Financing and paying

Paying charges and works from abroad: why twelve small conversions cost more than one

Once the purchase is done, attention drops. For months it was on one large sum, and it no longer rests on the dozens of small ones that follow: works instalments, co-ownership charges, property tax, insurance, energy. Added up over a year, they often cost more in exchange fees than converting the price did. This dossier explains how to organise these payments once and for all.

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By Jean Mascla, founder of Home Select Updated 24 October 2026 · 6 min read

Why do small amounts cost proportionally more?

For two reasons that compound.

The margin on the rate applies as a percentage, so it tracks the amount. But the fixed charges do not move: issuing fees, correspondent fees, receiving fees. On a large transfer they vanish into the mass. On a stage payment of a few thousand euros they are a visible share, and on a quarterly service charge bill, sometimes an absurd one.

Twelve conversions in a year means twelve sets of fixed fees and twelve different rates, none of which you chose.

Which arrangement avoids these fees?

A euro account acting as a reservoir, topped up by large, widely spaced conversions, and from which all French payments leave.

The idea is in no way sophisticated, and that is precisely its merit. You convert two or three times a year, choosing the moment; for the rest of the year your payments go out in euros, with no conversion, no exchange charges and no surprise over the amount received. It is the main practical reason for holding a French bank account, far beyond the day of signing.

How big should the euro account be?

List what falls due in a year, and add a margin.

Service charges, demanded quarterly in most buildings. Property tax, and the residence tax where it is due on a second home. Energy, water and telecoms contracts, often debited monthly even on a lightly used property. Home insurance. And where there is a site, the stage payments set out in the quote.

Add to that total a reserve for the unforeseen, which on an older property is not a hypothesis but a due date whose only unknown is when. An exceptional call for funds voted at a general meeting, an urgent repair, water damage to be advanced before reimbursement: those lines are paid in euros, quickly, and often in your absence.

The point that causes most trouble: direct debits

French providers work by direct debit, and it is the payment method that makes an absent owner’s life simple. That assumes the mandate is accepted, which is not always the case from a foreign account, and that the balance is there on the day.

A French creditor refusing a foreign IBAN is a subject in itself, with its remedies: that of a foreign IBAN refused for direct debit. But the simplest solution remains the same: a French account, a permanent safety balance, and a scheduled top-up.

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How do you pay for building works from abroad?

They deserve separate handling, because theirs is the only timetable that is not regular. Stage payments follow progress, and progress slips.

Two reflexes are enough. First, fund the account according to the schedule in the quote rather than the timetable announced verbally, keeping one instalment in hand. Second, never pay a stage payment from abroad in the urgency of a phone call: it is the ground most favourable to payment diversion, for the same reason that makes it effective at the time of the deed, described in the notarial transfer fraud.

What to remember about paying from another currency

The question is not to find the best rate twelve times a year, it is not to have to look for it. A properly funded euro account turns a stream of micro financial decisions into a single one, taken two or three times a year, in a calm moment. It is the same principle as everything else in a project run at a distance: what is prepared once is not endured afterwards.

What Home Select organises for your payments in euros

After the purchase, money is managed like the rest of the property: ahead of time. Before the signing, your Home Select property finder tells you the co-ownership charges, the property tax and the contracts that will fall due in the year, so the euro account is sized from day one.

Then the Home Select concierge service sends you the quotes for any work with their payment schedule and warns you before each significant payment. The bank, the currency provider and the tradespeople act under their own responsibility; our role is that no due date takes you by surprise.

Frequently asked questions

Can you pay a French tradesman from a foreign account?

Technically yes, and some accept it. In practice the delay, the charges deducted and the uncertainty over the exact amount credited complicate the relationship, especially on a site where stage payments follow one another. A French account takes the subject off the table, which is better when the conversation is already about the works.

Convert in one go or as needs arise?

A single larger conversion covering several months avoids repeated fixed charges and the margin taken on each small operation. The trade-off is that you fix a rate for the whole period. The right call depends less on a market forecast than on the size of the sums: below a certain amount, simplicity beats optimisation.

What if the account is overdrawn when a direct debit falls due?

The debit is refused, charges apply, and depending on the provider the service may be cut off. For a home occupied a few weeks a year, that is sometimes discovered on arrival, in front of a disconnected meter. A permanent safety balance costs less than a reconnection.

Which arrangement avoids these fees?

A euro account acting as a reservoir, topped up by large, widely spaced conversions, and from which all French payments leave. The idea is in no way sophisticated, and that is precisely its merit. You convert two or three times a year, choosing the moment; for the rest of the year your payments go out in euros, with no conversion, no exchange charges and no surprise over the amount received. It is the main practical reason for holding a French bank account, far beyond the day of signing.

How do you pay for building works from abroad?

They deserve separate handling, because theirs is the only timetable that is not regular. Stage payments follow progress, and progress slips. Two reflexes are enough. First, fund the account according to the schedule in the quote rather than the timetable announced verbally, keeping one instalment in hand. Second, never pay a stage payment from abroad in the urgency of a phone call: it is the ground most favourable to payment diversion, for the same reason that makes it effective at the time of the deed, described in the notarial transfer fraud.

Why do small transfers in another currency cost more?

For two reasons that compound. The margin on the rate applies as a percentage, so it tracks the amount. But the fixed charges do not move: issuing fees, correspondent fees, receiving fees. On a large transfer they vanish into the mass. On a stage payment of a few thousand euros they are a visible share, and on a quarterly service charge bill, sometimes an absurd one.

How big should an owner abroad make the euro account?

List what falls due in a year, and add a margin. Service charges, demanded quarterly in most buildings. Property tax, and the residence tax where it is due on a second home. Energy, water and telecoms contracts, often debited monthly even on a lightly used property. Home insurance. And where there is a site, the stage payments set out in the quote.

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