We had made an appointment at the post office (called La Poste in France) in Alzonne to open bank accounts, one for Richard and one for Trish. It was a relatively painless process. We needed to produce passports (of course) plus evidence of income (in Richard’s case) and of pension (in Trish’s case). We also had to obtain a “Certificat d’Habitation”, signed by Richard’s sister. This attested to the fact we were living where we said we were living.
Richard handed over €100 in notes and his account was opened. Due to a last minute computer glitch, the bank teller had gone home before Trish’s money could be deposited. So she is going to do that on Friday at the branch in Montolieu.
Now we are waiting for our debit cards to arrive plus the details of how to access our accounts on-line. We will also need to register our French mobile telephone numbers with them (once we get them!), and that means we can then purchase goods on-line. As an added security measure, when buying stuff on-line, the system sends a code by SMS which you have to enter on the screen to validate your purchase. Sounds quite neat, but we will let you know how it goes!
The reason we chose La Poste is that there are so many branches; one in all towns and even small villages like Montolieu (population 700) have one. A lot of the other banks are regionalised, which means you can’t easily transact business ‘out of area’.
Richard & Trish in France 