Moving to France

jjg_3

Hi!

I hope someone can give me some advice. I'm about to start a new job that requires working in Grenoble, France, for two years. I currently bank with Natwest (student account) and Cahoot.

Can anyone offer advice on how to open a French bank account and who I should do it with? I'd like to open the account before I find somewhere to live there next month so I can pay for the apartment using the French bank account.

Any help or advice much appreciated.

Thanks, JJ

pigeonpie

Banque Populaire are a good french bank but don't know if they have branches in East France. Otherwise I think Barclays has an English speaking French bank account that you can open from here.
BP were the easiest for us to open an account with but, like here, you do have to have some ID proof like your rental contract, proof of job refs etc. I would also recommend taking a reference with you from your UK bank.
Also in France bank charges can be high and vary greatly from bank to bank. BP for eg have no charges for transactions or withdrawals if your account's in credit, but they levy an annual charge for your debit card. (credit cards are far rarer than here and with BP only given to customers with lots of € credit!). Some of the others (eg Credit Lyonnais comes to mind) levy so many charges that customers had written 'ridiculous' on the notice in the bank lol.
If you know the relevant words in french it helps a lot. Frais de banque (charges) is a good start. This is advice relevant from 2005 and may have changed but hope of some use.

jjg_3

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to open the account before I moved, to simplify the letting process. Has anyone tried doing this?

And I've heard HSBC and Barclays will assist you in opening an account with their French branches if you have an account with them. Has anyone any advice about this, or any similar offers?

Cahoot has been (very) useless, and Natwest say they will provide a reference but nothing more.

Thanks!

gt94sss2

jjg wrote: »

And I've heard HSBC and Barclays will assist you in opening an account with their French branches if you have an account with them. Has anyone any advice about this, or any similar offers?

As you say HSBC will help you open an account in France if you are an existing customer.

You can also contact HSBC France (previously CCF) yourself using the details here

Barclay's French website is here

You may also find the forums here useful

Regards
Sunil