Opening a personal bank account requires a residence visa.
The personal bank account does not have to be in the same bank as the corporate bank account. This is quite rarely the case, with some banks being better for individuals than for professionals.
We assist our clients in opening their personal bank accounts.
A personal account opening requires your presence to sign the account opening documents at the bank. The account is usually opened in within 3 days maximum.
Bank Cards
The banks offer all the usual bank cards on the market:
- Prepaid card
- Debit card (to withdraw cash from ATMs)
- Credit card (to pay at merchants offline or not)
Note the difference between debit and credit cards, which sometimes surprises residents of certain countries (such as France) where this notion does not exist. A debit card will directly debit the bank account whereas a credit card requires a security deposit which will then determine the spending limit of the card. The debit from the account is then deferred (interest-free between 30 and 55 days depending on the type of card, with interest beyond). You just have to re-credit your card to find your original limit.
Cards from the MasterCard and Visa networks are available, in a range from basic card to high-end cards.
