 

[JamesFrance]

I have recently changed from one of the usual French banks, Banque Populaire, as they charged for most things such as a debit card, internet and card insurance as seems to be normal in France. We are now with ING Direct who charge none of those things and give you a free Gold Mastercard with free travel insurance. I could even give you a code which would give you 30€ for opening an account. I only wish I had moved sooner.
http://www.ingdirect.fr/

 

[VicMallows]

We are now with ING Direct

Curious that INGdirect have closed down in the UK (accounts transferred to BarclaysDirect). It was certainly a very efficient internet bank, although the initial good savings rates (and the similar account-opening incentives) soon dwindled.

 

[Cloven]

You might want to consider Credit Agricole Britline. Its a French account, but you don't need a French address, that you can open from the UK but otherwise operates like a normal account. We have a normal i.e not Britline CA account that we opened when we bought in France and the only charges we have met were an initial charge for supplying us with Debit cards. We don't have either cheques or credit cards on our account.

http://www.britline.com/

 

[Carmel2]

You might want to consider Credit Agricole Britline. Its a French account, but you don't need a French address, that you can open from the UK but otherwise operates like a normal account. We have a normal i.e not Britline CA account that we opened when we bought in France and the only charges we have met were an initial charge for supplying us with Debit cards. We don't have either cheques or credit cards on our account.

http://www.britline.com/

+1 We did the same

 

[Andy and Lyn]

+1 for CA Britline