Getting paid in Euros

A snowHead

My youngest is off to France in a month and unlike the last two seasons, this time she is working for a French company so will be paid in Euros.

All advice welcome about how to facilitate this with the minimum of cost - thanks in advance

A snowHead

dsoutar, presumably she will be spending most of them out there? French bank account?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Open a bank account in France asap, as it can take a little time.

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I'm not sure if it still holds true but if she has a Post Office account in the UK and then opens an equivalent one in France, she should not pay any transfer charges. We were always advised to work this way when we were on placement. So somewhere I have a few quid in my UK account but rather more Euros in my German one! wink

That's assuming she is not paid cash in hand and spends the lot before she comes home of course! Toofy Grin

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

French bank accounts are very tricky to open. We only managed it because my other half was an HSBC premier customer, most English seasonaires don't seem to be able to.

The norm seems to be a cheque in Euros, which is then cashed in the local bank (worth finding out if there is one in resort) and then just spending cash. Sometimes it has to be the bank that the employer uses. A small lockable money tin wouldn't be a bad idea if living in shared accommodation.

If you are able to get a french bank account through your bank, maybe she could arrange to have her salary paid into that, then you could transfer into her account - or just make it a joint account.

Otherwise - welcome to the cash economy!

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Thanks all - yes certainly Britline is being considered as one option

After all it is free

My Dutch and German ones were very straightforward to open, but then we had the benefit of both banks being an implant branch on site. No place of residence was no problem - they just make the branch the address until such time as you have somewhere to live. Dutch are rather liberal and don't care. Germans must be the biggest sticklers for doing things by the book, so if it was 5 minutes in the bank here showing nothing more than an English job contract, surely France can't be much more difficult?

Maybe the employer can help? They've surely done this for lots of seasonnaires before?

Absolute worst case, if nothing can be sorted in time, and cash is not an option, is to just use UK BIC+IBAN (all € payments will be using those now, and have to by law on 1st Feb), but you'll get stung for double charges, once when being paid, and again taking cash out of the ATM.

dsoutar, Unless she's being paid on the black (cash) so I would expect that her employer will be able to provide the necessary paperwork to enable her to open a French account. Can't recall it being difficult, just involved reams and reams and reams of paper.

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When they come back give her sterling in exchange and then you use any spare next time you go to Europe.

If we end up with Euros in cash we just leave them in the wallet until next time.

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Opened a french bank account with Credit Agricole about 3 years ago.

Account was in 4 names, even so no more paperwork or hassle than a UK account, all correspondence to a UK address too.

You'll need ID and proof of address of course as EU anti money laundering legislation applies, just as it does in UK.

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I got a Swiss bank account. Took a day to open it. No money in it though, spend it all skiing. Ijit I am.

It seems to vary hugely by one bank to another, and the person you deal with. If I were to go through the process again I would use Britline. The "which bank do you use" is a regular topic of discussion in chamonix, with the vast majority of people seeming to be have at least one or two bad experiences.

You know it makes sense.

dsoutar, May I suggest that your offspring opens a French bank. It is quite easy and really useful. I have a Britline account and it was very easy to set up. I get all my euro earnings paid into it and transfer a chunk in from the UK to pay for holidays etc. It is less expensive to transfer pounds in bulk to France and dribble them from the French account than lots of little UK transfers.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

pam w, that'll be the dodgy other half then.

A snowHead

dsoutar, When my daughter opened her French bank account, the biggest problem was providing proof of her French address. As she was 'camping out' in the office for the first 3 weeks, her employer wrote a letter for her to give them. This seemed to work well, and in fact any problem of opening a bank account paled into insignificance compared to the problems that arose when she wanted to rent a flat. I won't bore you with that problem though, as I see your daughter is being provided with accommodation.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

citi bank offer a uk based euro account.
Can set it up online.
Get that done asap.

Then the SEPA/IBAN can go directly into that and she can draw cash out from the hole in the wall and transer the rest into £'s at the end of the season.

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I have no idea why you all think opening an account in France is so difficult. You need a passport, proof that you're being paid, plus proof of your address. This is usually a bill in your name addressed to you, but an attestation from your employer (if they're providing accommodation) or a rental contract (if not) will suffice. The whole process takes about an hour.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I'm really surprised at the ease of opening a French bank account. Out of nearly 30 English employees, only a handful of us had managed it.

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View from the mountain:
French high street banks don't like foreign season workers because of the admin involved in opening and closing something that won't make them any money, and could get them in trouble if the worker disappears without closing it and clearing the charges/overdraft.

However La Poste have a bank which is generally the easiest for season workers to open accounts with (but as with everything obviously depends on the person at the counter that day).

Officially, she will need:
Passport
French work contract
Proof of address - if the employer puts her up she can ask for an Attestation de Logement which is more than enough.

Advantages:
La Poste is not regional like other French alpine banks (no BNP Paribas in the Alpes...) so if she comes back to do a season elsewhere she can transfer the account easily (otherwise she must close it and open a new one, or travel to the old branch for appointments).
I believe La Poste also has the advantage of being free whereas most French bank accounts charge for basic facilities.
Opportunity to use French...

n.b. Credit Agricole are the worst bank in the world.
Just had to say that.

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Lizzard, It can be a bit of a catch 22 if you cannot open the account until you have somewhere to live, and you cannot rent until you have a bank account

After all it is free

I've had absolutely no trouble with CA. Now Lloyds, on the other hand...... Evil or Very Mad

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eddiethebus & albinomountainbadger, go on then, I'll bite: Why?

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You know it makes sense.

It seems the only CA that anyone ever recommends is the Normandy Britline one, so if people want to go with them so be it but their competence clearly isn't demonstrated by the rest of the network and the general rule should be not to use them *unless* someone recommends that specific agency and employee.

Edited for a bit of clarity.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

dsoutar, only problem with Britline and Credit Agricole is that CA have regional banks, and you cannot pay money into a branch in Moutiers for example and expect it just to turn up in an account based in Brittany. I lost several hundred euros for several weeks. I would go with La Poste

A snowHead

albinomountainbadger, CA Sud Rhône Alpes. Nothing wrong with them.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Can't do anything other than pay cash in though. The CA in Moutiers stopped talking to me as soon as they saw Brides-les-Bains was my branch; only about 2kms between them! A lot of that nonsense applies to most of the regional banks though, hence my comment above about the advantage of La Poste not working like that. ÇA are just a lot worse at *everything*.

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Lizzard, branch in Monetier managed to cock it up, and lose my money. They specifically told the person who went to sort it out for me that they couldn't accept payments to Britline.

Help!!

Getting paid in Euros

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