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Cheap bank account

Posted: Wed 19 Oct 2016 16:05
by Allan
My bank is in Montpellier I have never been there but their service is brilliant and I have no intention of changing.

I do however, have a problem when it comes to paying in cheques and cash. Normally I just post cheques to them but I recently sent one for a large amount of money which took nearly 3 weeks to arrive in the post.

I was on the point of trying to get a replacement when the manager emailed to say it had arrived today. Obviously the situation was quite worrying and I take a risk every time I pay cheques in.

I have thought about getting a local bank account, perhaps with La Poste or Credit Agricole who are in my village but I only want it to pay money into, and then subsequently transfer it to my main account.

My bank doesn't accept cash, even if I were to go to Montpellier, I presume that local banks will let you pay cash in.

Is this easy? will they sting me for fees (I don't pay any at the moment) or does anyone have any better ideas?

Posted: Wed 19 Oct 2016 17:13
by Kate
Well, not sure about the cash situation but they will sting you for fees. This is France! :lol:
You can get so e idea from this govt site which allows you to compare rates from bank to bank http://www.tarifs-bancaires.gouv.fr

Posted: Wed 19 Oct 2016 17:51
by Allan
Kate wrote:Well, not sure about the cash situation but they will sting you for fees. This is France! :lol:
You can get so e idea from this govt site which allows you to compare rates from bank to bank http://www.tarifs-bancaires.gouv.fr
Thanks, I had a look at that site and it told me that La Poste charge 6.20€ a year which is less than I pay to post cheques at the moment.

I went onto their site and they dont seem to offer an account without a payment card and associated fees.

What I did find interesting is that you can only apply for an account if you are an EU citizen. Presumably non-EU citizens can get bank accounts here.

Bloody Brexit!

Posted: Wed 19 Oct 2016 18:26
by martyn94
Allan wrote:
Kate wrote:Well, not sure about the cash situation but they will sting you for fees. This is France! :lol:
You can get so e idea from this govt site which allows you to compare rates from bank to bank http://www.tarifs-bancaires.gouv.fr
Thanks, I had a look at that site and it told me that La Poste charge 6.20€ a year which is less than I pay to post cheques at the moment.

I went onto their site and they dont seem to offer an account without a payment card and associated fees.

What I did find interesting is that you can only apply for an account if you are an EU citizen. Presumably non-EU citizens can get bank accounts here.

Bloody Brexit!
I doubt that any highstreet bank will offer you a current account without a card and the associated charges. Unless you qualify for the absolutely bare-bones account (which they surely don't advertise) for people who have been warned off at the Banque de France for bouncing too many cheques. But why would any bank offer the services you want for nothing?

You can, of course, get the account, and the card, for nothing at one of the online-only banks like Fortuneo or Boursorama (though probably at the expense of some condition like a minimum balance or minimum monthly payment in). But that leaves you with the problem of paying in cheques and cash. Maybe their arrangements are better than your current bank's, if you can be bothered to do the research, and are inclined to believe that they would work in practice.

Posted: Fri 21 Oct 2016 09:43
by Gus Morris
While we are on the subject it might be appropriate to add that the CA is not a fully integrated national bank in the usual sense. Each regional bank is semi-independant. So you can pay in cash or cheques at your local branch to be credited to accounts maintained within your region without difficulty. There is a service that allows you to deposit cheques to be credited to accounts in other regions but it can take weeks for the transaction to process. There is no universal cheque clearing as ithe UK .

Gus