french bank accounts

rstone123 · Newbie Joined: Aug 22, 2009 Posts: 4

Hi there,

We want to live in france but will still have a business in england. Is there a bank account we can get in france where we can access the monies?

Thanks in advance

eccles · Newbie Joined: Apr 01, 2007 Posts: 5 Location: France

Hi

Not sure what you mean by accessing UK funds from a French bank account.

We have a UK bank account and a French bank account. We do our English banking using the internet. When we need funds from the UK, we use one of the large currency exchange companies who give a much better rate than the banks. Also, they don't charge commission. The larger the amount you exchange, the better the rate.

The way it works for us is:

I telephone the exchange company and say how much I want to buy.
They give me a spot rate.
I agree.
They email me confirmation.
I transfer the sterling funds to the exchange company.
Usually, two days later the funds are in my French account.

Hope this helps

Regards

eccles

Gylbeth · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:19 am Post subject: Re: french bank accounts

There's a good string about how to open a bank account in France in this forum lower down the page.

French Bank Accounts

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sharonhill · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:31 am Post subject: Re: french bank accounts

Hi
HSBC offer a service where you can manage your UK account and French account via the same internet interface (ie one login). Your local HSBC can also open accounts for you in other countries so should be able to do so for your UK business account.

They can also do currency accounts so you could have a Sterling account in France which may be useful for putting your money in once its withdrawn from the business but not yet converted into Euros (ie if you're waiting for a better exchange rate).

Depending on which service you have from them, I do know that you can get free bank transfers between your Euro and Sterling account as well.