I'm being paid in Euros - should I have a Euro bank account?

bookguy

I'm going to be doing a fair amount of work in some eastern european countires over the next six months/year. I'll be getting paid, by cheque, in Euros - it's quite a substantial amount. Does anyone have any advice in terms of minimising exchange costs? I'm planning to go on and travel a bit in the Eurozone after completing my work - is it possible to open a "euro" bank account where I can deposit the money in euros and take it out again in euros? For example, let's say I get paid in Slovenia, and I want to travel to Venice and take out money there - is there an easy way of doing this? Advice appreciated!

Slainte

You should haven't an issue setting up a bank account in one of the countries you are working in, I take it you would be living there also. Although I don't think they would accept you for the equivalent of a debit card account until after 6 months, so it would just be a cash account.

You can then buy pre paid credit cards and top them up with your euro money, alternatively set up a neteller account and get a neteller card which you can use to withdraw from atm's.

I've thought hard bout it and this is the only sensible route I can think of. I wouldn't fancy cashing a euro check into your sterling account back home, you would lose a few hundred by doing so each time.

BernadetteN

You're going to have to ask individual banks in individual countries. We set up our Belgian bank account 4 months before we moved here using our UK address, but only got the debit cards once we actually proved our legal residency and address in Belgium. Some colleagues who also work in northern France use our work address for their bank accounts (they all seem to bank with the same bank and use the same branch who are aware of unusual situation of living in in UK and working in France) and have French bank accounts with debit cards to get their expenses paid in euros and then they withdraw their money when they are working on this side of the channel. I am guessing you really need an address for the country you are going to open your back account in in order to get full use of your bank account.

omelette451

Some UK banks have euro-denominated accounts that you can open here. They do have fees but I don't think it's much. HSBC definitely has them.