Your budget
Calculate your budget before coming to France. Paris ranks among the 10 most expensive cities in the world.
On arrival, you will have to pay: tuition fees (from about 500 € for the year, to considerably higher amounts for certain educational programmes), Social Security (about 200 €), accommodation (a 2 months’ deposit is required – about 700 €), registration fees for extra-academic activities (80€) and of course money for food and public transport. This comes to a total of about 1500 €.
The deposit required for housing is intended to guarantee that you return the room in good condition; the deposit is normally handed back to you at the end of your stay.
During your stay, you should reckon with expenses of about 800 € a month for rent, food, public transport (if you are housed in Paris itself), telephone, shopping and going out.
Food: the student card gives access to the student restaurants throughout Paris. The price of a meal is quite reasonable, usually unser 3 Euros. For more information: www.crous-paris.fr
Banking
Typical bank opening times : from 9 to 12 in the morning and 2 to 5 in the afternoon, from Monday to Friday or Tuesday to Saturday.
We recommend you to open a bank account as soon as possible after your arrival, because banking charges on transactions to and from foreign accounts are very expensive and quickly add up to a lot.
Some basic vocabulary
In France, a credit card or "carte bancaire" is also known as a "carte bleue" (CB).- A "compte bancaire" (bank account) is where your money is placed.
- A "relevé de compte" is a monthly slip that details your expenses and incoming money.
- A "virement" is a money transfer from one bank account to another.
- A "RIB" (or "relevé d’identité bancaire") is a document on which appear both your references (name and surname, address, account number etc. ) and those of your bank (address, agency number…). You may find it along with your account slip or in your cheque book and it will be required for a number of administrative operations such as: flat rent, various phone offers, or yearly travel cards...
- A "chéquier" is a checkbook, a frequent means of payment in France.