LCL Reviews 

LCL does not even seserve 1 star!
Still no access to electronic banking after 6 months afetr opening account. Lack of response to emails account manager, over phone they dont want to assist either saying I dont have enough activity on the account! They took 40 euro fees for card that I could not use single time. AVOID!!!!

Worst bank ever!!! I am trying now over 6 months to close my bank account. Wrote them letters, called and nothing is being done! The last time I called and I asked them to close my account, I explained them I do not live in Paris anymore. The lady said “ohhh so why do you have a bank account with us? Close it!” Emmm hello, why are you not helping me with this?
Do NOT go even close near this bank! Useless! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

Worst bank ever ! I’m a French citizen and have to travel a lot. I have so many issues without any solution offer from the bank.
I had Malaria, in India, they closed my account and blocked my credit card without reasons so I wasn’t able to pay for my treatments. After many messages, they tell me to come in the bank !! Whilst I’m in India, in the hospital with Malaria ! They never came with a solution.
They have no skills, no services and never try to help even in critical situations. Please don’t go to this terrible bank !!

I have banked at Le Crédit Lyonnais since 1985. The conseillers of the international division of LCL are not qualified to handle international transactions. Their knowledge is nil.

If I could give 0 stars I would.
The staff is incompetent and never offers any help on the off chance that you do manage to be in contact with them.
Worst of all the staff causes problems for their clients: they once sent a 1000€ transfer to the wrong bank even if i provided them with a clear RIB, they even once cancelled my credit card without any notice or reason while I was abroad stuck with no cash....
Truly the worst bank and staff I have ever encountered, incompetent is not a strong enough world to describe this bank.

An online rejection for a current bank account without telling why, if you apply outside France via Internet, as a EU citizen. Well.....at least the application turndown was very modern and fast. 😉 Luckily for me an application for a current account at another French bank was no problem.

Looking for the worse bank ever? You'll find it at LCL Turbigo Paris! Friendly receptionist is the only nice thing about this place and Mr Arranz is the least helpful advisor you can ever imagine.

LCL is the sole thing that might completely ruin your relationship with France. The bank is medieval, the symbol of the retrograde french spirit. 100% Paper and presence based processes. Complete disregard for customers needs or basic expectations. Untrained, unresourceful and short-armed staff (they will reply your messages in English in French, saying they do not speak English). Extra long timing to solve any request, be it by mail, phone or branch. Super long and complicated to change anything on your account or request or activate new cards or codes. And if you aren't French, get ready to your worst customer experience ever. They are stuck in time in every sense.

If you are looking to use a bank in France when visiting, travelling, working or studying do not open an account with LCL. Stick with your home bank and their card and use international money transfers.

LCL was a complete scam, whereby I deposit money and was charged ridiculous fees twice per month. Since I was living in France at the time with a local phone/address, this made the verification process impossible as I had flown back home and had a new mobile number. It has taken over 2 years to get my money back and I am still waiting. I have provided everything to verify my identity but they are still voluntarily holding my money for months so they can obtain more fees. My advisors, JONATHAN VUILLAUME & NAWAL BOUKOUSSALA are doing nothing to help, telling me he will get back to me but then chooses not to respond.

Honestly, if I can give 0 stars I would. The worst customer service, horrible hours, if you don’t have a lot of money on your account they treat you like garbage and show no common appreciation for you being a customer. You have no rights to your own money, it’s a joke.

While I'm an old customer of the bank, I have experienced an unprecedented lack of service, good will and competence from this LCL agency, where employees lack the most basic sense of customer service and professionalism. The behaviour of all the advisors I've been in contact with was always very un-cooperative and unrespectful. Not only they never answer your calls and messages, but once they do then no action is taken. They absolutely don't care about you. I never saw such a level of amateurism. I refuse to tolerate it any longer. Do not go to this bank agency.

If it was possible to put no star I would've done it. But you should really avoid LCL to open a Bank account. It's impossibly slow and don't really care about you. I had to shut down my card because of some complications, so they said that they would make a new card for me. It normally takes around 1 weeks or so for the card to be done and sent to your place. But it's been almost 3 weeks and non reply from them. I called them to only find out that they sent it to the wrong address and didn't even bother apologizing and said I gave them the wrong address. I found it funny as I clearly sent my "attesation d'hébergement" to them all they had to do was copy it but no they decided to change it... Now im still waiting and asking them everyday but they kept on saying how, it's already been sent and that they no longer are in control of the card. I'm just straight up mad.

Absolutely dreadful - closing an account is impossible. I am now going legal to try and get them to give me the money in my own account.

THIS BANK IS A SCAM- AVOID IT!

Between 2011 and 2015 I lived in the south of France, Nice. There I set up a company which I managed for 3 years.

I first had a personal account with them, but then also opened a business bank account too.

After trading for over 2 years and receiving some chargebacks (my business required merchant facility to be able to process payments for the travel agency business I had set up), LCL decided to remove access to all of my accounts.

Not only they did that, they also:
> reimbursed all transactions in the last 3-4 month without any chance of disputes procedure
> removed my internet banking login
> refused to see me when going to the branch to speak to my account manager; I was only ever allowed to speak to people at the reception, who mostly didn't speak English, and just avoided me (not speaking about how rude everyone was).
> I had to involve branch manager (my account and branch was: LCL- Avenue Jean Medecin, Nice, 06000) who also avoided me: the first and the last time I saw him briefly in the foyer he told me: "Your account is not limited, you are just unable to withdraw any sums of money. We will write to you by letter. The account is only suspended for 3 months".

After chasing them for more than a year, I simply gave up. I moved back to the UK beginning of Feb 2015. In the last few years, I felt really depressed knowing that I have no way of approaching this bank and recovering my money...

