Banking, phone & essentials
Getting connected without losing a week of your first month to it.
I've already written the full, step-by-step version of this — which bank, which documents, how to get a SIM before your account exists — over on the banking & phone guide. I won't repeat it here. This page is the shorter version: what I actually do when a client asks me to help with this part directly, rather than do it themselves.
Where I actually help
Some of this is genuinely faster with someone who's done it before sitting next to you — picking the right account type for how you'll actually use it, translating what an advisor is really asking for when the vocabulary gets technical, or simply making the follow-up phone call when a card takes longer than promised to arrive. None of it replaces the guide; it just means you're not doing it alone the first time.
What I don't do
I can't open the account for you — that has to be you, in front of a bank, with your own documents — and I'm not a financial advisor, so I won't tell you which bank is "best" in any official sense. What I can do is sit with you through the parts that feel unnecessarily complicated, and flag the traps I've already fallen into myself.
If you want the full walkthrough first, start with the guide — most people only need me for the last, fiddly ten percent.
Stuck on something specific?
Send Nathalie your question — the answer usually becomes a guide.