What to do about Money in France?
Posted by contentedsouls on 13/01/2014
I trawled the internet and found out it is virtually impossible to get a French bank account without having a permanent address in France, it’s not impossible as Credite Agricole will allow you to have an account, using you permanent UK address and Bank…..but a big but for us we needed to be on an electoral role, which we are not. Ah!
We bank in the UK with Nationwide B/S and they have an account which is called Flexplus. The account is chargeable at £10 a month but pays interest at 3% per month on balances up to £2500 which will pay about £7 after tax. It also has European Breakdown cover for account holders car, Worldwide insurance for your Mobile Phone and Free Cash withdrawals from ATMs worldwide plus a few other add ons. So all in all
We have also opened an account with a company called CaxtonFX which allows one to load the card up with Euros from your bank account at very good transfer rates, the card is linked to VISA or MasterCard, your choice, and is used like cash. It can be topped up by phone, iphone App or on the internet.
With both above we hope to have covered all eventualities where money is concerned.
Only time will tell………we will keep you updated.
contentedsouls 
indigodream said
So glad that you’ve set this up – so informative – we’re intending to follow in your European footsteps one day so we’ll be keeping a close eye on your adventures 🙂
Sue, nb Indigo Dream
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indigodream said
Ooh, and very easy to comment being as we’re on WordPress too….
Sue, nb Indigo Dream
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contentedsouls said
Hi Sue,
It will take a little time before we’re ok with this format, but decided to change change as it is easier to blog offline and then download in a single hit….I know what I mean, I think…..
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kwadeKevin said
I Graham & Jill.
I have one of these cards as they were recommended on my MH forum. With a well funded card in France last week I had it rejected by 5 different merchants. I brought this to the attention of Caxton and they confirmed that 1 of the refusals had actually been debited even though I got a “transaction declined” slip. I showed them I’d used another card to pay and they reversed the Caxton transaction.
So far I’m not very impressed. Also the exchange rate was not as competitive as I could have got fee free at a counter. Caxton was 1.18 and the counter was 1.21
Stern words are being had via email with Caxton about these matters. Their customer services so far is better performing than their card.
Apparently there is also issues with the card at pre pay petrol pumps and with toll road payments. This was told to me by their own customer services.
So the question is just how well does this card work and what are they going to do to make it better i.e. work like every other Visa card I have ever used!?
Kevin
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Kevin said
A couple of other ones I’ve found.
https://eurocard.brittany-ferries.co.uk/bf
https://prepaidcard.easyjet.com/
One is Visa the other Mastercard. The rates are all pretty much the same.
Kevin
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