Living in France is never dull, and when I first arrived, prices of goods and services surprised me. I always notice what I’m paying and most of the time it’s a lot! With the exchange rate of 1 euro = US$1.35 right now, even cheaper things still seem expensive to me. And what about things that I’m used to getting for free at home? Not here!
Check out some things that I wish were free in France but aren’t!
Things that should be free in France but actually cost money
Toilets
I never had to pay to use the bathroom until I came to France for the first time when I was 16. We were in a big Paris department store, which in addition to a sink and toilet, had an attendant and all kinds of extras like special toilet paper, lotions, perfume and more to freshen up with before you went back out into the world. I figured this was a one-time occurrence but then saw toilets that cost money in train stations as well as public toilet stations out on the street that you had to put anywhere from 20-50 centimes in the door to use.
At train stations, you often have to leave a coin for the attendant before passing on through the turnstile to the bathroom, so always have a few coins in your pocket. More recently, I’ve noticed an even more convenient way to pay. There is a card terminal that you can quickly swipe sans contact and the amount will be debited in a second or two.
Now it makes sense when I see guys peeing on the side of a building in full public view at least once a week. It’s expensive to pee in a restroom!
Note: Bathrooms are free to use at restaurants and stores when you’re a customer, but don’t expect to duck into a restaurant to pee without buying anything. Most restaurants are strict about restrooms being for customers only.
7 Things the French are more relaxed about than Americans >>
Calls to customer service
France’s customer service doesn’t have the best reputation and aside from all the poor service, they make it difficult to get ahold of them via phone! Why? Because the customer has to pay for the call. And you’d think for a call that you pay for that they’d have enough employees to field the calls, but nope, I often wait on hold for a few minutes before I speak to anyone.
You call the number, pay anywhere from 10 to 30 cents/minute (in most cases) and wait. And wait some more. Then maybe your issue will be resolved and maybe it won’t. But you’ll see a nice reminder of the call on your phone bill! So always check the fine print before calling up customer service because most of the time, these calls are not free in France.
This goes for the post office’s helpline, stores, etc. The cost to make the call is a deterrent and keeps people from getting their issues resolved.
Bank accounts & debit card
One difference between French and American banking is the fact that all accounts here require a monthly service fee. Banking is not free in France — anywhere! Even a basic checking account at La Banque Postale will run you at least 5 euros a month in fees that are automatically debited from your account. In most cases, depending on what services you have (online banking, a debit card for your account, overdraft protection, etc.), that monthly fee is more like 10 or 15 euros/month. They don’t waive it.
This fee is the cost of banking in France and I talked about some of those banking shocks here. Totally normal. The debit card itself, depending on what bank and what card, will be anywhere from 15 euros or more per year just to have a card. Mine is 40. Ouch.
For the sake of comparison, my American accounts and cards have always been free (unless I dip below $100). Maybe you’d think these fees at French banks help to provide customers with great service or fancy options. Nope — my bank is closed Mondays, closed from 12 to 2 p.m. daily and only open ’til noon on Saturday. And of course no drive through or card customization options. I didn’t even choose my own PIN!
9 Handy tips for grocery shopping in France >>
Grocery bags
Always head out to the grocery store in France with your reusable bags in hand (or a cool shopping cart if you’re into granny style like me) because there aren’t any paper or plastic ones for free at checkout. If you forget to bring bags, you have to buy them. Grocery bags are not free in France except in a few smaller markets where you’ll get disposable plastic ones that barely hold anything. Granted, they aren’t expensive — plastic ones maybe 10 or 15 centimes each — but still.
I like this no free bag policy and think it’s slowly starting to catch on in the U.S. Back when I was still living there, stores gave a 5-cent discount per bag if you brought your own. Is that still in place? In France, no discount, just the norm to bring your own. This is most certainly a good thing.
Here are some things that are free in France and surprised me:
Incoming texts and cell calls
If you’re on the receiving end of a phone call or text, you don’t pay. So any airtime you use to answer is on the caller’s dime, and your account is not debited at all. This makes a lot of sense and I like it. If someone sends you 100 texts in error, you shouldn’t have to pay (as with some plans in the U.S.). You only pay if you initiate a call to someone or send a text.
Photo credit: Shutterstock.com/mastermilmar
Gratuities on your restaurant bill (no tips needed)
Don’t feel obliged to tip at the salon or restaurant. For exceptional service, you can leave a few euros but tips are already built into the price of a service and servers get paid a livable wage. So when dining out, getting a haircut or your nails done, don’t feel obligated to leave a tip. And definitely nowhere near the customary 20 percent you’d find in the U.S. if you do decide to leave a tip! It’s totally up to you.
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What would you add to my list of things in France that should be free?
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Ah yes, the pay toilets – always frustrating, particularly when it eats your only coin!
