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If you are used to Nordic, or even British, banking service, then you are likely to be sadly disappointed with the quality of customer service and facilities and prices in French banks.

Let me start with a simple example: A client of mine asked his Crédit Agricole branch to pay my invoice for 120 €, and the bank confirmed to him and me by e-mail on the 11 December 2006. The invoice listed all required details for making a bank transfer. No payment was received, and I e-mailed them about three reminders between Christmas and New Year. They did not answer. Finally, some days after New Year, they woke up and confirmed that the transfer had been done - after the client had asked them to cancel it, because he had in the meantime ordered a home banking transfer by Internet between our Danish accounts. The payment was credited on the 8th of January, or 18 banking days after they confirmed they would pay the invoice. As you can see from this example, taking holidays, eating and drinking is very important in France. Business and clients can wait. Of course, if you owed the bank money, they would obviously have applied their most severe sanctions already after a few days.

Note: in 2009, the Dutch bank ING started proposing a free current account to French customers. It includes a free Mastercard Gold and many other free services that nearly all French banks charge for. Fortuneo also launched a free current account with free Mastercard. The following comments about fees do not apply to ING. Beware that ING's incident fees may be higher than in French banks. If you regularly go overdrawn or get direct debit transactions rejected for lack of funds, you will quickly pay more than what you saved in regular fees in a French bank. Use their account with care.

When it comes to fees, many French banks charge you a fee to access their limited and old-fashioned home banking service, whereas it is typically free in the UK and the Nordic countries. International debit and credit cards, and even the national payment card carte bleue, are very expensive compared with other countries, costing about €40 a year and upwards for the most basic national payment card, where they are either free or cost very little in other countries. Watch out for their list of other fees, such as account closure fees meant to discourage you from moving to another bank.

The so-called customer advisors in the banks have targets for how many additional services they must sell, and they therefore try to make you buy more expensive services than what you need. You cannot count on getting exact information, as they will try to pretend that you can only obtain certain services, such as an authorised overdraft facility, by subscribing to a pack of bundled services, whereas it is quite clear from regulation that it must be possible to buy each service separately. Their next argument will be that the bundled pack is cheaper than buying each service separately. That may well be true, but the point is that most bank customers don't use all the included services. For many, it would have been cheaper to pay just the services they use. Do your arithmetic before signing up for a pack.

The French direct debit system is particularly arcane and expensive. Cancelling a direct debit authorisation is charged from €12 and upwards, whether it is a temporary cancellation (opposition) or permanent cancellation (révocation). A rejected direct debit (for lack of funds for example) will be charged from €10 and upwards. To cancel a direct debit authorisation, you need to write a letter to your bank. You cannot easily access a list of current direct debit authorisations. Because of the excessive cost and lack of transparency, I strongly advise to limit your use of direct debit as much as possible and pay by other means.

Do I need cheques? Yes! The French are still major consumers of cheques. Because of the fee structure for card payments in shops, many shops still refuse to take cards for payments below 15 €. You can only pay such small amounts in cash or by cheque. Given that a cheque is much more costly for the bank to process than a card payment, it is fairly ridiculous that they encourage cheque use like that, but so it is. The good news is that cheques are free in almost all banks. Many shops have printers to fill in the cheque for you, so you only have to verify and sign it.

Banks in France

ING Direct. Dutch bank operating in France. Current account with no fees for current transactions including free Mastercard. High interest from time to time on savings accounts.
Fortuneo. Free current account, free Mastercard.
Boursorama. Free current account, free Visa card.

Banque Accord. Low-cost bank. Owner of Oney (formerly Egg France). Auchan group.
Crédit Agricole. Also knwon as CA. Owner of LCL.
Axa Banque. Online bank. Formerly Banque Directe. Does not take business clients.
Barclays Bank France. British bank.
Bforbank. Savings accounts.
BNP Paribas. Bank.
Caisse d'Épargne. Bank.
Caixa Bank France. Spanish bank.
Banque Chaix. Regional bank for Provence. 100% owned by CCF, again part of the British HSBC group.
CIC Banque Scalbert Dupont. Crédit Industriel et Commercial.
Citibank France. American bank.
Cortal Consors. Investment bank for private investors.
Banque Courtois. Crédit du Nord group.
Créatis. Local bank for the Nord département.
Fortis Banque. Good for small businesses.
HSBC. British HSBC group.
Banque Kolb. Crédit du Nord group.
Banque Laydernier. Crédit du Nord group.
LCL. New name for Le Crédit Lyonnais. Purchased by Crédit Agricole in 2003.
Crédit Maritime. Bank for the French coastal regions.
Monabanq. High interest on savings
Crédit Mutuel. Bank.
Crédit du Nord. Bank.
Banque Nuger. Crédit du Nord group.
Oney. Formerly Egg France, sold to Banque Accord and renamed. Free credit cards - unique in France. Auchan group.
Banque Populaire. They have a reputation for being good for small businesses, but in practice, they don't seem to be very interested in new customers.
Banque Postale. The French government bank formerly known as La Poste before it became a bank in January 2006. Lowest fees on the market after ING. It can be a real pain to get through to customer service on the phone and it is impossible to contact them by e-mail.
Banque Rhône-Alpes. Crédit du Nord group.
Société Générale. Bank.
Sofinco. Bank. Subsidiary of Crédit Agricole.
Banque Tarneaud. Crédit du Nord group.
Banque Transatlantique. Quickly opens accounts for foreigners.

Moneybookers. Easy-application Mastercard without credit check for 10 euros a year. You can choose your Mastercard currency. Also money transfer and online payment. 

