Cross-border work: how do you transfer your Swiss salary back to France?
With one foot in Switzerland and one in France, cross-border workers face particular challenges, especially financial ones, as Switzerland is not part of the eurozone. This is particularly true of their wages, which they have to transfer home every month in a different currency.
What is the best way to transfer a salary in Swiss francs to a euro account? How can I convert Swiss francs to euros whilst getting the best possible exchange rate? What options are available for cross-border workers?
Transferring your Swiss salary back to France can be a complex and costly process. Whether you choose a traditional bank, a currency exchange bureau or an online currency exchange specialist, find out which is the simplest and most cost-effective option for converting CHF to EUR!
The various ways to transfer your Swiss salary back to France
Working in Switzerland whilst living in France is a choice made by many French people, who cross the border every day to get to work. There are now nearly 380,000 cross-border workers between France and Switzerland. The lifestyle of cross-border workers offers many advantages, particularly in financial terms. The Swiss minimum wage is in fact much higher than in France, and the country offers the highest wages in Europe in many sectors.
Do you live in France and work in Switzerland? If so, you’ll be familiar with the issue of converting your Swiss salary – or you will be if you’re looking for a job.
Living in France, within the eurozone, but earning a Swiss salary… This is a problem that cross-border workers face every month. It can lead to tedious paperwork and significant costs, as well as a fair amount of stress and confusion… unless you choose the best currency conversion service.
Why should you optimise the CHF/EUR conversion rate for your salary?
Depending on the method used, converting money from one currency to another can involve high fees, delays and tedious administrative procedures.
However, for cross-border workers, converting their salary from Swiss francs to euros is a recurring issue. They have to do this every month, so it is in their interests to look into how best to manage it.
Exchanging Swiss francs for euros in order to transfer your salary home can sometimes take days and incur various additional charges:
- International transfer fees;
- Currency exchange fees;
- Exchange rate margin;
- etc.
To choose the most cost-effective and straightforward currency exchange solution, it is essential to have a clear understanding of each of the available options. Whether you opt for a traditional bank, a high street bureau de change or an online specialist, let’s take a look at the best services for transferring your Swiss salary back to France.
Good to know: An agreement between employer and employee can be reached to arrange for wages to be paid directly into a euro account, but this involves a number of restrictions that need to be taken into account.
1. Transfer your salary into CHF via a traditional bank
Without a doubt, the most common option is to receive your salary via a traditional bank. This requires you to have a bank account in Switzerland and a current account in France. However, it is important to bear in mind that a transfer between two bank accounts located in two different countries (and in the case of France and Switzerland, in two different currency zones) usually incurs fees. If these transfers take place every month, involving substantial sums, the fees can represent a significant loss of income for the cross-border worker.
The principle is very simple:
- You receive your salary into a Swiss bank account;
- You then make an international bank transfer to a French bank account.
Firstly, your employer transfers the money to the Swiss bank (Banque Cantonale de Genève, Banque Cler, Credit Suisse, UBS, etc.). Next, the cross-border worker initiates a transfer to their French bank (Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, Banque Populaire, Société Générale, etc.), thereby converting the CHF into euros.
Despite its apparent simplicity, choosing to have your Swiss salary transferred to France via a traditional bank is one of the most common mistakes made by cross-border workers. Opting for a traditional bank does, in fact, have numerous disadvantages.
In fact, the bank charges to be paid are particularly high:
- International transfer fees;
- Exchange rate margin;
- Management fees for the two current accounts.
Furthermore, international money transfers take a particularly long time. It usually takes four working days for your salary to be transferred from Switzerland to France.
However, it is also possible to obtain a Swiss IBAN directly in France. Indeed, some French banks located on the border between the two countries have developed products tailored to the needs of cross-border workers.
In this case, there is no need to make an international bank transfer. The costs are therefore limited to the margin charged by banks on Forex exchange rates and to bank account fees.
Good to know: Forex exchange rates can fluctuate at any time. Consequently, from one month to the next, someone in paid employment in Switzerland will not receive the same amount of money in euros, even if their salary in CHF is fixed. To help you find out the current CHF/EUR exchange rate in real time, b-sharpe provides a reliable and intuitive currency converter.
2. Transferring Swiss wages via a currency exchange bureau
Another option is to transfer your salary into Swiss francs via a currency exchange bureau. These are easy to find, as there are plenty of them in Geneva and in towns along the border.
This time, the process involves withdrawing your salary in CHF as cash directly from your Swiss bank, then going to a currency exchange bureau to exchange it for euros. Finally, you need to take this money to your French bank and deposit it into your current account.
As well as being time-consuming, this method has the major drawback of being risky. Indeed, theft, loss or an accident cannot be ruled out…
In addition, one must take into account the costs associated with such an operation:
- Spread on interbank exchange rates;
- Fixed costs.
These charges are difficult to predict as they may vary over time and differ from one currency exchange bureau to another.
Good to know: To keep the costs of holding two bank accounts to a minimum, you could opt for an online bank, which often offers a free credit card.
3. Transfer your Swiss salary home with the help of an online currency exchange specialist
As well as traditional methods involving banks and bureaux de change, there is an innovative alternative: using an online currency exchange specialist. Emerging from the fintech sector, these companies use technology to shake up the financial industry.
Thanks to online currency exchange services, it is possible to convert Swiss francs into euros quickly, easily and cheaply. These benefits also apply to other currencies, such as the US dollar, the pound sterling, the Norwegian krone, the yen, and so on.
Based in Switzerland, b-sharpe has developed a service specifically designed for transferring salaries to France. It is aimed at all French workers or expatriates who receive their monthly salary in Swiss francs.
Cross-border workers therefore have two options:
- Convert CHF to EUR via a Swiss bank account;
- Transfer their salary in CHF to a Swiss IBAN account in their name provided by b-sharpe and withdraw their money in euros without opening a bank account in Switzerland.
The first option involves transferring money in CHF to b-sharpe, which then converts the currency at the best exchange rate. Declining margins based on the amount transferred are applied in order to maximise potential savings.
Another option, which is particularly attractive for cross-border workers who wish to avoid opening a bank account in Switzerland or do not plan to move to Switzerland, is to have their salary paid directly into their account in France. Thanks to the personalised Swiss IBAN provided by b-sharpe, cross-border workers can easily receive their salary by first providing their IBAN details to their employer. The salary is thus converted by b-sharpe and then transferred to the employee’s euro bank account
Make things easier and simplify your life: optimise your CHF–EUR currency conversions. By offering services to convert Swiss salaries into euros – either directly through your employer or via a Swiss bank account – b-sharpe provides innovative, fast and more cost-effective foreign exchange solutions than traditional options!
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