Should I be charged for sending money from UK bank to France?

Reader question: I have banked with Crédit Agricole for 18 years and now they are charging me for sending euros into my bank account from the UK, even if this is sent as a SEPA transfer. Are all banks now doing this? Would it help if I change banks?

Since Brexit, the UK, despite leaving the EU, remained in the European SEPA payments area, which can help facilitate some banking matters between UK and French banks.

The standard rule for SEPA transfers is that they are received free of charges (or not more than the charges, if any, applied for receiving a domestic transfer).

Unfortunately, this protection is governed by an EU regulation to which the UK is no longer a party, due to Brexit, meaning that French banks can apply a fee to accept transfers from the UK now, as they generally do when receiving money transferred from other parts of the world.

Some banks have decided to do this and others have not. It can vary even among the regional branches of the different high street banks, especially in banks run on very regional lines, which includes the Crédit Agricole as well as Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne and Crédit Mutuel.

If you are considering moving to another bank, ask its policy on such fees. However, one way to check is to go to the homepage of the bank – making sure it is the correct regional one if appropriate – and look for its tariffs brochure, which can often be found at the bottom of the page. Inside this, look for the section on fees for virements (transfers).