Fax your bank
Card to block: phone first. For everything else, a properly referenced document is often sufficient.
French banks now turn down most payment orders sent by fax: the risk of fraud has led them to drop it from their procedures. Yet fax still plays a part when a branch or the credit department asks for a document — a payslip, a preliminary sale agreement, a certificate — a signed power of attorney, or written confirmation of a card block. Has your card been lost or stolen? Call before anything else, using the hotline printed on the card or reached through the app, and only then send the 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 clients, fax is primarily useful as a proof record: the date you confirm a block, issue a certificate, or send back a completed power of attorney. Only the bank determines the formal requirements: if it asks for a branch visit or an electronic signature, fax cannot influence that.
Where to find the valid number
- A letter or email from your advisor or the credit department explaining how to return the 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
Store the faxed PDF and its transmission report together. Following a card dispute, keep the reference number from the call together with the date and time — that is what matters if disputed transactions surface. For a credit application, you can also ask your advisor for a delivery confirmation.
Other channels, sometimes preferable
The encrypted messaging in your account area
Encrypted, linked to your identity and archived: the most secure way to handle banking paperwork.
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.