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

rockitup

gglaze wrote: »

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.

gglaze,

The ACH is a type of transfer used solely within the U.S. I thought, please update us here if you can manage to do one of these transfers from UK.

As posted earlier I have Citi a/cs in both UK and US, I have used "electronic cheque" or something similar (maybe that is EFT) from Citi US to a brokerage account in the US. More recently I tried to set up an ACH to transfer funds from another US Brokerage account back to my Citi US account and it was not accepted because my mailing address is not in the 50 States.

Thanks for the info on XE, I may start using them for smaller transfers now. With my FX broker I was getting about 0.15% spread from live mid-bank rates on big amounts but they were trying to tap me for about 1.5% on a £30k transfer last year so do not deal with them anymore.

rockitup

jrusso wrote: »

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.

I had a conversation in 2009 also with Everbank who run Multi-Currency accounts in the U.S. They were willing to open accounts for Non-Residents back then as long as you had sufficient proof of ID and address.

May be worth giving them a try but rates for nearly all currencies are so low nowadays.

gglaze

Jew wrote: »

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?

Yes, the application process is online, and then it prepares a pdf doc to print out and sign and send in. The online part asks for your address and seems to accept pretty much any location - so I've selected UK and that was fine. It also asks for your nationality, and monthly net income in Euros, and your full current address and length of time there. So all quite straightforward, other than that there doesn't seem to be an option do do it all in English.

Yes, DKB-Cash seems to be the way to go.

When you print out the pdf, the first page (although in German) is quite helpful and explains exactly what you need to do. Basically you just need to send them a copy of your Passport, and a utility bill for proof of address. Then they want a letter (it is prepared for you on the last 2 pages) for your bank to sign, again just to confirm your identity and address I guess. It seems to say it must come from your bank, and that a public notary would not be accepted.

Hopefully that's it? Seems too good to be true!

Jew

gglaze wrote: »

Yes, the application process is online, and then it prepares a pdf doc to print out and sign and send in. The online part asks for your address and seems to accept pretty much any location - so I've selected UK and that was fine. It also asks for your nationality, and monthly net income in Euros, and your full current address and length of time there. So all quite straightforward, other than that there doesn't seem to be an option do do it all in English.

Yes, DKB-Cash seems to be the way to go.

When you print out the pdf, the first page (although in German) is quite helpful and explains exactly what you need to do. Basically you just need to send them a copy of your Passport, and a utility bill for proof of address. Then they want a letter (it is prepared for you on the last 2 pages) for your bank to sign, again just to confirm your identity and address I guess. It seems to say it must come from your bank, and that a public notary would not be accepted.

Hopefully that's it? Seems too good to be true!

Thanks! Please keep updated on how it goes. Do you have to send your passport copy and all this via post? Or can you scan all of these documents?

gglaze

Looks like it's all via post to the bank headquarters in Berlin.

gglaze

Hi guys, just an update on all this.

I went ahead and upgraded to Citi Plus, and converted my old EUR/USD savings accounts to current accounts at the same time. I tried to do this over the phone (I think I've been able to in the past?) but they insisted I go into the branch, so that ate about an hour of my day yesterday. The reps I spoke to over the phone and also in the bank were both aware of the letters that have gone out and the new account fees, and the rep in the branch was very sympathetic to this - to the point he basically explained to me that it was fine for me to cycle payments in and out each month to cover the min requirements. So I was happy enough with their service.

At the same time I also managed to get the guy to sign and stamp my application form for the Deutsche Kreditbank account - so that's been sent off and is in progress now hopefully.

Jew

Any idea if it's possible to deposit money on the DKB account from the UK somehow?

System

Do Citi Sterling accounts have free access to citibank atms worldwide regardless of currency?

Thats how I read the T&Cs but Citi are saying that I may incur the standard Visa fee for using US Citibank cash machines dispensing dollars

rockitup

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Do Citi Sterling accounts have free access to citibank atms worldwide regardless of currency?

Thats how I read the T&Cs but Citi are saying that I may incur the standard Visa fee for using US Citibank cash machines dispensing dollars

Yes, you will incur the Visa currency exchange fee if your Citibank debit card is linked to a Sterling account. If linked to a US Dollar account (you can change linked account immediately by phone) then there is no charge and the withdrawal is debited in the exact Dollar amount you had withdrawn.

System

I don't think it uses Visa when you use a Citi ATM though as you get more functionality and the T&Cs say something along the lines of these charges don't apply when you use a Citi ATM.

Basically, got rid of my US$ account but would still like fee free access to Citi ATMs as they are in most US 7-11 petrol stations and also available in Singapore.

rockitup wrote: »

Yes, you will incur the Visa currency exchange fee if your Citibank debit card is linked to a Sterling account. If linked to a US Dollar account (you can change linked account immediately by phone) then there is no charge and the withdrawal is debited in the exact Dollar amount you had withdrawn.