Freenance for French Users 2026 — PFM App with BNP, Crédit Agricole, Boursorama Sync, Livret A and PEA Tracking

Freenance for French Users 2026 — A PFM App That Speaks BNP, Crédit Agricole and Boursorama

France has one of the most regulated and tax-structured retail finance environments in Europe. A typical household in Paris, Lyon, or Bordeaux holds a compte courant at BNP Paribas or Crédit Agricole, a Livret A capped at 22,950 EUR earning 3% net, a PEA opened at Boursorama or Fortuneo, an assurance-vie multi-support at MAIF or Spirica, and possibly a PERin (Plan d'Épargne Retraite Individuel) for tax-deductible retirement savings.

This is a lot of moving parts. The French state has built so many tax-advantaged wrappers — Livret A, LDDS, LEP, PEA, PEA-PME, assurance-vie, PER — that the average household needs a spreadsheet just to remember which euro lives in which envelope. Freenance is the PFM app many French users now use to keep that picture in one place.

Why French Banking and Saving Is So Fragmented

A Mosaic of Tax Wrappers

French residents allocate capital across regulated envelopes, each with its own ceiling, tax treatment, and liquidity profile:

• Livret A: 22,950 EUR ceiling, 3% interest net of all tax (since February 2025), withdrawable anytime
• LDDS (Livret de Développement Durable): 12,000 EUR ceiling, same 3% net rate
• LEP (Livret d'Épargne Populaire): 10,000 EUR ceiling for eligible households, currently 5% net
• PEL / CEL: housing-savings plans with regulated rates
• PEA: equity wrapper, 150,000 EUR ceiling, gains tax-free after 5 years (only 17.2% social contributions due)
• PEA-PME: 225,000 EUR aggregate ceiling with PEA, for SME shares
• Assurance-vie: no ceiling, preferential tax after 8 years (4,600 EUR / 9,200 EUR couple annual gain allowance)
• PER: retirement plan with contributions deductible from taxable income up to a ceiling

The full Plan d'Épargne portfolio of a 40-year-old French household might span six banks and four insurers. Without aggregation, the household never knows the true total.

Neobanks and Neobrokers Add Another Layer

Beyond traditional banks, French residents increasingly hold:

• Boursorama Banque (Société Générale group) — over 6 million customers by 2026
• Fortuneo (Crédit Mutuel Arkéa)
• Hello bank! (BNP Paribas digital arm)
• Revolut France with a French IBAN
• N26 with a French IBAN
• Trade Republic for share dealing
• Helios for ethically-screened banking
• Lydia for peer payments and a savings sub-account
• Yomoni, Nalo, Goodvest for managed assurance-vie

Most French households now hold a compte courant at one of the historical banks (BNP, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, LCL, La Banque Postale, CIC, Crédit Mutuel) plus 2-4 fintech accounts. The fragmentation problem is real.

PSD2 in France: How Freenance Connects

The PSD2 directive applies fully in France through the ACPR (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution). Every French bank operates an XS2A interface that licensed AISPs can query with the user's consent. Freenance uses certified AISP infrastructure to connect to:

• BNP Paribas and Hello bank!
• Crédit Agricole (all regional Caisses)
• Société Générale and Boursorama
• LCL
• La Banque Postale
• CIC and Crédit Mutuel federations
• Caisse d'Épargne (BPCE group)
• Banque Populaire
• HSBC France (now CCF following the 2024 transfer)
• Fortuneo
• Revolut France
• N26

For brokerage and assurance-vie data outside the PSD2 perimeter (Boursorama PEA, Bourse Direct, Trade Republic, Yomoni assurance-vie), Freenance accepts structured CSV imports and supports manual position entry for legacy wrappers. Many French users find this hybrid coverage is the first time they have seen all their argent in one screen.

French Capital Gains: The 30% Flat Tax (PFU) Explained

How the Prélèvement Forfaitaire Unique Works

Since 2018, France applies a flat tax of 30% on most capital income — known as the PFU or "Flat Tax." This breaks down as:

• 12.8% income tax
• 17.2% social contributions (CSG 9.2%, CRDS 0.5%, prélèvement de solidarité 7.5%)

The PFU applies to dividends, interest, and capital gains realized outside a PEA, PEL, or assurance-vie. Inside the PEA, after 5 years of holding, only the 17.2% social contributions are due — making the PEA the single most valuable tax wrapper for French equity investors.

Why CSG/CRDS Visibility Matters

Many French investors look at "gross gain" and forget that 17.2% will be withheld at source by the broker (for French-domiciled accounts) or self-declared via the 2042-C form. Freenance tags each transaction with its expected tax treatment, so users can see net-of-tax performance for each wrapper.

