need a bank account to use abroad- help!

msprince

Hi! I'm moving to Paris with my girlfriend soon (13th April) & we're really struggling to find a suitable bank account to use there- can any of you money experts help??
We tried HSBC who opened an account with a monthly charge for us, but assured us that there were no other charges whatsoever & a 'nominal amount' charged for opening a french account. We read up on it ourselves & spotted a 2.75% exchange charge, & the 'nominal amount' turned out to be £50!! We spoke to Barclays about a euro account but that doesn't allow for withdrawals abroad (?) so no good either- the adviser suggested we speak to the French Embassy which seems a bit extreme!
We think it'll be difficult to open an account in France- we don't have a fixed address yet (we're staying in a holiday let & looking for accomodation when we're there) & this will probably be in a flat share so we wouldn't have bills in our name. Also we don't have jobs yet so no regular income, although we'll have an initial deposit of around £20k.
Any ideas?? Please help, I'm going squint-eyed from examining small print!!!

benjus

I opened a French account with Britline (Credit Agricole), as it's one that can be opened from the UK with a UK address. I haven't compared the charges in detail with other French accounts but they don't seem too high. However, it does take some time to open an account so it's probably too late for that.

If you have funds in the UK and you want to access them cheaply from France, Metro Bank in London is a good bet, as it's free to use their debit card abroad. See the Cheap Travel Money article (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money) on this site for some other suitable accounts.

CLAPTON

why do you need a french bank a/c?
why not use your UK one?
all 'foreign european ' banks charge; 'free' banking is pretty unique to the UK

msprince

@clapton:

If the UK banks were free I wouldn't be asking the question! I'd prefer to use a UK account but the charges are prohibitive. Sorry but i don't think you've read my post...

@benjus:

Thanks, the Britline account seems like a good one!

benjus

If you open an account with Metro Bank or another of the free-to-use-overseas accounts the charges will not be prohibitive - in fact it will be free. If you can make it to a Metro Bank branch in London with the required documentation they will open your account there and then and hand you the debit card. In contrast, my Britline application took several weeks to process. Britline is a good way to open a French account, but I'm concerned that it might not fit into your timescale.

If getting to London for a Metro Bank account is not an option, this might be a good alternative: http://www.nandp.co.uk/current-account/gold-light-current-account/

In these cases "free" means that Sterling is converted to Euros at roughly the Interbank exchange rate (the exchange rate they report on the business news, not the kind of rates you'd get from a Bureau de Change) and there are no transaction fees.

[Deleted User]

santander zero current account although i wouldnt recommend their service :eek: