I recently returned from a job in France (I'm a nanny). While I was there I opened a normal account for my wages with HSBC, as thats the bank I'm with in the UK. I kept my UK account open, I also have an ISA.
While I was there I saved like mad, and I now have almost 15000 Euros saved. I came home at short notice so I didn't get a chance to close the account. I never intend to return to France, not to work anyway, so I wondered if anyone had any advice about getting the money back to here and closing the account. I can't transfer the money and leave the account open as it costs 8 Euros a month to have it, and I don't want to go overdrawn.
Does anyone have any advice? My ideas so far are transfering the money online and attempting to close the account but I don't even know if thats possible from here. I don't speak French so that makes phoning difficult and I'm not sure if I can do it over the phone. Or I could write myself a cheque and pay it into my UK account but that will incur even more fees! I did ask in my local HSBC but they said they were completely seperate companies so couldn't access the account in any way.
I'm a bit stuck, I really need to access this money but I don't know how to close the account! I do have online access to the account but as its all in French I'm worried about doing the wrong thing.
Thanks in advance.