Send money to France from Australia
Grey pays euro into French bank accounts through SEPA, including BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale and La Banque Postale. France is in the eurozone, so the conversion happens once, on your side, and the credit arrives untouched. Grey does not hold Australian dollars, so the transfer leaves a US dollar balance provided by Lead Bank, or a pound or euro balance.
AUD
EUR
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Who sends money from Australia to France
Three quite different people use this corridor, and they rarely send for the same reason twice.
The first is the descendant of a post-war arrival. French migration to Australia was never on the scale of the Italian or Greek intakes, but it happened, and the families it produced now hold a share of something in France: a house left to four children, a plot held in indivision that nobody has untangled, a parent in an EHPAD near Toulouse whose fees exceed the pension. The money that flows is legal and administrative rather than affectionate. A notaire wants paying. A succession has to be closed. The building has agreed a repair that every owner owes a share of.
The second is professional and moves in both directions. French nationals work in Sydney and Melbourne hospitality, research, luxury retail and engineering and send money back to a French account. Australians take positions in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux and keep obligations at home while paying rent and charges in France.
The third is temporary and young. Australians on working holiday visas spend seasons in the Alps and the vineyards, and they need to pay a French deposit or a French landlord long before any French bank considers them worth onboarding.
How to send money to France from Australia
Open your account
Opening the account is free, takes about five minutes, and asks for one valid identity document. An Australian passport is the obvious choice if you are also about to be asked for it in France.
Fund a balance
Grey has no Australian dollar balance. You hold US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, or pounds or euro, funded by money arriving from an employer, a client or a transfer you make, and send from that.
Send to the French IBAN
Enter the French IBAN from the recipient's bank details, check the euro amount with the rate and the fee, and confirm. It lands as an ordinary SEPA credit.
What it costs to send money to France
French paperwork makes the test unusually clean, because almost everything on this corridor arrives as a document with a euro figure printed on it. Take that figure, ask each provider what it needs from your balance to deliver it exactly, and the cheaper option is obvious within a minute.
Nothing is deducted at the French end. The euro you convert is the euro that sits in the account, which means the comparison you did at home still holds when the recipient looks at their statement.
How the fixed rate works on a French transfer
The rate is shown before you confirm and fixed at that moment, so the euro figure on the confirmation screen is the figure credited in France.
French institutions are precise about amounts and unforgiving about shortfalls. A notaire's account, a co-ownership levy, a care home invoice and a deposit on a flat in the ninth arrondissement all expect the exact number. A transfer that arrives a few euro short is not close enough, it is an unpaid item that has to be topped up and explained.
The same certainty helps in the other direction. An Australian on a season in Chamonix who knows what a fixed amount from their balance becomes in euro can budget a month in advance rather than checking a rate every morning.
The SWIFT code your bank wants, against a French IBAN on SEPA
Australians rarely think about domestic payments because Osko settles them in seconds for nothing. The international product from the same bank is another thing entirely: a fee, an exchange rate with the margin already inside it, a request for a SWIFT code that a French relative may have to ring their branch to find, and a delivery time counted in business days, which in August in France is a genuinely optimistic unit. Grey converts once at a rate shown beforehand and delivers into the French IBAN through SEPA.
What your recipient in France sees
A euro credit in their own French account, indistinguishable from a domestic payment. No Grey account, no app, no registration, which matters when the recipient is a notaire's office or an elderly parent.
Into a French bank account
BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale and La Banque Postale are all supported. The IBAN from their bank details is what you enter.
Delivered through SEPA
It travels on the rails used for French salaries and direct debits. Sent from a funded euro balance, the credit typically reaches the French account within minutes.
Or to another Grey user
Where the person in France also uses Grey, a GreyTag transfer is free and instant in any currency, with no account details exchanged.
Getting money into your Grey account first
The payment is the easy part. Funding is what needs the lead time, and French deadlines are set without any reference to an Australian fortnightly pay date.
Arrange the incoming payment once
Your US account details, provided by Lead Bank, can sit permanently with whoever pays you so the balance is never the obstacle.
Allow for clearing
Money you transfer in yourself has to arrive before it can be converted. Start several days before the French due date.
Hold euro through a succession
Estate work produces invoices in sequence over months. Converting once and holding euro makes each of them a single confirmation.
The recipient's details are stored after the first transfer, so paying the same notaire or syndic again takes seconds.
What Australians send to France for
Successions and notaire fees
Closing an estate, paying the notaire, settling with siblings and dealing with property held jointly by heirs who live on two continents.
Property charges
Co-ownership levies, insurance, repairs and the standing costs of a house in the country that is occupied for a few weeks each year.
Care for parents
Residential care fees and the top up between a French pension and what the place actually costs.
Rent, deposits and living costs
Australians working a season or a contract in France paying a landlord, a deposit or a school, before any French account exists in their name.
Property and paperwork dominate, with living costs from the professional and working holiday side underneath them.
Why use Grey for money to France
FAQs
Can I pay a French notaire from Australia?
Yes. Enter the IBAN on their account and the euro credit reaches the office as an ordinary French payment.
Which French banks does Grey pay into?
BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale and La Banque Postale, with euro credited to your recipient's own account.
Does money sent from Australia to France arrive in euro?
Yes. France is in the eurozone, so the conversion happens on your side and the credit arrives whole.
Can I pay a French rental deposit before I have a French bank account?
Yes. Grey sends euro to the landlord or agency IBAN while you are still living and earning in Australia.
Do I need anything besides the French IBAN?
No. The IBAN identifies the account, where an Australian payment would need a six digit BSB and an account number.
How long does a transfer from Australia take to reach a French account?
Transfers from a funded Grey balance typically arrive within minutes, travelling into the French IBAN through SEPA.
Can I pay a French invoice to the exact cent?
Yes, fixed at confirmation, which matters when a co-ownership levy or a care home invoice has to be paid to the cent.
Does my parent in France need a Grey account?
No. They are paid into their existing French bank account and never have to register with anything.
Can I fund a French payment with Australian dollars?
No. Grey holds no Australian dollar balance, so you fund US dollars provided by Lead Bank, pounds or euro.
Can several heirs in Australia pay into the same French succession?
Yes. Each sends to the same saved French account, and each sees their own rate and fee before confirming.
How does this compare with an Australian bank transfer to France?
Grey converts once at a visible rate, where a bank wire adds a fee and a margin you never see itemised.
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