New monthly fee: CitiBank foreign currency current accounts (EUR & USD)

Stompa

Jew wrote: »

I think they get fees from other banks, and the DD scheme or something?

Yes, I think they get a fee from each DD, I don't know how much. It's pretty much the only money they make from me as I've not had regular salary payments into my Citibank account for maybe 15+ years.

jrusso

Ok, I hope this will be useful to others in the same situation with Citi.

I already have a US Dollar account in the USA so I don't know how hard that would be to open from abroad. I know there are some direct banks in the US but generally you seem to need a US address.

As far as the Euro account goes I found that that there are several direct banks in Germany that will open accounts for people resident outside Germany. I am in the process of opening one with Deutche Kreditbank.

In order to get the money there, I have signed to XE.com which offers free money transfer services to the US and Eurozone.

Of course none of this is as simple as sending Faster Payments to Citi, but if does mean that I can still save in Euros & Dollars and not be hit with outrageous SEPA or Swift fees.

Jew

jrusso wrote: »

In order to get the money there, I have signed to XE.com which offers free money transfer services to the US and Eurozone.

Thanks!

Are there no fees with XE? Whats the catch?

jrusso

There doesn't seem to be a catch, but I'm not sure how the rates they offer compare to the ones Citi give. They say they make their money on spread... if you find a catch let me know.

I'm yet to send a transfer through them as I get paid on Tues.

gglaze

The "catch" for me with XE has typically been the wire fees. You're right that in theory there are options in Europe and US for free transfers, but in practice I haven't always been able to make that work. But when it does it's brilliant.

Ok I just went to check on this by setting up a deal on xe.com. So there are typically a few types of transfers I would do on a regular basis:

GBP (Citibank UK) to USD (Bank of America US): Looks like I can use the "ACH/EFT" option to deliver funds to BofA, which if I recall is fast and free - so that's great. I guess in the past where I have had fees on this one was in sending from my Citi UK to their UK account, because I had to use CHAPS or something like that as I wanted it done quick, as opposed to 3 day turnaround with BACS.

Lately I have been using BACS more, and although on their website you are selecting "Wire" as the method for "How will we receive your payment", you are still given local UK account details which can be used for a BACS transfer from Citi UK, and therefore BACS seems to work just fine - they will wait until they receive the funds, and then the transfer is pretty much completed immediately, and you receive an email notification when that happens. Now presumably with "Faster" payments this should be even better, and I suppose you should be able to get the whole thing done in 1-2 days rather than 3-4? Not sure if I've had the opportunity to try this yet.

GBP (Citibank UK) to PLN (Citibank Handlowy in Poland): This has always had a wire fee, and I have to factor that in when considering the comparison with the Citi rate - but it still comes out better for large enough transfers. I suppose PLN transfers don't have the same options for quick transfer that you get with EUR.

GBP to EUR - I don't frequently do this one, and when I do it's smaller amounts for travel spending cash anyway, so I'm usually happy to just do it in my Citi account. But just checked on XE to see what would happen. The only payee I have set up on XE for EUR currency is something in Istanbul, so I tried that. When I tried to set up a deal for ACH/EFT, it tells me "Outgoing ACH/EFT is not available for EUR currency and/or the country specified in bank account address." The only other options are "Wire" and "Draft", so I don't think I want those. So maybe this is just because this is Turkey and not a central EU country? Not really sure, but I don't see any "free" option for Euros in this particular case - so again I would have to consider a wire fee.

Perhaps I will try to get one of these German EUR accounts and then set that up from XE and see if there are any better options.

Other than the wire fee, of course XE takes a (very small) spread on top of the market spread for FX transactions - so that is the other "catch" if you can call it that. As I noted previously, this spread is tiny, compared to the usual Citi spreads.

gglaze

FYI: I posted a detailed summary of comparison of rates between XE and Citi here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/53034709#Comment_53034709

In short, if you can achieve a fee-free EUR transfer somehow, it would be 2.69% spread with Citi vs. 0.68% spread with XE.com. Also very similar difference for USD.

Edit: Of course, your rates may differ from mine - that's what I have with XE after many years of history on my account.

Voyager2002

jrusso wrote: »

There doesn't seem to be a catch, but I'm not sure how the rates they offer compare to the ones Citi give. They say they make their money on spread... if you find a catch let me know.

I'm yet to send a transfer through them as I get paid on Tues.

Back in 2009, I did a detailed comparison of the rates offered by XE and by Citi. I had just opened accounts with Citi in order to move money between dollars, sterling and Euro but found that the rates offered by XE were just that bit better for me. And note that since then Citi have increased their spread on this kind of transaction, so the advantage of using XE has increased.

As noted below, you may face a wire fee with XE. This can usually be avoided, but the 'free' transfers are not available for sending money from a dollar account in the UK, nor for Euro transfers to some countries in the Euro zone. They are available for transfers from a dollar account in the USA, and to many destinations, but of course are not immediate: it always seem to take a day longer than I expect, but does get there in the end.

Jew

Does anyone have any solution to cashing USD checks from the US, in the UK? By cashing I mean: putting onto my account, or getting USD straight away.

Without a Citibank account, that is.

gglaze

jrusso wrote: »

As far as the Euro account goes I found that that there are several direct banks in Germany that will open accounts for people resident outside Germany. I am in the process of opening one with Deutche Kreditbank.

Thanks very much for this, looks brilliant. I've gone ahead and printed out my application, looks like all I need to do now is sign and send it in, and have the last 2 pages letter filled out and sent in by someone at my bank? I wonder if I can get Citibank to help with that..

From what I can tell, using my rusty German and Google translator to fill in the gaps, this is a free account, with overdraft facilities, and a visa debit card, and some kind of online access. And I can't seem to find anything about monthly/annual fees or anything. Does that all sound right? Is there any catch or fine print I've missed?

Jew

gglaze wrote: »

Thanks very much for this, looks brilliant. I've gone ahead and printed out my application, looks like all I need to do now is sign and send it in, and have the last 2 pages letter filled out and sent in by someone at my bank? I wonder if I can get Citibank to help with that..

From what I can tell, using my rusty German and Google translator to fill in the gaps, this is a free account, with overdraft facilities, and a visa debit card, and some kind of online access. And I can't seem to find anything about monthly/annual fees or anything. Does that all sound right? Is there any catch or fine print I've missed?

Are you applying from the UK? With a UK address?

If so, can you let me know what you need to send them?

You're applying for the DKB-Cash right?