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French Credit Card


Guest Don Madge

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Guest Don Madge
Evening all, Does anybody have a French Credit Card? If so can you answer these questions. Do you need a French bank account to hold a French CC. Can you open an account on line. Can you settle your account monthly by Direct Debit Is there a monthly charge for the card Anything I've not thought about. Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome. Regards Don
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hello don we have had a french account for a few years after having trouble getting fuel at weekends,our uk cards wouldn't work in french self serve pumps. have a look at www.britline.com this is the online english language branch of credit agricole. works well for us. most uk banks offer a euro account though.
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Guest Ian Stewart
I've hit that snag. Were the previous problems with the credit card / fuel pumps only because these worked on "chip 'n pin" and our cards (at that time) didn't or was there another reason ? Do you know if one of our new (UK) cards with the PIN will work ? Just in case I find an Auchan on a Sunday morning!
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The French were the first country to use chip n pin system. Unfortunately the chip n pin system used in the U.K. is not compatible with the french chip n pin system and our cards will not work in their petrol pumps.
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that was the problem,last visit if i remember rightly now with chip & pin our normal uk card was was ok in leclerc but we use our ca card normally,thats why we have it.very easy to set up a/c incidentally. send funds to france via travellers cheque at no transaction cost. as a further point to don,the french banking system makes no allowance for overdraft as it is illegal to write a cheque or use a card knowing there are no funds in the account to cover the payment.looking at the britline site last night there is no mention of credit cards being available.
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Barrie - we looked into the Britline account. Have you found it rather expensive to maintain? It's looks it on paper. I've not met anyone with experience of it. Would love to know more about it. We found the UK pin and chip very sporadic. But great when it works. Though hubby remembering the number was more of a problem!
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Guest Brian Kirby
We have a Britline account. Opened it buy our 'van in France, then kept it on with MUCH reduced balance. A cards are available, but you do have to pay an annual fee, currently 32 Euros p.a, plus we pay an optional insurance at 5 Euro per month against fraudulent use theft etc. If the card is lost or stolen you have to pay for the replacement. Ours is, in fact, debit card and not a credit card as the transactions come from the bank account. You must maintain sufficient funds in the account to cover your outgoings, and failure to do so can result in your being banned from holding a bank account in France. You can also get a savings account from Britline that pays a modest rate of interest, called a Compte sur Livret. You can transfer funds between the two accounts on line and can also view your current balances. You can pay in by simply sending Sterling cheques. This seems cheapest, since travellers cheques carry quite high commissions. We originally used telegraphic transfers from our UK bank, (SWIFT or something) but the charges were astronomic and it still took days for funds to be transferred. The main advantage, apart from the card being denominated in Euros, is that you can choose when to top up the account. Although you can't fix the exchange rate on a given day, by choosing periods when the pound is relatively high, you do get your Euros at a better rate than by using a UK card and just accepting the rate on the day. You may also be interested to know that you get a cheque book, and that the French accept cheques far more readily than the Brits. We paid the balance for our 'van by cheque and drove it away within the hour. The dealer was quite happy with this arrangement, indeed he suggested it! That is the davantage of the far stricter credid restrictions across the channel. Hope this helps/provides food for thought. Brian
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Guest alanmac
As we have a hopuse in France we have an account with Credit Mutuel and they charge about 35 euros pa. for their debit card. I only ever use it to get fuel on a 24 hour basis and for this I consider it money well spent. The rest of their service is however poor, I have waited 3 months for a replacement cheque book ( 2 visits to the Branch) and it has still not arrived. I would avoid having a French Bank account if at all possible ( I need it to pay household bills etc ) If we ever join the Euro this account will be closed the next day. I have the found the cheapest way to pay in to my account is to draw cash from a machine when I am there and visit the branch. This costs next to nothing but a transfer costs me at the UK end and the Bank makes a deposit charge as well !
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Guest Don Madge
After gathering info from the various MH sites I've decided to give the French credit card/banking system a miss. Thanks to all who offered advice. Don
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To Norma i can't say we have found our ca account costly to keep up.we use it as well as for holidaying for payments of direct debits for electric,phone etc at our cottage there.you can loose in transfers by being charged for transfer of small amounts. we send travellers cheques by post if small amounts,you may loose on exchange rate but don't pay any transaction charge.larger amounts are tranfered using one of the finance handling houses(HIFX etc),they offer a far better rate with no charges,they make there money by buying in large amounts & sell at better rate than normal tourist rates.high street banks don't give such a good rate & charge commision. as i said in my first note "it works for us"it may not suit everyone but we've not experienced any problems.
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