Financing and paying
Many foreign buyers believe the banker’s draft has disappeared, and rediscover it at the worst moment: when a procedure requires one and three days remain. There is nothing archaic about it in France, it has simply become specialised. This dossier says where it is still required, how long it takes to obtain one from abroad, and how to check the one you are handed.
By Jean Mascla, founder of Home Select Updated · 6 min read
It is drawn by the bank itself, not by you. The sum is debited from your account on issue and set aside, which gives the payee a certainty an ordinary cheque does not offer: the funds exist, they have already left.
That certainty is what certain procedures are buying. It explains why it turns up wherever an undertaking must be proved on the spot, notably for the deposit required before an auction.
It is no longer used to pay for a property. Since 2013, any sum over 3,000 euros paid to the notaire for a property transaction must be sent by bank transfer: the price, the costs and the balance of the deposit go from your account to the practice’s, never by cheque.
It is still asked for where a procedure wants immediate certainty, without waiting for a transfer to clear: the guarantee handed to the lawyer before a court auction is the most common example, often as an alternative to a bank guarantee. Between private individuals, it is still used for sales where the buyer leaves with the item, a used car for instance.
So the first question is not “how do I get one?”, but “is it really required, and in what form?”. When the procedure’s document leaves the choice, a bank guarantee is sometimes easier to put together from abroad.
Far longer than people imagine, when you are a non-resident.
First you need a funded French account, which assumes an incoming transfer already credited and, often, already checked. Then the request to issue, which is not always instant: depending on the institution, the draft is printed in branch, ordered remotely, or sent by post. Lastly the handover to the payee, who may require an original in person.
Each link takes days, and none of them speeds up. So reason backwards from the date the draft must be in the payee’s hands, not from the date you intend to ask for it.
Neither of these can be improvised, and neither can be corrected.
The payee must be named exactly as the procedure requires, and it is not always the person you have in mind: in several operations the draft is made out to a stakeholder or a designated third party, not to the seller. An error in the wording makes the draft unusable and means starting again.
The amount must be the one the reference document states, to the cent where it is the result of a regulated calculation. Ask for the exact wording in writing before going to the bank, and reread the draft before leaving the counter.
La Ciotat, Provence
Then caution changes sides, because forged banker’s drafts exist and they are well made. A piece of paper can carry the expected watermark, wording and signature without any account having been debited.
Only one check is worth anything: calling the issuing branch, on a number you found yourself in the bank’s official directory, and having the issue of the draft, its number and its amount confirmed. Never the number printed on the draft, never the one given to you by the person handing it over.
It is the same reflex that protects against transfer fraud: never validate a piece of information through the channel that brought it to you.
The banker’s draft is an instrument of certainty, and that certainty is paid for in time. For a buyer living abroad it is therefore not handled as a means of payment but as an item in the file: identified early, its exact form checked, and the timetable traced back to the transfer that funds it.
Financing is prepared before the search. From the first meeting, your Home Select property finder puts you in touch with a broker used to non-residents, so that your offer arrives financed and the bank’s calendar fits within that of the preliminary contract.
Bank, currency, paperwork: we introduce the partners who handle these subjects every week, and we make sure the bank, the notaire and the currency provider receive the same documents. Each acts under their own responsibility; our role is that nothing is missing on the day the money must move.
Yes. Nobody is obliged to accept a cheque, and a cautious professional may prefer a transfer, precisely because of forgeries. So ask in advance which means of payment is expected, rather than assuming a banker’s draft will be received as a cash equivalent.
Its validity is limited and is counted in months, which is ample for a planned operation. The real issue lies elsewhere: a draft issued and then unused must be returned to the bank for the sum to be released, and that return is easily forgotten once you have gone back abroad.
An equivalent instrument exists in other countries, but it is neither recognised nor verifiable in the same way in France, and a French payee will often refuse it. Where the operation requires a French banker’s draft, it also requires, upstream, a French account.
It is drawn by the bank itself, not by you. The sum is debited from your account on issue and set aside, which gives the payee a certainty an ordinary cheque does not offer: the funds exist, they have already left.
Then caution changes sides, because forged banker’s drafts exist and they are well made. A piece of paper can carry the expected watermark, wording and signature without any account having been debited.
Far longer than people imagine, when you are a non-resident. First you need a funded French account, which assumes an incoming transfer already credited and, often, already checked. Then the request to issue, which is not always instant: depending on the institution, the draft is printed in branch, ordered remotely, or sent by post. Lastly the handover to the payee, who may require an original in person.
Neither of these can be improvised, and neither can be corrected. The payee must be named exactly as the procedure requires, and it is not always the person you have in mind: in several operations the draft is made out to a stakeholder or a designated third party, not to the seller. An error in the wording makes the draft unusable and means starting again.
Further reading
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