Fax your bank
Card to block: phone first. For everything else, a properly referenced document is often sufficient.
French banks now refuse most payment orders sent by fax: fraud risk has pushed them out of their procedures. Fax still has a role, however, for sending a document requested by the branch or the credit department — a payslip, a preliminary sale agreement, a certificate — a signed power of attorney form, or the written confirmation of a card blocking. For a lost or stolen card, the rule is simple: phone first, to the number on the back of the card or in the app, then fax. Put your IBAN and the file reference on the cover sheet, never your codes.
Why your bank still accepts faxes
Credit departments and branches work with notaries, brokers, and employers, some of whom still rely on fax: a signed document can therefore reach the loan file the same day, ahead of the original.
For customers, fax is mainly valuable as a record: the date you confirm a blocking, send a certificate, or return a completed power of attorney. The bank alone decides on its formalities: if it requires a visit to the branch or an electronic signature, fax can do nothing about it.
Where to find the valid number
- The email or letter from your advisor, or from the credit department, specifying how to return documents.
- Your online account, contact section or internal messaging, which reveals the expected channel.
- A call to the branch, to find out whether a faxed document will be accepted — and by which department.
What the cover sheet should say
- The bank, branch or department in question: credit, estates, customer service.
- Your name, your IBAN or the credit file reference — no PIN codes or login credentials.
- The purpose: power of attorney, credit documents, card blocking confirmation, change of address.
- Your contact person, if you know them, and the page count.
The proof to archive
Keep the faxed PDF and its transmission report together. After a card dispute, keep the reference number given during the call along with the date and time — that is what will count if disputed transactions appear. For a credit application, a delivery confirmation can also be requested from your advisor.
Other channels, sometimes preferable
The encrypted messaging in your account area
Encrypted, tied to your identity and archived: the safest route for banking documents.
The banking app
Card disputes, limits, instant blocking: most banks handle urgent matters directly in the app.
Visiting a branch
Common for a power of attorney or opening an estate: original documents are examined closely there.
Other guides
- Pension, life certificate, RIB to update: a social security number copied without a single error saves months.
- A sick leave notice sent too late cuts into your benefits: the send date counts double.
- An incomplete application, a missed exam: your student number and the date matter more than the format.
- Reporting damage promptly and in writing protects everyone; notice to vacate, on the other hand, follows its own formal requirements.
Send to an organisation
This topic
- Faxing an organization: instructions
- An incomplete application, a missed exam: your student number and the date matter more than the format.
- Reporting damage promptly and in writing protects everyone; notice to vacate, on the other hand, follows its own formal requirements.
- Procedure is won on details: the right department, the exact RG number, a time-stamped record.
Keep reading
Pages chosen to help you prepare a send, track it, or keep proof of it.