> My business bank account at the time had a balance of 11,000 EUR
> My personal account had a balance of 9,000 EUR.

I know I should about 8,000.00 Euros still sitting with LCL (this is on personal account- after they kept deducting a monthly charge of EUR 25.00 PER MONTH; I am not even mentioning my business account).

In the year 2017, I hired a French lawyer who contacted the bank and send them some letters.. 3 Month after she sent letter and request on acocunt update- they write us bank saying that there is no more money on the account, which has come to me as a shock.

Despite LCL writing to me on 24th of MAY 2016, by Philippe LUCIANI advising that by local branch manager will contact me with resolution- another 2 years have passed and nothing has happened.

I am now seeking legal action against this bank once more. I will also try leaking this unto press. Let's see if the freedom of speech still really exists in France and if the customer is treated like one.

AVOID THIS BANK!

I had asked my LCL branch for a debit card a few months ago, so I wouldn't have to pay Sterling>Euro exchange, and also be able to shop on Amazon.fr Prime, saving postage if buying gifts for family. Card arrived OK, but not activated by my branch so I could use from where Ilve in England.
Amazon.fr has emailed me to say card payment declined. Phoned card services at LCL who advised me to phone a number today. I explained the problem and was told a manager would phone me within the hour. 4 hrs 20 minutes later still waiting,despite phoning after 2 hours and at half hourly intervals since. I was also told even if the chap activates card (when he eventually deigns to phone), that it cannot be used for 24 hours. Meanwhile Amazon.frhas warned that it will shortly cancel my orders, One of which has only 3 in stock, it is possible I might not be able to buy the presents . I have now on 5th phone call at £1.50 p.minute ( over including queue times - 20+ minutes finally been put in touch with a manager who said their person should not have said they would call me back, as LCL does not phone abroad !! He has said card has now been validated. Why if they have my e-mail address, did they not simply text me. I cannot understand why, (if the card can only be validated by a manager, )the manager of my LCL branch at Salies did not activate it when sent, or at least explain that he would activate it on my receiving it. After all, it would be the correct way to do it! I'm very angry too at being charged all these months for a card I could not have used. Theft !

Too bad! Services are not good, the staffs are not friendly and make every thing more completely.
One of story: I came to LCL office in Evry to ask for changing address. The first time, they request the "Attestation d'hébergement" have to follow their form, they did not accept the popular form I downloaded from Internet. The second time when I changed the form, they request the original "titre de sejour" of the host. They did not accept the photocopy of "titre de sejour".

It took me literally 2 years to close my bank account. I sent documents, written letters, emails, made phone calls and it still took me almost 2 years to get rid of them. An incredibly bad service.

I am a PhD and was hired by a French national research agency for a 4-month position as a researcher. Being a non-European (Pakistani) citizen, I had to acquire a researcher visa which was valid for 6-months, fair enough!
Prior to moving to France, I had lived in Luxembourg for more than 4 years to complete my PhD. When I moved to France, my employer asked me to open an account in a French bank (and this was indeed a fairly logical demand) so that I can receive my salary. Therefore, I started to look for banks in France.
To open an account, I visited 3 banks BUT they refused to open an account for me since my visa is just 6-months long. I am not just saying or suspecting that it was due to my visa duration but the following experience makes me say it: At all of these 3 banks, I went with my documents, they saw my documents one by one and their tone was very welcoming and supportive until they saw the duration of my visa. At one of these banks, the representative even completed my paperwork and took the bundle of papers/forms inside (to the administration) for approval, but came out with the following excuse: the person in-charge of opening the accounts is on vacation for 2-months. Really? How is it possible?
Anyway, then I spotted a branch of the LCL bank near my office. I went there and requested for opening an account. They did open my account BUT after opening my account, they told me that the account has been opened in another branch which is 3 metro stops away from here! I was stuck now though and had no other option but to accept the situation.
Nevertheless, my account got opened, I got online banking service and a debit card. I started receiving my salary and my closing balance was always positive (above 1000 EUR). The card and online banking were working so I didn't have to visit the branch frequently until the worst part of this story started:
One evening, I went to withdraw some money from an ATM, but found out that my card has been blocked! I got scared, worried and came back home to login into my bank account online. Another surprise: I wasn't even able to login to online banking! Next morning I went to the branch to see what the problem was. The manager and the front-desk officer talked for about 10 minutes in the manager's office and then called me in to say to me that: Sorry, we have to close your account. We don't know the reason and our boss has told us to close your account. Your debit card and online banking have been stopped too. You have to withdraw all your money within 1 week. This made me frustrated, sad and angry but I couldn't say anything to them as they were poor in English and I didn't know any French.
THEY DIDN'T GIVE ME ANY ADVANCE NOTICE AND CLOSED MY CARD AND ONLINE SERVICES WITHOUT NOTICE. Which meant for me that I can't pay my rent online, I can't use ATM, I can't shop online, I can't shop at stores unless I have cash. Later on, I searched for the banking laws in France and found out that a bank can close your account without giving you a reason BUT in order to do so, the bank is obliged to give a one-month prior notice.
Several questions then arose in my mind about why did they close my account?:
- because I don't speak French?
- because I am here with only 6-month long visa?
- because I am a non-European?

This unfortunate and bad banking experience in France made my experience of living in France very unpleasant. Why didn't anybody realize or acknowledge the fact that I was there in France to add a value to the science/research conducted in France? Why didn't anybody realize that I was there to make things better and not to make them worse? The bank staff with merely Bachelors degrees or even high-school diplomas were not probably aware that what is research and how is it benefitial.