Guide · Financement & fiscalité
Online bank or branch: what a non-resident buyer loses by choosing wrong
An online bank opens fast and costs little, a branch delivers what the project demands: banker's draft, guarantee, mortgage, a named contact. How to choose by what you are going to buy.
The question is almost always asked in the wrong order. People compare account fees, cards and apps, when the only criterion that matters lies elsewhere: what will you need to ask this bank for in the next six months?
What both do equally well
Receive a transfer, send one, hold euros, pay by card, honour direct debits. For the day-to-day running of a property in France, an online bank does the job, often better and for less, with an app usable from any time zone.
If your plan is to hold a property already bought and paid for, and to settle its charges, the question stops there and the online bank wins.
What only a branch delivers in practice
Three things, and each can decide a purchase.
The banker’s draft, still required in certain operations, notably to lodge a deposit before an auction. Not every online bank issues them, and those that do not all work to the same timescales.
An undertaking by the institution: a bank guarantee, a financing certificate, security. These are acts by which the bank stands behind you, and they assume a file examined by someone.
A non-resident mortgage, lastly, which is rarely a self-service product. It is handled with a contact, sometimes an international desk, and it takes exchanges you cannot conduct through a form.
The real deciding criterion
Not the fees, but your project’s timetable.
If you are buying in cash, without urgency, an online bank that accepts non-residents is enough, and you can open a branch account later if the need appears.
If you are buying with French financing, start with the branch: the same institution will assess the loan and hold the account, and it is simpler to arrive with a relationship already open.
If you are buying under a constrained timetable, an auction or a short deadline, the branch is not a preference but a necessity, because only it produces on time the instruments the procedure requires.
Why does the refusal come so late?
Because online opening journeys collect first and check afterwards. An applicant living outside the European Union may clear five steps before receiving a refusal that comes down to one line of internal policy.
The remedy is one sentence, to be put in writing before starting: “I am tax resident in such a country, do you open accounts for non-residents from there?”. A clear answer saves you three weeks. And if no institution will follow, the right to an account exists and can be exercised.
What depends on neither of them
The due diligence obligations. Whether it is a high-street branch or an institution with no offices, the same checks apply to identity, tax residence and the source of funds. A large incoming transfer will trigger the same questions on both sides.
Choosing an online bank to avoid those questions therefore does not work, and runs into an extra inconvenience: a block clears faster when there is someone to talk to. That too is what you buy in a branch, and it does not appear on a fee schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Can you have both?
It is often the best set-up, and it is built in this order: the branch for the purchase file and anything requiring an undertaking from the institution, the online bank for day-to-day running and lower charges. Opening the second once the purchase is done is easier than the reverse, since you can then show a French connection.
Can an online bank refuse a non-resident?
Yes, and many do, either as a matter of policy or depending on the country of residence. The refusal often comes at the end of the sign-up journey, after the documents have been collected, which wastes time. Ask the question before starting, in writing, stating your country of tax residence.
Does a branch adviser change anything about the rate?
Less than you hope on the scale, more than you think on whether the file is accepted. A non-resident file has to be argued, and it is better argued by someone who knows it and carries it internally. That is where the difference lies, more than in a few basis points.