Best Account for Overseas Transactions

tinker15

I am looking for the perfect bank account which would offer the following

1) No criteria (min £500 per month etc.) for opening a current account as ideally I do not want to move everything from my current bank as I have been with them for many years.
2) Debit card for competitive overseas transactions as Nationwide used to offer.
3) Online/telephone banking for transactions including transferring GBP to an overseas GBP account in Europe but not in the Eurozone.
4) Realistic overseas transfer charges, HSBC are good at £10 but have the £500 criteria on their current account.

I have spent ages going through threads & have decided to hold back on N&P as they have issues at present. Metro sound good but they have little info on their website.

heloid

Metro are great as a holiday spending card. Each overseas transaction includes the rate and overseas currency figure and has always been very close to the interbank.
If I were living abroad I would use a combination of First Direct for phone support and use Metrobank for their Debit card and regularly transfer money between them to satisfy minimums.

ses6jwg

tinker15 wrote: »

I am looking for the perfect bank account which would offer the following

1) No criteria (min £500 per month etc.) for opening a current account as ideally I do not want to move everything from my current bank as I have been with them for many years.
2) Debit card for competitive overseas transactions as Nationwide used to offer.
3) Online/telephone banking for transactions including transferring GBP to an overseas GBP account in Europe but not in the Eurozone.
4) Realistic overseas transfer charges, HSBC are good at £10 but have the £500 criteria on their current account.

I have spent ages going through threads & have decided to hold back on N&P as they have issues at present. Metro sound good but they have little info on their website.

So you want the bank to foot all the cost of the overseas transaction charges without actually contributing anything?

Good luck with that.

There is a reason most of the accounts have a minimum funding requirement as otherwise the account, as with Nationwides, will become a big loss maker

tinker15

Thanks for your replies.

Not expecting freebies or any company to foot the bill for the overseas transaction charges but they do vary a lot and I just want to get the best price. I would hold money in the UK account, it is the depositing £500 a month that is a problem to me. Keeping £500 in there is not a problem.

benjus

I have a Metro Bank account - it's good for the debit card overseas and has no funding criteria. The online banking is OK and telephone support is good. However, I'm pretty sure it's not possible to make international payments from its online banking site.

[Deleted User]

metro bank i believe you cant make international payments via online banking but excellent for an account

tinker15

Thanks again for all your replies. I have been into Metro Bank & they seem very user friendly so I may give them a try. I did phone them up as well about transferring payments and she told me it would cost £17.50 but didn't say whether I would need to go into a branch.