French Banks

Janette_2

Can anyone recommend a French Bank. We are in the process of buying a house in France and whilst we are sometime off having to pay the full amount I want to transfer the money now to take advantage of the exchange rate. Also who would charge for the exchange my English bank for the French bank (or both?)

simongregson

When we lived in France, we used Banque Populaire. They seemed competent enough. I don't know how much you would be charged to transfer money from the UK, when we moved back it cost me about £30 to move my money back to my UK account. This was a flat fee, and took about 5 days. This, however, was about 5 years ago.

They have a website http://www.banquepopulaire.fr/ but are a group of regional banks, so you actually get your account with the bank closest to where you will live.

It was quite a shock that free banking doesn't really exist in France - the account itself is free, but I had to pay £30 a year for a debit card. They charge you postage to send your cheque books! There was no interest on credit balances in your current account, but you can open a savings account.

Good luck!