For dividends from foreign shares (US, Irish ETFs, German shares), Freenance also tracks the foreign withholding tax — typically 15% for US shares under the FATCA treaty — which can be credited against French tax through Form 2047.

Form 3916: Foreign Account Declaration

French residents must declare every foreign-held account (bank, brokerage, or crypto) on Form 3916 / 3916-bis every year, even if the account is dormant. Failure to declare triggers a 1,500 EUR fine per undeclared account, rising to 10,000 EUR for accounts in non-cooperative jurisdictions.

Many French users hold accounts at Trade Republic (Germany), Revolut (Lithuania at the time of writing), DEGIRO (Netherlands), or Interactive Brokers (Ireland). Freenance maintains a per-account ledger of jurisdiction and IBAN country code so the user has a clean list to copy onto Form 3916 every May.

Livret A, PEA, Assurance-Vie: The Three Wrappers Freenance Tracks

Livret A and the 3% Net Yield

The Livret A is the most popular savings account in France: over 56 million people hold one. Its rate is set every February and August by the Banque de France using a published formula based on inflation and short-term interbank rates. For 2026, the rate has stabilized around 3%, net of all tax.

The 22,950 EUR ceiling matters: capital above the ceiling earns nothing (the account simply refuses further deposits). Freenance tracks each Livret A balance against its ceiling and alerts the user when capacity is nearly full, suggesting overflow into LDDS or LEP if eligible.

PEA: The Equity Wrapper

The PEA (Plan d'Épargne en Actions) is the most powerful equity wrapper for French residents:

• 150,000 EUR contribution ceiling (individual)
• Holdings must be European-listed shares or eligible funds (mostly ETFs domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg that meet the 75% EU exposure rule)
• After 5 years, withdrawals are exempt from income tax (only 17.2% social contributions due)
• After 5 years, partial withdrawals do not close the wrapper

Freenance tracks the PEA opening date, current value, contribution history, and 5-year vesting milestone. Many French users find this is the single most useful visualization in the app — knowing the exact date when their PEA becomes tax-optimized changes how they plan major purchases.

Assurance-Vie: The Swiss Army Knife

Assurance-vie is technically a life insurance contract, but in practice it functions as a long-term savings wrapper with three big advantages:

• Tax shielding during accumulation (gains taxed only on withdrawal)
• 4,600 EUR / 9,200 EUR couple annual gain allowance after 8 years
• Inheritance tax benefits (152,500 EUR per beneficiary tax-free for contracts opened before age 70)

Freenance tracks each assurance-vie contract separately, distinguishing fonds en euros (capital-guaranteed) from unités de compte (market-exposed). The 8-year vesting milestone is shown on the dashboard.

How French Users Typically Use Freenance

Persona 1: The Paris Cadre

Camille, 34, works as a product manager for a tech scale-up in Paris. She earns 78,000 EUR gross plus a 10,000 EUR variable bonus. She holds a compte courant at BNP, a Livret A maxed at 22,950 EUR, a PEA at Boursorama with 38,000 EUR, an assurance-vie at Yomoni with 22,000 EUR, and 4,000 EUR on Trade Republic in US shares.

She uses Freenance to:

• Track total net worth across BNP, Boursorama, Yomoni, and Trade Republic
• Monitor her Livret A ceiling usage (full) and route monthly savings to LDDS instead
• Project when her PEA crosses the 5-year mark (June 2027) so she can plan a partial withdrawal for a property deposit
• Tag her Trade Republic account for the annual Form 3916 declaration

Persona 2: The Lyon Freelance Consultant

Olivier, 41, runs an EURL as an independent IT consultant. He bills around 120,000 EUR HT per year. His professional account is at Qonto, his personal compte courant at Crédit Agricole, his PEA at Fortuneo (max-funded at 150,000 EUR), his assurance-vie at Spirica, and his PERin at Linxea.

He uses Freenance to:

• Separate Qonto (professional) flows from Crédit Agricole (personal) flows
• Track his PERin contributions against the deductible ceiling (10% of 2025 net income up to 35,194 EUR)
• Monitor his PEA which is at ceiling, so additional equity exposure goes to a CTO (compte-titres ordinaire) at Boursorama
• Project retirement runway combining the PERin, the PEA, and projected SSI / Agirc-Arrco pensions

Persona 3: The Bordeaux Expat Family

Sophie and Jean-Baptiste returned to Bordeaux from a 6-year stint in Berlin. They still hold a Sparkasse account in Germany with 18,000 EUR, an N26 account, a Boursorama compte courant in France, a Livret A each, and a joint PEA at Fortuneo. Sophie also kept a Trade Republic Depot from her Berlin years.

