Banking in France

Might have some relevance to a few
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Capetonian

Banking in France

#1 Post by Capetonian » Tue Jan 10, 2017 3:15 pm

Unfortunately I need a bank account in France as I have a couple of small monthly payments that come in from French sources. My main Euro banking was with a bank in the Netherlands but I've recently changed to an Irish one and I transfer money from the FR account to the IE one and then all my outgoing EUR payments, cards, etc are on the IE account.

I know that it is impossible to expect good service from any entity in France but I wonder if anyone has any recommendations since the bank I am currently with, ING Direct, which I've been using for a few years, have proved themselves technically incompetent and this is compounded, as always in France, with crappy service, refusal to accept responsibility, and of course, no apology. For about a week now I have been unable to transfer money from FR to IE due to a technical error, which they first denied, then admitted, and said it affected 'a small number of people' but looking on the forum on their website it clearly affects a lot of people. They promised it would be fixed 'within a day' and of course it's not. You can't contact them by email so you have to 'phone and hold on for ages, which of course costs time and money, until some sourfaced miserable French harridan deigns to answer the call and fob you off with a variety of pathetic excuses.

Have they had the intelligence or foresight to put a notice on their website to tell customers there is a problem? No.
Have they had the intelligence or foresight to email customers about this? No.
Have they offered any sort of apology or compensation? No.

Wucking fankers.

I have been through the BNP (Banque National des Putes, or Bloody Nasty People), the Societe Generale, arrogant and incompetent, and AXA Banque who started off good and inexpensive and then racked up charges and the service went down. I prefer internet banking as I can do it from anywhere, and I can neither stand, nor understand, French people so I prefer not to have to engage with them in any way.

Just wondered if anyone has any ideas or recommendations, otherwise, at least I've let off steam with a rant.

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Re: Banking in France

#2 Post by ian16th » Tue Jan 10, 2017 3:29 pm

For a while I had an account with a Reunion subsidiary of the BNPI.

I opened the a/c simply because they wouldn't do do a transfer for me from Reunion to Jersey, without opening an account.

Once the transfer was done, it took several letters, over some months to close the a/c.

Not a good experience.
Cynicism improves with age

Capetonian

Re: Banking in France

#3 Post by Capetonian » Tue Jan 10, 2017 7:03 pm

Yes, I have heard that before about hard it is to close any type of account in France.

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Re: Banking in France

#4 Post by emjay » Tue Jan 10, 2017 10:55 pm

The old Credit Lyonnias (now LCL) continues to work adequately -internet banking supplemented by a decent secure messaging service and sending a Fax confirmation once in a while (virtual Fax machine of course and clearly not secure, but meets their requirements).
I suspect this may be due to holding accounts with them for 40 years, starting as a branch account on the corner when working in Paris. The contact point has changed countless times but unusually the apparent respect for a long standing customer seems to pay dividends. Fat chance of that with a UK entity!

Capetonian

Re: Banking in France

#5 Post by Capetonian » Wed Jan 11, 2017 3:48 pm

Thanks for the tips, problem is now resolved anyway and I've been able to transfer money out. It just means I will transfer as much as possible and will only keep the FR account for the absolute minimum, instead of allowing funds to build up in it.

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