EURO & USD Accounts in the UK.

kmhtkmhtkmht

I am seeking a British Banking Institution that will aid me in housing Euros and Dollars - this may sound basic enough but has proved very testing with banks trying to fob offshore rubbish to me - I am simply wanting a place to put USDs and Euros that I can visit locally and withdraw when I want to without having to suffer forex penalties - can anyone help?

What's the difference between the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland?

ManAtHome

Think most of them are the offshore bits of the mainland banks. Not sure whether Citibank is, but interest rates are pretty poor (haven't checked dollar accounts for a while, may have gone up in line with US interest rates?).

kmhtkmhtkmht

I just want to put foreign cash in an account for me to withdraw at my pleasure - as simple as this may seem - it has proved to be a true battle - in that Offshore accounts are fine on paper but for example if I deposited $1 USD into such account, sitting in Britain, walk to the branch wanting $1 as I am travelling tommorow, I would have to take that $1, transfer it to the local branch, whom will rip me off changing it into GBP and then using the GBP buying Forex at their !!!!!! rates, me ending up with $0.80 on a good day - all cause I am in Britain wanting to hold some forex.

jonesMUFCforever

Your main problem is that you are trying to deal in a currency that is not our legal tender!
I challenge you to find a bank in America which will let you do the same thing in Sterling or Euro!
Banks over here compromise and most will offer currency accounts but as you have noted most are based offshore. I don't know which bank you are with but some offer debit cards in currency to be used as 'good as cash'.I cannot see how if you have a currency account if you request money from it in that currency, that you incurr any forex charges but are likely to incur administrative costs.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland are two completely different banks.
RBoS include Nat West and BoS is part of HBOS which includes the Halifax

ManAtHome

An alternative could be Nationwide - you have to use the cash/credt cards abroad to get either euro or dollars, but you get Forex rates (or at least very close) with no charges for Europe, 1% for the US. You have to watch out for local ATM charges though.

kmhtkmhtkmht

ejones999 wrote:

Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland are two completely different banks.
RBoS include Nat West and BoS is part of HBOS which includes the Halifax

Which one is better? It's annoying how there names are so similar, they should just join forces and save on the advertising as none of it sticks to me, i.e. Rugby sponsorship, all I know is that either one sponsors the Rugby...

I can't think of an answer to the American Bank scenario... perhaps a private bank like Coutts (even though they are RBS) will stretch in that they'll offer you any service you want.

kmhtkmhtkmht

ManAtHome wrote:

An alternative could be Nationwide - you have to use the cash/credt cards abroad to get either euro or dollars, but you get Forex rates (or at least very close) with no charges for Europe, 1% for the US. You have to watch out for local ATM charges though.

I don't trust UK Debit Cards in Europe, they look at me like I am joking when I use it and most people just say no, or say no, get yelled at by me, try to swipe it, doesn't work out MOST the times despite there enough money - I look like a dumbo.

Also, HSBC nailed me on the forex rates in that when I was in Italy, I chose to shop with the Switch Card and for the very rare occasions when it worked, I got charged not a great rate when I got the bank statement, as in if https://www.x-rates.com said the rate of that day was 1.7, I got a rubbish 1.6 or something like that...

Why can't it be simpler?!

pin

Are you a wind up merchant or something?

BTW the vaste majority of people, like me, who's used UK debit cards don't seem to have a problem using them abroad.

michaels

I use citibank - have a free eur a/c and you can also get a USD one. You get competitive x/rate moving money between a/cs online but strangely not if you use telephone banking. You used to get a debit card for each account but now you get one card and have to use telephone banking to ask them to link the card to which ever a/c you need.

kmhtkmhtkmht

I give up.

All these "currency" accounts are merely holding accounts, in that they'll hold the USD/Euro in the account, but if you pitched up to the bank and wanted to withdraw it, you'll have to convert it into pounds, then buy back the cash at a lower rate from them - so $100 dollars turns into 60 Quid then to $92 Dollars in Cash... (Very Rough Example)

P.s. Maestro cards don't work abroad... i.e. Italy - the cards are very tempermental.

ManAtHome

Still not sure why you want to wander around the UK with a stash of dollars, but there you go. Not had a problem for long time with UK CCs or Maestro used abroad, but people's mileages vary I suppose.