Latin America INSA HdF incoming students

Transportation to Valenciennes

Preferably, arrive in France from Monday to Friday as these are working days. CROUS residence does not register student on Saturday & Sundays.   

The simplest way to arrive to Valenciennes is to :

• take a plane to Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) as there is a train station inside the airport
• allow at least 1h30 between the landing time & the train departure as it take time to gather luggages and go through the border custom
• take a TGV to Valenciennes. You may have a direct connection to Valenciennes or you may have a change in Lille.
• To book a train ticket, please use the SNCF website. 

Alternatively, traveling by bus is a cheaper option although there are less frequent trips available to Valenciennes. Link Here

Opening a bank account

To open a bank account, you will need an "attestation de logement" (housing certificate). I.e. it is, up to our knowledge, not possible to open a French bank account from your own country.

Physical banks have offices where you can talk to humans. Online banks are 100% digitals. They both provides basic banking services (e.g. card, account, etc).

Example of physical banks: Banque Populaire, Caisse d'Epargne, etc. These banks will sell you a package with an account + card + insurance, i.e. they want to sells their "banking products".

Online banks are significantly cheaper, especially if you use your card outside Europe (no fees apply inside Europe). Most of the online bank will ask you a french account number (RIB) to open an account (i.e. you need first a physical bank account to open an online one). However HelloBankand Fortuneodo not have this requirement (we are not affiliated in any way with any of these).

If you experience difficulties, please contact S. Delprat, I can try to help you with the paper work. 

Vocabulary

RIB

In france, when you would like to authorize monthly payments (e.g. phone, electricity, internet, etc), you may be ask for your RIB (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire). This is a document provided by your bank that contains all the identification details about your account.  

IBAN (International Bank Account Number)

This number is an international standard to identify your account. It contains the same information as a RIB but condensed in a single number.

Mandat de prélèvement SEPA

This is a document that authorize a company to take money from your account on a regular basis. To be valid, you need to sign it. Such SEPA are used to pay phone, internet, electricity, netflix, etc. bills.

So if you sign for a SEPA, that means that you agree to pay! 

Mobile Phone

Mobile plans sold at the airport are SCAMS

How does it work in France?

In France, mobile phone is relatively cheap. There are two kind of plan. Physical and online. They can be offered by the same provider. With an online plans, all the operations are done online, whereas with a physical plan, you can go to a shop to talk with a human. Physical plan comes with an engagement period of 1 or 2 years typically. Online plan are usually without contract so you can stop them at any time.

Mobile price are given per month. Usually there is a discounted price for a given period of time, then the price increase to a regular price. On website, you will see in large character the discounted price (e.g. 10€) and you will have to search the "normal" price (eg. 20€ after the 1st year).  

So what is the cost?

A typical online plan costs 20€ and includes unlimited voice call in Europe, unlimited text messages in Europe, and >90Gb of internet data in Europe. Such plan should at least be 4G. Mind that data price outside Europe is terrifically high, typically >10€/Mb. So 1Gb will cost you more than 1000€!! Operators may provide internet data for some world region. Free mobile is known to include 35Gb/month for most of the countries (check their list). If the country you are visiting is not included in your plan, you may buy an offer (eg. 30€ for 20Gb valid for 15 days).   

Coverage

Theoretically, providers are suppose to cover the full French territory. In practice this is almost the case. So any of the providers should be ok. However, in details, you may find some locations where some of the providers have a better coverage than others. The ARCEP organisation provide a detailed coverage map here.

Some plans

There are many providers for online plans (non exhaustive list): Free  mobile, Red by SFR, SOSH, Bouygues Telecom (we are not affiliated with any of these providers in any way) .

Points of attention:

• "avec engagement" : contract plan, you have to pay for the specified period of time. If you want to cancel the subscription before the indicated period, you have to pay the remaining cost for the remaining period.
• "sans engagement": you can stop the plan at any time, with no fees
• "avec téléphone": with the plan, you can buy a phone at a discounted price, but the plan is more expensive. In general, the total cost is more than the price of the telephone and a regular plan. These plan comes only with a contract (avec engagement) 

Internet

A decent WIFI connection is available for free in the CROUS residence and all over the campus. Eduroam is supported, so you should be able to connect with your current eduroam login & password. Once registered at INSA you will get identifier for all the digital services, including WIFI.

If you leave in a student residence, there is a high probability that internet is provided for free also.

If you still need an internet plan, you will have to choose one proposed by an operators. Mobile Operators are the ones that also provide internet fiber connection. Look on their website.

Note that they sometimes provide a cheaper mobile plan if you register for both fiber internet & a mobile plan (e.g. free applies almost 50% discount on the mobile plan)