They use Freenance to:

• Display total household net worth in EUR with the Sparkasse balance refreshed daily via PSD2
• Plan whether to close the Sparkasse account now that they no longer have German income
• Track Allocations Familiales inflows separately from salary
• Run scenarios on buying a maison in suburban Bordeaux vs continuing to rent

ACPR Compliance and Data Protection

French users are notably attentive to data residency. Freenance addresses this directly:

• PSD2 access delegated to certified AISP infrastructure regulated under EU PSD2
• Data storage in EU-only data centres (Frankfurt and Warsaw)
• No credentials stored: read-only consent tokens, refreshed every 90 or 180 days per PSD2 SCA rules
• Full data export in CSV and JSON under GDPR Article 20
• CNIL-compliant privacy notices in French

Many French users find Freenance's regulatory positioning more reassuring than US-based PFM apps that may store financial data outside the EU.

Multi-Currency for the Cross-Border French Household

French residents include many cross-border profiles:

• Border workers commuting to Geneva, Luxembourg, or Monaco (CHF, EUR, EUR)
• Polish, Portuguese, Italian families with home-country accounts
• French expats returning from Germany, the UK, or the US

Freenance is EUR-native but displays multi-currency balances with daily ECB rates. The net worth tile can be set to EUR, USD, GBP, or CHF — useful for households with Geneva commuters or US-listed shares on Trade Republic.

Sign up for Freenance

If you live in France and you hold more than two financial institutions in your household — and almost every French household does, given Livret A and the compte courant alone live at different banks — Freenance gives you a single view across all of them. Sign up for Freenance to connect your first PSD2 account in under five minutes.

How Freenance Compares to Linxo, Bankin', and Excel

Linxo (Crédit Agricole)

Linxo is the historical French aggregator, now owned by Crédit Agricole. Coverage is strong, but the analytics layer is focused on budgeting rather than wealth tracking. PEA and assurance-vie tracking is shallow.

Bankin' (Bridge)

Bridge (formerly Bankin') is the AISP infrastructure layer that many other apps use. It exposes a consumer-facing app that is good at categorization but light on FIRE-style net worth analytics.

Excel and Numbers

Many French households maintain a tableur. It works for a few accounts. Once the household has eight institutions, manual maintenance becomes a chore.

Many French users find Freenance fills the analytics gap: PSD2 coverage plus FIRE-style net worth, PEA/assurance-vie vesting visualization, and Form 3916 preparation in one product.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Freenance work with my Caisse Régionale de Crédit Agricole?

Yes. Each of the 39 Caisses Régionales has its own bank code, but all expose the same PSD2 XS2A interface. Freenance connects through the standard Crédit Agricole consent flow with SMS or app-based SCA.

Will Freenance file my French tax return?

No. Freenance is a data and analytics platform, not a tax preparation service. It surfaces dividend, interest, and capital gains data in a structured format that many users find useful when preparing Form 2042-C and Form 3916 themselves or providing structured data to an expert-comptable.

Can I track my PER (Plan d'Épargne Retraite)?

Yes. Most PER providers (Linxea, Yomoni, Nalo, Spirica) do not yet offer PSD2-style APIs for retirement contracts, so users enter the current value and monthly contribution manually. Freenance projects the future payout based on the user's inputs and tracks deductibility against the annual ceiling.

Does Freenance support Trade Republic and Bourse Direct?

Yes via CSV import. Trade Republic publishes monthly statements with all trade, dividend, and Vorabpauschale data. Bourse Direct exports trades and dividends in a structured CSV. Many French users find this is the cleanest way to consolidate a CTO portfolio.

Is my data stored in France or Germany?

Freenance stores user data in EU data centres (Frankfurt and Warsaw). No financial data leaves the EU. The privacy policy details data residency, and many users find this clarity is what distinguishes Freenance from US-based apps.

Sign up for Freenance

French personal finance is built around tax wrappers — Livret A, PEA, assurance-vie, PER — and the average household has six to eight of them across multiple institutions. Freenance is the simplest way to see them all in one place. Sign up for Freenance and connect your first French bank today.

Further Reading

• Freenance for expats — the cross-border household guide
• Freenance for investors — multi-broker portfolio aggregation
• Freenance for couples — joint household finance

Sign up for Freenance

Many French users find the moment they connect their second bank to Freenance is when their financial picture becomes legible for the first time. Sign up for Freenance — it takes less than five minutes.