# Struggling to open a bank account



## MikeandEmilyD

Hi
Following on to an earlier post we have tried to open a bank account with C.A. Britline but they cannot give us an account because we don't live in the UK. We are British citizens but live in Malta. They told us we would need to wait till we had a settled address in France.
Any ideas of any french banks that we could open up from Malta without these restrictions?


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## dpdapper

As mentioned in your other thread, try HSBC in Malta. When I opened my French account from the US they used my US mailing address, although we did know the address of where we would be living in France at the time.


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## Befuddled

I would suggest you do some research on other expat forums to find out if you really want anything to do with CA.


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## EuroTrash

Befuddled said:


> I would suggest you do some research on other expat forums to find out if you really want anything to do with CA.


I think it's like most things though, some people have bad experiences and some have good experiences. It's partly the luck of the draw and partly to do with how flexible your expectations are.
One thing about CA is that it's administered regionally not nationally so inevitably there will be differences between regions. Then, Britline is administered separately again, it offers a whole different range of customer service options from the regional CA operations and I don't think any other bank has an equivalent offering for English speakers.
I've had a personal account with CA (not Britline) for around 15 years now, plus a second personal account that I use for business for around 10 years. Inevitably there have been a few ups and downs in that time and I have blown my top a couple of times but everything has got sorted in the end with no harm done. I also have an account with Wise because I never like putting all my eggs in the same basket and I don't trust CA 100% to get it right first time every time any more than I trust any other bank, but I have enough confidence in CA to have kept my main banking and some insurances with them, and at present I see no reason to change this.
One thing I like a lot about my CA branch is that they are very active in the community, sponsoring local facilities and events and supporting initiatives.There are several other banks in the town but none of the others seems to support the community nearly as much, if at all.


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## MikeandEmilyD

dpdapper said:


> As mentioned in your other thread, try HSBC in Malta. When I opened my French account from the US they used my US mailing address, although we did know the address of where we would be living in France at the time.


Hi. I did go in to the bank HSBC in Malta. We have an account there but to be honest they are worse than useless there. No help whatsoever


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## Nunthewiser

Is there some other "Brit friendly" French bank out there? I wasn't aware that Brits had unusual (as opposed to usual) difficulties with French banks. I sweet talked CA-Morbihan into opening a non-resident compte for me, a scorned US person, while still in the US. CA has a reputation for being tolerant of us FATCA infected souls.


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## MikeandEmilyD

Nunthewiser said:


> Is there some other "Brit friendly" French bank out there? I wasn't aware that Brits had unusual (as opposed to usual) difficulties with French banks. I sweet talked CA-Morbihan into opening a non-resident compte for me, a scorned US person, while still in the US. CA has a reputation for being tolerant of us FATCA infected souls.


Hi and Thanks. 
Whether it's the Brexit shadow that's the problem I don't know. Do you have any more details of exactly which type of account you opened, doe's it have a specific title? If I could open an account as a non resident that would be perfect but no one made any suggestion that this was possible when I spoke with Britline this morning.


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## MikeandEmilyD

dpdapper said:


> As mentioned in your other thread, try HSBC in Malta. When I opened my French account from the US they used my US mailing address, although we did know the address of where we would be living in France at the time.


Sounds ominous!!


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## MikeandEmilyD

EuroTrash said:


> I think it's like most things though, some people have bad experiences and some have good experiences. It's partly the luck of the draw and partly to do with how flexible your expectations are.
> One thing about CA is that it's administered regionally not nationally so inevitably there will be differences between regions. Then, Britline is administered separately again, it offers a whole different range of customer service options from the regional CA operations and I don't think any other bank has an equivalent offering for English speakers.
> I've had a personal account with CA (not Britline) for around 15 years now, plus a second personal account that I use for business for around 10 years. Inevitably there have been a few ups and downs in that time and I have blown my top a couple of times but everything has got sorted in the end with no harm done. I also have an account with Wise because I never like putting all my eggs in the same basket and I don't trust CA 100% to get it right first time every time any more than I trust any other bank, but I have enough confidence in CA to have kept my main banking and some insurances with them, and at present I see no reason to change this.
> One thing I like a lot about my CA branch is that they are very active in the community, sponsoring local facilities and events and supporting initiatives.There are several other banks in the town but none of the others seems to support the community nearly as much, if at all.


Many thanks


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## EuroTrash

MikeandEmilyD said:


> Hi and Thanks.
> Whether it's the Brexit shadow that's the problem I don't know. Do you have any more details of exactly which type of account you opened, doe's it have a specific title? If I could open an account as a non resident that would be perfect but no one made any suggestion that this was possible when I spoke with Britline this morning.


