Today (Friday, 27th September, 2013) I opened a bank account all by myself! Yesterday I went to Credit Agricole to ask about getting an account with them, but the very very helpful lady told me that they no longer offered accounts for less than a year because they were losing a lot of money, but that I should speak to BNP Paribas. So that's exactly what I did. At BNP I was told how it all works, what documents to bring and made an appointment to fill in all the paperwork.
There is a lot of paperwork to sign. And multiple copies of the same thing, one for the bank and one for you. They talk to you about what you need the account for and choose something that suits you. I've got an account that includes a visa debit card and a cheque book, plus 300 euros in overdraft (just incase... didn't ask for it but she said it was advisable considering how expensive the town here is and it's free to have that size overdraft). I have to pay 3,30 € to have a card attached to the account but that's not all that much.
Because I'm not living in an apartment permanently yet (I move in on 30/09/13), I had to get an "attestation de logement" from the hostel to say I'm currently there. The bank will then send a letter to the hostel and I have to take that to the bank to prove that I received it at the hostel. I can then change my address after that but since it takes a week to activate the account I figured it would be better to have it organised as soon as possible.
There's not much to say by way of advice for opening an account; just make sure you get some copies of your RIB ("rélève identité bancaire" - kind of like a bank account identity statement with the account number and such on). The employee at the bank was very helpful and told me exactly what I needed to bring with me (passport, "attestation de logement" and contract for work) and guided me through the process. I just hope whenever any of you go to open an account, it's as easy as it was for me!
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