French Banks and GBP Euro Transfers

PDens

I may need to open a French Bank account and transfer quite a lot of money to fund a house purchase. What are the pitfalls and things to avoid or do?

letitcomedown

On the banking side, I have used britline (https://www.britline.com) which is a division of Credit Agricole since 2002 both while living in the UK and in France. They have an English speaking phone line and are all geared up for brits, I can recommend them. They can do mortgages, insurance etc, but both can be on the pricey side.

Now, on the exchange side the key thing to note is that the currency exchange can be done either side. If you transfer money from your UK bank and it is sent *in euros* then the UK bank will do the exchange. If you transfer money from your UK bank and it is sent *in pounds* then the French bank will do the exchange. So be careful.

For small transfers (up to £1000), I use Moneybookers who give a consistently good rate (I think 1.95% off the central bank rate) and low fees - stupidly small. By contrast HSBC charge £21 and the rate is much worse.

For bulk transfers, general advice is to ring around. You could use a broker like hifx but Nationwide have a good reputation too. I used HiFX and I don't think we got a particularly good rate but better than HSBC. I have heard that sometimes the French banks give a good enough rate from incoming sterling, but you'd have to call them.

Check with one of the French forums - https://www.totalfrance.com is a good one.