I have a notion that there are reasons why Britline is restricted to offering accounts to either French or UK residents, so if you currently live in neither they wouldn't be able to do business with your. It may be a licensing thing or it may even be a restriction that's imposed on them by CA itself, to avoid them "poaching" too many customers. (I'm saying this because when I opened my account there seemed to be a bit of needle around this. I was sitting with the CA manager while he set my account up on the computer, and at one stage he had to phone Britline to get a permission code from them before he could proceed, apparently because I was UK resident and Britline were in charge of issuing these permission codes for opening accounts for UK residents. There seemed to be a rather heated argument about this but he got the code, and when he put the phone down he muttered something about being sick of Britline causing difficulties and he was damned if he was going to let them divert another potential UK customer away from him.)

I don't see why a normal CA regional branch, or most other banks come to that, wouldn't open a non resident account for you if you can demonstrate that you are actively looking to purchase property in France in the near future (I think that's your situation isn't it?). 
Then once you've moved and got yourself into the system in France, it will change to a residents account. Which will probably make very little difference to you, but banks have KYC obligations that involve recording of where their customers are currently tax resident.


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## Nunthewiser

MikeandEmilyD said:


> Hi and Thanks.
> Whether it's the Brexit shadow that's the problem I don't know. Do you have any more details of exactly which type of account you opened, doe's it have a specific title? If I could open an account as a non resident that would be perfect but no one made any suggestion that this was possible when I spoke with Britline this morning.


Looking at my paperwork, I can't see anything specific, but my country of fiscal residence is noted as :USA,


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## 255

@MikeandEmilyD -- You might try BNP Paribas in France. I have read posts where members of this forum were able to open an "nonresident" account, in France, from abroad and then convert it to a "resident" account when they got settled in France. 

I can confirm, they are rather selective (I tried this and failed,) but there have been quite a few that were successful, albeit, a few years ago. It's worth a try. Cheers, 255


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## BackinFrance

255 said:


> @MikeandEmilyD -- You might try BNP Paribas in France. I have read posts where members of this forum were able to open an "nonresident" account, in France, from abroad and then convert it to a "resident" account when they got settled in France.
> 
> I can confirm, they are rather selective (I tried this and failed,) but there have been quite a few that were successful, albeit, a few years ago. It's worth a try. Cheers, 255


If you do that I would suggest you change banks asap, BNP is expensive and not very client friendly IMHO.


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## Bevdeforges

It is VERY difficult to generalize about French banks by "brand" as banks here are organized on a regional and per branch basis. A bank that may be very reasonable to deal with in one town can be a royal PITA in the next town over. And it usually is a reflection of the current branch manager. In fact, even once you find a branch that you're happy with, if the manager changes over (and they do every few years) you may well decide to change your bank.

That said, lots of people seem to have had good luck with Banque Populaire - like their ads used to say, "Banque et populaire à la fois!" I really suspect that much of the difficulty you're having just now is Brexit related. Things (especially the regulations) have changed pretty drastically over night and lots of businesses are still trying to find a way to cope. What friends or acquaintances managed a couple of years ago may or may not work now. And though I know you don't want to hear it, you may have an easier time of it if you wait until you have arrived in France to make the trek from one bank to the next to open an account. If you are there in person and can show your willingness to work with them, it can make the process go a whole bunch smoother.


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## EuroTrash

To be fair I don't think the Britline refusal is Brexit related, because they do state quite clearly:





Opening a bank account in France


Whether you are ready to proceed with your project in France or just getting started, the most important item on your list is to open a French bank account to make everyday life that a little bit easier.




www.britline.com




*To open a personal account, you need to be:*

_Over 18 years of age_
_Resident in the UK or Ireland, or a British or Irish expat resident in France._
_An account holder with a current account in a Bank registered in the UK or EEA_
_An existing or future French property owner or regular visitor to France_
In fact I suppose Britline is the one banking outfit in France that could not possibly open an account for a person resident in Malta, however hard you try to persuade them....


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## MikeandEmilyD

Bevdeforges said:


> It is VERY difficult to generalize about French banks by "brand" as banks here are organized on a regional and per branch basis. A bank that may be very reasonable to deal with in one town can be a royal PITA in the next town over. And it usually is a reflection of the current branch manager. In fact, even once you find a branch that you're happy with, if the manager changes over (and they do every few years) you may well decide to change your bank.
> 
> That said, lots of people seem to have had good luck with Banque Populaire - like their ads used to say, "Banque et populaire à la fois!" I really suspect that much of the difficulty you're having just now is Brexit related. Things (especially the regulations) have changed pretty drastically over night and lots of businesses are still trying to find a way to cope. What friends or acquaintances managed a couple of years ago may or may not work now. And though I know you don't want to hear it, you may have an easier time of it if you wait until you have arrived in France to make the trek from one bank to the next to open an account. If you are there in person and can show your willingness to work with them, it can make the process go a whole bunch smoother.


Many thanks Bev


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## MikeandEmilyD

Nunthewiser said:


> Looking at my paperwork, I can't see anything specific, but my country of fiscal residence is noted as :USA,


thanks for looking


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