Accor is closing its French Visa cards, so don’t expect to see one here

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• Constant says:

  8 May8 May 09:18

  Having lived both in France and the UK, France again now, I can confirm that there is definitely not the same enthusiasm here for credit cards, but would like to point out that this lack of interest largely stems from the banks & issuers. As evidenced above, these ALL cards never really made sense. There is very little alternative in the way of cash back cards. And Amex offers over here are extremely unattractive compared to the UK: sign up bonuses are low, and benefits are less interesting or come with a sneaky catch.

  It is possible that consumer protection laws make this market what it is – I’d guess the authorities would not look kindly to a bank that suddenly takes a number of people to debt.

  With the EU market being so open, perhaps savvy French residents could open an amex card in Belgium or an Iberia Visa in Spain?

  • Patrick says:

    8 May8 May 10:33

    Most have residency requirements and credit checks, i tried a couple of years ago and gave up.

  • PeterV says:

    8 May8 May 10:46

    With very few exceptions, not possible as tied to residency

  • can2 says:

    8 May8 May 15:25

    Having lived in Paris as well, dealing with French banks, including BNP is an absolute nightmare…

  • Lady London says:

    8 May8 May 17:00

    It might depend on the specific branch as when I studied in a town South of Paris the college had set up relationships for all of us with each of the town’s three banks and Société Générale were excellent.

    • Patrick says:

      8 May8 May 20:35

      Out of curiosity, which school was it, since I was in the same situation with Société générale partnerships during my studies in the south of Paris?

• ankomonkey says:

  8 May8 May 09:51

  Do BNP Paribas own Creation? If so, and if the companies are run similarly, maybe Accor dropped the deal for various reasons most of us here can probably relate to 😉

  • RussellH says:

    8 May8 May 10:48

    Yes, BNP DO own Creation.
    And I was told in the forums about a year ago that BNP have been trying to sell Creation for some time…

    • Colin_Thames says:

      8 May8 May 16:03

      When I saw the news that BNP were pulling out I was not surprised. If Creation couldn’t make the IHG card work, why would an Accor card work? TBH I’m quite relieved to hear that BNP and Creation are pulling out. Shocking customer service from Creation and BNP leasing. I’m surprised the FCA let them continue to have a licence. I wouldn’t wish one of their products on my worst enemies.

• Lady London says:

  8 May8 May 11:23

  Banking in France is poor quality and restricted services compared to the UK and even a plain current account is expensive with a typical fee just for having it 2 or 3 euros per month.

  There is virtually no credit card provision and I think that’s due to government / Banque de France not wishing the economy to have them. Credit runs like UK in the 1970’s.

  For anything above just having a current account fees are often charged eg 10 euros fee to bank if you set up a beneficiary on your account to pay money to. You may not even be allowed to do that yourself online with some banks or accounts.

  There are often disproortionate fees, such a 5 euros charge for using another bank’s ATM.

  What the French market laughably calls a credit card, means you still have to settle in full at the end of each calendar month. There is a slight credit potential of up to 4 and a half weeks planning if you can time the expense but that”s it.

  To have this type of “credit card” you need to pay annual fee for a Gold card which is mid -level same as in the UK and there is not much other benefit perhaps on some a pretty muvh worthless travel insurance. Platinum level cards mostly don’t relax the pay at end of
  month “credit” requirement. Gold Card cost from arouns 50 euros p.a to much more. Platinum annual cost stratospheric, still with poor benefits.

  Card costs are added to monthly ccount fees and various transaction fees. If you pay off a loan early the bank still takes the entire interest for the original term (except for loans below 10k euros most people and banks don’t know about.

  Penalties for going overdrawn are high and lasting and don’t even think about bouncing a cheque even accidentally.

  I think we can say the French economy is unlikely to overheat due to excess credit. Though sclerosis might be a problem.

  It’s all so old fashioned and consumer-restrictive. The French don’t seem to like their banks much either, quite often.

  • ukpolak says:

    8 May8 May 12:03

    I think this is spot on – I remember the high street Soc Gen in Grenoble closing for 1.5-2h every week day, at lunch time. Which meant that those of us needing F2F appointments had real challenges if we were constrained to usual work / education timetables.

    • Roy says:

      8 May8 May 20:16

      That’s the norm in the UK now in some smaller branches due to staff shortages. I’m not sure how we got to this point

• Bob says:

  8 May8 May 16:48

  I never seen a single ad for this card in France.

  And I heard about it twice, and it was everytime like today, on HFP.

  Rob you are almost the only one who mentionned it.

  So accor should have tried to promote it in the first place, to customers I mean not during PR exercises.

  Accor tried also their “Compliments” american express card in the 90’s in France too and closed it a few years after.
  I had that one: but there were no advantage to have it. So I cancelled it two years after.

• Wally1976 says:

  8 May8 May 19:19

  I worked at Egg in the early 2000s and was there at the time they launched the Egg France credit card. I wasn’t really involved with the project but got flown out to Tours for a very pleasant launch party. (The one and only time I’ve ever been abroad with work 🤣).

  Anyway, needless to say the product didn’t last long despite the (at the time) extremely successfully UK Egg credit cards it was modelled on. I remember they had to buy a French bank otherwise it would’ve been too hard to get a backing licence over there.

  • Bob says:

    8 May8 May 19:48

    I still have my Egg France credit card of that period: the design is still genuine and still completely unknown in France.

    I was surprised Egg France never controlled my income, I guess that was the rule in the UK, but in France no credit company or bank would have done it this way and do not do it this way yet today. It was a genuine change.

  • Degsy says:

    8 May8 May 20:23

    I worked for a similar company at a similar sort of time. Very well established here and we tried to replicate this success in France, as well trying to crack Italy & Spain – we gave up pretty quickly on all three markets as the attitudes to credit there were so different to the UK.
    (Bit like the Dads Army credits albeit in reverse when I think back.)

  • Patrick says:

    8 May8 May 20:37

    That was a tough Egg to crack

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