Many bank accounts in Canada have a monthly fee – it usually allots you a certain number of transactions: atm, cheques, withdrawals, etc. And quite a few places require you to pay for plastic shopping bags (which I like as well – it’s just as easy to bring your own!) In Norway, the only free carrier bags come from specialty stores (i.e.. not grocery stores.)
Yah, if I’m paying to pee, it’d better be pretty nice — not some dirty, run-of-the-mill bathroom! But I guess it’s “normal” for Europe. Interesting that Canada charges you to bank too, and with transaction limits and everything. Yikes! Hope Norway is treating you well, Jay! 😉
While Canada does charge fees, you can easily get an account that waives the fee if you keep a certain balance.
The whole bathroom thing continues to throw me for a loop every time we visit Europe. It’s like: “but I have to go RIGHT NOW. but first, let me scrounge up 50 cents.” And they aren’t even nice bathrooms.
Exactly, the one in Gare du Nord was pretty dirty and not worthy of my 50 cents!
I was surprised too by the pay toilets in England last summer but I guess they’re wanting to avoid a certain crowd hanging around all the free public toilets? Not sure. Also, Austin TX passed a plastic bag ban last year and it recently went into effect – you can’t get a plastic bag for your purchased items at ANY store or place of business in the city. If you don’t bring your own reusable bags, you’re out of luck and have to carry everything (although you can still shell out even more money to buy the grocery store’s bags onsite). It’s a good thing IMO.
Cool, so Austin gets it. I think that will start becoming the norm. And I like it!
I would add tap water, I was surprised they wouldn’t serve us tap water, only paid bottled water. We often pay for grocery bags here in New Zealand.
Oh wow, maybe that was a tourist trap? Tap water should always be free, une carafe d’eau. Was that in Paris, by chance?
Tap water is always free! Ask for a carafe d’eau. It is illegal to refuse, but they always will bring a bottle unless you ask for a carafe.
The paying toilets are annoying, I get it, but they’re meant to prevent homeless people from using them as drug central.
I must say I was not pleasantly surprised by banking fees in Canada! I’ve never paid much in France, am not used to not using any old ATM, and get very little interest here. Maybe it’s different in the US?
Another thing that surprised this French girl : Paying for national parks. In France, the concept of paying to visit state owned nature is just so weird. I get it, but it’s still weird 🙂
Yup, I’ ma big fan of ordering carafes of water when at a restaurant. But the first few times I visited France as a tourist, I had no clue they even existed! And about national parks, they aren’t the only things we pay for — beaches too (at least in NJ) during the summer season. I don’t know if they’re “national” areas in France, but I’ve paid for access to places in Brittany, lighthouses and other areas. Just to get to the parking lot. So I think to a degree, it’s the same everywhere. Money is used for maintenance of the site. A few Euros is OK, but nothing extreme!
School is free in France (you pay for lunch, or for extra hours of children staying at school).
And medics visits are very cheap (but dentists expensive).
But than, if (or when), you have children, you find out that music lessons, sports activities, cultural activities (library, museum organised activities for children, summer hollidays camps organised by the town) are extremely cheap.
Than parking cars in town is always to be paid, as well as cars compulsory check ups.
Plastic bags were free until one supermarket brand decided to make it an environnement marketing argument to supply re-usable grocery bags with free exchange when worned out. Every other brands followed the idea after Customers prooved they were mature enough to accept this principle. (Must have been somwhere in the late 1990’s I recollect)
The customer service one drives me nuts. I wanted to call Orange to upgrade my phone service. I waited over 9 minutes to talk to a person about it, at € 0.37 per minute, and he couldn’t hear me.
My bank apparently only has two employees, a boss and a teller. If one of them is sick or has the day off, they close down. They were closed for a week not long ago, and I needed to deposit cash, which you can’t deposit at an ATM.
It really makes you scratch your head, doesn’t it? And even more so when you see how things are done more efficiently elsewhere. I know French people find this ridiculous too, but as a foreigner I just roll with it now. Not sure if you saw this post, Steve, but has some funny comments: https://www.ouiinfrance.com/2016/02/17/those-lovely-wtf-moments/
Honestly, I’m okay with paying for any and all of these things in a country that provides its citizens with affordable healthcare and higher education. 🙂 But the toilet thing is annoying if you’re desperate and out of change….
A lot of these are the same in South Africa.
“ Most customers are strict about restrooms being for customers only.”
I think you mean most restaurants?
Hi there, I made some updates yesterday and didn’t catch my own typo. Thanks!
Even worse. I’ve read (I have not done the legal check) that in certain cases, companies are legally bound to provide a toll-free number to call; and they do have that number, but they avoid advertising it.
The call centers are anyways often offshored to North Africa or elsewhere French-speaking and cheap.