A dedicated account is a legal question before it is a product question
Most people start by comparing plan names. The more useful starting point is the rule that applies to their legal status. Under the micro-entrepreneur regime, a dedicated account becomes compulsory once annual turnover passes €10,000 in each of two consecutive calendar years. It is two separate years above the threshold, not a combined total. If the activity is commercial, meaning you sell goods, the obligation starts with the first sale no matter how small the revenue.
The word "dedicated" matters more than the word "professional". A separate account reserved for the business can satisfy the requirement in some cases, even if the provider markets it as a personal current account, as long as the contract permits professional use. What you cannot do is run client payments through the same account that pays your rent, your groceries and your holidays. Come an URSSAF review, reconstructing turnover from a mixed statement turns into a week of guesswork.
The other distinctly French constraint is the IBAN. Clients, accountants and public buyers here expect to see FR76 at the start of the account number. A German or Lithuanian IBAN will work technically, but it invites questions from a procurement department, extra checks from a factoring partner, and occasional friction on marketplace onboarding. If your customers are French businesses, a French IBAN removes a small but recurring source of delay.
Then there is invoicing. Receiving electronic invoices becomes an obligation for VAT-registered businesses from September 2026, and issuing them becomes mandatory for small and mid-sized companies from September 2027. Every provider in this space is racing to be a certified platform, so ask directly whether the invoicing module attached to your account is compliant. Choosing an account whose billing tool already handles that transition saves you from buying a second subscription later and reconciling two systems.
What the main options actually cost
Pricing in this market splits into two families: neobanks with published, per-seat pricing, and traditional branch banks with a monthly package negotiated per agency. The table below reflects published entry-level pricing from the main providers used by French businesses.
| Provider | Best fit | Entry monthly fee | French IBAN | Notable inclusions | What to watch |
|---|
| Qonto | Freelancers up to mid-sized companies, all legal forms | From 9 € HT on annual commitment, 11 € month-to-month | Yes | One Mastercard, two virtual cards, 30 transfers or direct debits per month, built-in invoicing | Transfer quota grows fast for busy retail |
| Shine | Sole traders and very small teams | 0 € on the entry plan | Yes | Invoicing and quotes, 5 SEPA transfers included, extra transfers at 0.40 € HT | Payment institution, not a bank |
| Indy | Auto-entrepreneurs wanting bookkeeping nearby | 0 € on the entry plan | Yes | Invoicing, unlimited transfers, expense categorisation | Narrower fit once you hire |
| Revolut Business | Cross-border teams, frequent FX | Paid tiers only | Yes, on French plans | Bulk payments, team permissions, API | Feature limits vary sharply by tier |
| Wise Business | Importers and exporters paying suppliers abroad | Pay-as-you-go plus a one-off setup charge | Yes, on French plans | Local account details in several currencies | Not a full substitute for a French bank relationship |
| Airwallex | Companies holding several currencies | No ongoing account fee on the base setup | Yes, EUR accounts | Multi-currency balances, cards, payment collection | Built for larger volumes and global trade |
| Traditional branch bank | Businesses needing cash deposits, credit lines, cheques | Package pricing set per agency | Yes | Branch access, overdraft facilities, mortgage financing | Slower onboarding, more paperwork |
Two details worth pulling out of that table. Shine operates as a payment institution supervised by the ACPR rather than as a bank, which means client funds sit in a segregated account at a partner bank instead of on its own balance sheet. That structure is legal and common, but it is the reason you will not find a savings account or a mortgage at the same counter. Qonto, meanwhile, covers every legal form including associations, which matters if you are running a structure that sits somewhere between a company and a collective project.
Matching the account to how you actually get paid
A consultant in Lyon invoicing four or five regular clients has a narrow set of needs: a French IBAN, clean outgoing invoices and a statement her accountant can read. She moved off an agency package onto an entry-level plan, kept her SEPA transfers inside the included monthly quota, and stopped paying for cash handling she never used. The lesson is not the specific plan, it is the discipline of counting transactions before choosing a tier.
An e-commerce seller has the opposite problem. Money arrives from a payment processor in batches, suppliers are paid in dollars, and the account has to sit between the two without leaking conversion costs. Here multi-currency balances and interbank-level exchange rates outweigh a flashy app. A Bordeaux wine exporter invoicing in pounds and dollars will care about the same thing, plus a provider that can receive payments from buyers who insist on their own local account details.
Once you hire, the question shifts again. Team cards with individual spending limits, receipt capture on a phone, and a live sync into your accounting tool start to matter more than the headline monthly fee. Check the integrations list against what your accountant actually uses, whether that is Pennylane, Tiime, Sage or something else, because a manual export every month quietly costs more than a plan upgrade.
Opening an account without losing two weeks
Get the paperwork in order before you shop. For a new company that means the SIRET and the avis de situation, the statuts, and the K-bis extract for a registered company. For sole traders, the SIRET certificate is usually enough. Identity documents for the legal representative and for any beneficial owner holding a significant share are requested at every provider, and online onboarding runs on a short video verification rather than a branch appointment.
Expect questions about your business model, the countries your customers and suppliers are in, and the monthly volume you anticipate. Answer with realistic ranges. An account that suddenly receives five times the declared flow gets frozen for review, and unfreezing it takes days you may not have.
The practical sequence that works: open the account, hand the RIB to your two largest clients, route one recurring supplier payment through it, then connect your accounting tool and switch on the invoicing module. Give the account a month of real activity before deciding whether the tier you picked is right. Upgrades take minutes. Downgrades, transfer quotas and team permissions are where the honest comparison happens.
If your activity is commercial, or if your turnover has already crossed that threshold twice, the decision is not whether to open a dedicated account. It is only which one. Start with the cheapest compliant plan that covers your transaction count this week, and let a multi-currency balance or a fifth team card be the trigger that justifies paying more.
研究の知恵