Foreign Mastercard and Visa are usually accepted the same places where the French can use their national payment system carte bleue, often abbreviated to CB. All major shops and petrol / gas stations accept cards. Diners Card, American Express and foreign cash are not generally accepted. The French carte bleue is a chip card that needs a pin code instead of a signature as a security measure. The new UK chip cards generally work by entering your UK pin code. Older chip cards or cards without a chip must have their magnetic strip swiped. Most shop assistants outside tourist zones are not aware of this, and if you tell them, they don't even know that their card reader has a magnetic card reader. It's for you to tell them: C'est une carte étrangère sans puce; merci de lire la piste magnétique avec le lecteur que vous voyez à côté de votre lecteur à puce. If they still don't get it, ask for the manager: Je voudrais parler avec le responsable. When they figure out how to read the magnetic strip, the next problem is that the French centralised credit card validation computer network often has problems communicating with foreign clearing systems. When it fails, the shop won't accept your card, even by swiping it manually, and you may have to leave the shop without your goods if you have no other way to pay. They will show no mercy, even for last-minute shopping on a New Year's evening. They like tourists' money, but without the money, they couldn't care less. 

For large amounts, the banks may impose a limit for the amount at shop level that is lower than your card limit. Sometimes, it may work to split one large amount into several smaller amounts. French cards usually have a rolling 30-day spending limit that your foreign card doesn't have. Don't expect to get any help from the shop's card centre, as they don't know a thing about foreign cards and foreign payment limits and they cannot understand that foreign cards don't have a 30-day limit like the French cards or maybe no limit at all.

Capital IFX. Money transfer.
Currenciesdirect. Money transfer.
Currency Online. Money transfer.
The Currency People. Transfer of large amounts of money.
CurrencyUK. Money transfer.
Foreign-exchange-advice.info. Money transfer.
Global Currency Solutions. Money transfer.
HiFX. Money transfer.
Moneybookers. Money transfer and online payment. Particularly handy for transfer of modest amounts. They now propose an easy-application Mastercard without credit check for 10 euros a year.
Moneycorp. Money transfer.
Schneiderfx. Money transfer.
SendMoneyHome. Money transfer comparison site.
XE. Money transfer.

Banque de France.
European Central Bank: Daily euro exchange rates. 
Association française des usagers des banques. French bank customers association. Interest rate overviews and more.
Fédération Bancaire Française. French banks organisation.

Bail Actea. Leasing, financing of vehicles and other equipment. For business and individuals. Very friendly and reasonable, personal service, non-aggressive behaviour in case of late payment. It is rare to find a human face in the financial world these days. I warmly recommend Bail Actea.
Euronext. Stock exchange news. In English and French.
Expatinvestor. Brings news and information to high-earning British expatriates around the world.
Financeinfrance. Mortgage broker and information.
Financial Expat. English Chartered Institute of Insurance qualified expatriate based in Troyes helps with finance and insurance for expats in France.
Meilleurtaux. Mortgage broker and information.
MortgageFrance. French mortgage information in English. Targets UK buyers.

Financial Expat. English Chartered Institute of Insurance qualified expatriate based in Troyes helps with finance and insurance for expats in France.

Find travel insurance links on our page with Travel Links for France.

Note that some of the major banks also propose insurances. Even though they propose insurances to customers without accounts in their banks, they use the insurances as bargaining chips. Some banks are simply resellers of insurance companies' products, while others propose their own insurances. Bank employees may well be less knowledgeable about insurance products than insurance companies and agents.

English- and Danish-speaking Insurance Agents in France
AXA - Steen Andersen - 3B Assur. Danish- and English-speaking Axa agent. Cabinet 3B Assur, 4 rue Alberti, 06016 Nice, tel. +33 (0)4 93 92 16 32, e-mail info@steenandersen.net
Agence Eaton. English-speaking Generali agent.

Comparison sites
Assur.net. Comparison between several companies.
Assurland. Comparison between several companies.
Empruntis. Problems experienced: surcharged phone number; often engaged/busy, inefficient administration, late handling of files and delivery of insurance papers too late. My suggestion: Use them to compare quotes but don't deal directly through Empruntis.
Empruntis' list of insurance companies. Describes the particularities of each insurer.

Other insurance sites
AGF.
Alptis. Health, accident, life etc.
Aviva. 
Axa. One of the large insurance companies.
Azur. 
Direct Assurance. Insurance through phone or Internet. Low cost and low level of cover. Axa group. Note that this company refuse to recognise car insurance bonus from other countries, and they also refuse to insure anyone not speaking French. If you want to give them a try, be sure to get someone who speaks French to call them in your place.
Eurofil. Insurance through phone or Internet. Note that this company refuse to insure anyone not speaking French. If you want to give them a try, be sure to get someone who speaks French to call them in your place.
Euroleader. Used to be cheap but can now be more expensive than a mainstream company like AXA. Unfriendly and obstructive when you want to cancel an insurance. Slow and inefficient handling of claims.
Generali France. Italian company.
GMF. 
Groupama. 
La Mondiale. Health, accident, life etc.
Maaf. One of the large insurance companies. They provides quotes online and call you back but will only insure if you go to one of their agencies; not by phone or Internet.
Macif. One of the large insurance companies.
Maif. One of the large mutual insurance companies.
Matmut. One of the large insurance companies. Clients with non-French noclaims bonus are only considered if they go to one of their agencies.
MMA. One of the large mutual insurance companies. Bought Winterthur France.
MFA. Mutual insurance company.
SOS Malus. They take on the risks considered 'bad' by other insurers. Provided by Cabinet JP Labalette, Paris.