Paying bills in France

Hi Pricilla/everyone

I have paid my bills by direct debit for years.... ground tax, taxe de habitation is paid in january which is about a thousand we all dread that month ahahha, electric same way EDF, Direct energie are just one or two to name for now. watch out for these electricity companies and direct debit. after paying every month i sent a notice am moving out then they sent me a big bill like i not paisd nothing and its just happened to a friend of mine. so Im going to send bank statements next... well dont worry about it just saying keep an eye on them,,,,

France isnt really any different than you would pay anywhere else. The first year it might seem a little alienating and new but as time goes on you realise they are just as daft as us with a sense of humour, their own slang words which i thought was funny to learn first and living arrangements are not much different, still have estate agents for renting and buying.

If you ever come into a little struggle in France I know how to live and eat for free lol. Paris has even got open showers for anyone to use say like for after work or the gym and thats free. Housing costs are more expensive in cities, You are more better off looking for something in between the city and rural just to save a little money and not too far from finding work.Over here there is something called Resto De Coeur where every week they give out like two bags of shopping or more depending on how many there is of you. I did feel a little weird at first when I went, expecting the worst of homeless people. but you would be surprised- its got mums, dads, students all kinds of people thats just on a low income or having a little crazy time. If anything its like one social meeting lol its got a canteen where you can all sit and chat and I used to have a laugh everytime!

I will get round to writing blogs about france soon- Theres a million and one things I could ut here. I have been in crazy situations all because I didnt want to go back to the UK and job finished after doing seasons- I could even do a survival blog- I just love france- I dont think I could ever go back to grey weather- if I chose to move it would be the USA but I dont know about that yet.P,S Paris is OK but if you want beautiful- go south or west coast especially Royan and surfy spots at Lacanau...Ive dont the lot of france working on campsites so I can tell a lot about places Ive been,

Well anyone have a question send me a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If anyones thinking on starting their own business, needs a designer, help or a website done for them let me know, Its a side kick while your earning in France and it can be done anywhere in the world! anybody interested? Ive written ebooks, blogs, websites, marketing and now I have my own eccommerce business without having to buy it myself! Its great !

I found that paying bills with cards are easier and less stressful

I pay to much my sis... :-) :-)

Vauu  I cant read all of this

Yes I think in france we have two kind of bills :
The first one is when you receive you pay in last of month the stat take 1/5.
The second in one year for exemple : in 05/2017 everybody must explains how much he win in 01/2016 to 12/2016 and the imposts give you a new bill ( % one pay generaly).

bests regards
Moufid

Hi Priscilla,

It all depends on what your looking to rent.

Lost properties you rent exclude bills.

As for bills you pay electric and gas, water with sewage

If you get Free (French version) you pay for tv, internet (unlimited), comes with blue ray player built in,  1tb built in hdd to record tv programmes and freeze live tv, you can get your Free mobile then for 2 euros each a month.

House insurance and health insurance but you must sign up to a carte  vitale to get all your costs back and to be in the French medical system, it makes things a lot easier.

If you rent you pay habituation tax you only pay tax foncier if you own the property, most french rent as the renting laws are very much in favour of the person who renting.

For paying bills the best account is La Poste as its free banking and is just like any other bank.

if there anything else please ask;

Richard

Notice to all Member

Priscilla,

Is one of the Admins here at Expat.com You will see that she and other Team members post questions like the one above to generate interest on the forums and to help members with useful topics.

Whatever we can pay with a virement (bank transfer), we do. For new payees, you have to set it up (using their bank info, aka, RIB), and wait about 4 days (I think this is waived if you go to your bank in person to do it). Then you can transfer money. You can set up regular payments (like rent) to be either a send (you authorize money sent) or taken (you authorize their bank to take money from your account). We much prefer the first option...
Our rent includes "charges" - this is basically our part of the building costs for our apartment (like elevator repairs, regular cleaning of hallways, water, garbage, etc). This is "trued up" at the end of the year, and is only an estimate. We pay electric and gas every 2 months; this is an estimate, and is trued up twice a year. We pay all these by virement.
We buy groceries and everything else we can via credit card (and pay it off each month, as we're not crazy!).
If/when we buy a car, if it's used, we have been advised to use a bank check for safety.
Small things pretty much require cash.
We finally got checks! A lot of clubs want these, and many people use them for groceries. We were able to pay for a couple of club annual fees and small events with cash, but only because they made an exception for us because we had no checks. The prevalence of checks here was very surprising to us!

All bills paid electronically via bank, free of charge. Some companies, especially utilities and insurance, will require direct monthly automatic withdrawals, others like rent, set up inter-bank electronic transfers.

Hi Priscillia/Everyone,

Just arrived in france about a month ago as a student in Toulouse and it hasn't been all smooth sailing so far.
Nevertheless, France is great especially Toulouse where I am currently schooling but hectic if you don't speak any French.

I pay accommodation bills & charges, sim card & internet contract, social security, train and metro card (tisseo) and of course groceries.

For social security, I paid it all at once using my card.

Accommodation rent and charges is due by the 10th of each month, which I can pay by card or by a bank teller. I hear I can pay by cash but I have never tried carrying cash around. lol.... I can even count the number of times I have seen cash in France. I have definitely not seen the 50euro cash yet, I only saw a 10euro recently.
Okay, back to my initial discuss, sorry.
So if I don't pay for my accommodation before the due date, my French bank account will be debited, which I would really hate.

For sim card and internet contract, this can be frustrating for an international expat like myself, who is not used to contracts but just want a prepaid sim with same value as a contract sim. Well it is totally the opposite in France. I was very frustrated before  I got a contract sim and internet. You require only a CREDIT CARD or a French debit card and account before  you can buy a contract sim in France. The prepaid sim are like demonic dragons that suck every penny of euro you have got for calls or text messages or worse still internet data used. Please never try them out. I did and it was not pleasant.

Finally, I pay for my train and metro card using my card also, you can use cash if you want to. Same goes for groceries.

And of course, you incur penalties for missing a payment deadline, depending on the agreement signed for each contract or bill been paid for.


Students should note that the government assist students with paying part of their accommodation rent (charges not included) using the CAF scheme, depending on each students' situation. For these, I am immensely grateful. Everyone can use a little help all the time.

this is a full breed answer. Thanks for sharing.

I would like to enquire about starting a business or something that could help provide income for myself to help with cost of living
Regards.

AllTheRageElectro wrote:

Hi Pricilla/everyone

I have paid my bills by direct debit for years.... ground tax, taxe de habitation is paid in january which is about a thousand we all dread that month ahahha, electric same way EDF, Direct energie are just one or two to name for now. watch out for these electricity companies and direct debit. after paying every month i sent a notice am moving out then they sent me a big bill like i not paisd nothing and its just happened to a friend of mine. so Im going to send bank statements next... well dont worry about it just saying keep an eye on them,,,,

France isnt really any different than you would pay anywhere else. The first year it might seem a little alienating and new but as time goes on you realise they are just as daft as us with a sense of humour, their own slang words which i thought was funny to learn first and living arrangements are not much different, still have estate agents for renting and buying.

If you ever come into a little struggle in France I know how to live and eat for free lol. Paris has even got open showers for anyone to use say like for after work or the gym and thats free. Housing costs are more expensive in cities, You are more better off looking for something in between the city and rural just to save a little money and not too far from finding work.Over here there is something called Resto De Coeur where every week they give out like two bags of shopping or more depending on how many there is of you. I did feel a little weird at first when I went, expecting the worst of homeless people. but you would be surprised- its got mums, dads, students all kinds of people thats just on a low income or having a little crazy time. If anything its like one social meeting lol its got a canteen where you can all sit and chat and I used to have a laugh everytime!

I will get round to writing blogs about france soon- Theres a million and one things I could ut here. I have been in crazy situations all because I didnt want to go back to the UK and job finished after doing seasons- I could even do a survival blog- I just love france- I dont think I could ever go back to grey weather- if I chose to move it would be the USA but I dont know about that yet.P,S Paris is OK but if you want beautiful- go south or west coast especially Royan and surfy spots at Lacanau...Ive dont the lot of france working on campsites so I can tell a lot about places Ive been,

Well anyone have a question send me a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If anyones thinking on starting their own business, needs a designer, help or a website done for them let me know, Its a side kick while your earning in France and it can be done anywhere in the world! anybody interested? Ive written ebooks, blogs, websites, marketing and now I have my own eccommerce business without having to buy it myself! Its great !

Hi,

When I pay my bills, I am thinking of starting to use Western Union with their walk-to strategy. I walk in, give them the cash and they just charge 3 euros on it all.
Otherwise there is transferwise, but you need to make sure your bank in France will allow it, and that you're not blocked in any way in particular first.

Wow. That's a brilliant post. So helpful and easy to read. Thank you. I am coming to France in two weeks. I have a bit of a plan. I got married to a Philippine two years ago, lived there til now but it's tooo hot so as I love france I wanna live there with her. I can't figure out the visa / residence thing. It's wrecking my head. I'm from England, she Philippine - both wanna live in France.do you have any ideas what is best for her to be able to stay there with me?
Bit complex I think, Thanks
Bob

I suggest you create a new thread  asking your question, it might really help.

Regards.

Bobster wrote:

Wow. That's a brilliant post. So helpful and easy to read. Thank you. I am coming to France in two weeks. I have a bit of a plan. I got married to a Philippine two years ago, lived there til now but it's tooo hot so as I love france I wanna live there with her. I can't figure out the visa / residence thing. It's wrecking my head. I'm from England, she Philippine - both wanna live in France.do you have any ideas what is best for her to be able to stay there with me?
Bit complex I think, Thanks
Bob

The 2 euros deal with free is great. I was previously on pay as you go with Bouygues and I wasted so much money. As for banking, La Banque postale is good but Britline ( Credit Agricole) is better in the sense that it's by telephone/post/email ( English) and online (french) but there is a monthly charge of about 4 euros and yearly charge of about 42 euros for the bank card.

I am still trying to get to grips with the tax system. Notaire had said he would tell everyone about my purchase and I would hear from them. But I am still to get any bill about taxe d'habitation and taxe fonciere. They are not responding to my emails and I struggle over the phone because of the speed of the speaker/technical vocab.