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

rockitup

Heng_Leng wrote: »

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.

Well whatever name they give the fee, you will be charged the FX cost of conversion and this will probably amount to approximately the same as 2.75%

On the Singapore part of your question, I have Citibank US Dollar accounts in UK and USA and if I use either of those debit cards in an ATM at a Full Service Citibank branch in Philippines, the ATM will dispense local currency (Pesos) even though the machine does give US Dollars to people who hold US Dollar accounts at Citibank Philippines.

I have a USD a/c in Philippines too but only do a Global Transfer to move money in when I need actually need it

so basically if you are using your UK issued Sterling a/c debit card at a Citibank ATM you will not be charged the ATM Cash transaction fee but you will pay the FX (spread) fee that is levied on currency transactions other than Sterling

System

I thought there is a loading of some kind inside the Citi FX rate but their rates tend not to be too bad. They mentioned something about using Reuters rate as the Citi rate.

rockitup wrote: »

Well whatever name they give the fee, you will be charged the FX cost of conversion and this will probably amount to approximately the same as 2.75%

On the Singapore part of your question, I have Citibank US Dollar accounts in UK and USA and if I use either of those debit cards in an ATM at a Full Service Citibank branch in Philippines, the ATM will dispense local currency (Pesos) even though the machine does give US Dollars to people who hold US Dollar accounts at Citibank Philippines.

I have a USD a/c in Philippines too but only do a Global Transfer to move money in when I need actually need it

so basically if you are using your UK issued Sterling a/c debit card at a Citibank ATM you will not be charged the ATM Cash transaction fee but you will pay the FX (spread) fee that is levied on currency transactions other than Sterling

rockitup

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I thought there is a loading of some kind inside the Citi FX rate but their rates tend not to be too bad. They mentioned something about using Reuters rate as the Citi rate.

Depends how much you are spending on the card really, their FX rates for transferring money between your own Sterling and Dollar accounts is atrocious. I checked on Citibank Online yesterday about converting $125k to Sterling and Citibank would give me £634 less than the FX broker who I phoned and already have an account with.

gglaze

rockitup wrote: »

Depends how much you are spending on the card really, their FX rates for transferring money between your own Sterling and Dollar accounts is atrocious. I checked on Citibank Online yesterday about converting $125k to Sterling and Citibank would give me £634 less than the FX broker who I phoned and already have an account with.

If you have a huge amount like 125k to convert, by all means don't use Citi!

However, I just did a check on this amount and found some surprising results. It looks like Citi does offer a much better rate when I'm trying to transfer very large amounts. My spread (from mid market) for transferring $1,250 or even for $12,500 was 2.43%, which is very typical of spreads I get from Citi. However when I tried $125,000, the spread went all the way down to 0.88%, which is almost competitive with other services actually!

However, assuming you get the Citi spread I'm getting, if you had a broker who quoted to save you £634, that would equate to a spread off mid market of around 0.08%, which I've never even heard of - but perhaps it's possible? I just ran comparisons against quotes I'm getting from Ace-fx.com, XE.com, and CurrencyFair.com - these are my benchmarks now. For that amount, including fees, I get spreads of 1.01%, 0.73%, and 0.56% respectively. So in the best case, CurrencyFair, that equates to an extra £250.93 I could get compared to the Citi rate. I didn't really think you could do much better than that. I wonder if it's because you're not getting the better rate from Citi for large amounts?

If this was Citi at the usual rates (for sub 100k I guess), with a spread of around 2.43%, we would be talking about an extra £1340 with XE, or an extra £1480 with CurrencyFair.

As a real example - yesterday I traded 1k GBP to EUR on CurrencyFair - a fairly small amount, but just wanted to give the service a try. I had a spread of 0.48% on that transaction, compared to 2.52% from Citi, giving me an improvement of 22.47 EUR. After fees, XE would have only given me an improvement of 5.39 on such a small transaction, but that's still something.

The only reason to go with Citi is convenience and speed - if you need 125k transfered, with the least hassle, and you need it done this instant, then by all means go with Citi. Anyway very interesting revelation here about the much better rates for very large transfers!

rockitup

I have been using FX Brokers for many years and spoke to Citi about this one time, they will adjust rates a bit to compete but I have not made use of their services so far. Normally use Hargreaves Lansdown, Excel or Smart Currency Exchange.

You must be getting better FX rates with Citi for sure, but I do not trade as much now. If I did it I would use Everbank in the U.S. who have multi currency accounts available to Non US Citizens. They normally just deal at set times but will negotiate a deal during a phone call if the deal is big enough.

My best deal was in 2008 buying USD @ $2.01 and selling back at $1.398. Didn't quite hit top and bottom but did well out of it all due to giving up on a house purchase just outside of Vegas (a lucky gamble I suppose) :rotfl::rotfl:

jrusso

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?

It's slightly more complex than that. It's two accounts really, one Giro account which we'd call a Current Account which comes with an EC Card which now-a-days will be either V-Pay or Maestro, I can't remember which and also GeldKarte function.

The Visa card is linked and interest bearing, the reason for that is that DKB don't seem to be a member of any of the major ATM networks in Germany, so with the Visa card you can withdraw cash for free in Germany and overseas. Slightly odd given that DKB seems to be owned by Sparkasse Bayern.

The two accounts seem to be separate but linked, oddly they pay more interest on cash deposited in the Visa card than the Giro Konto. It did mention overdraft facilities but I suspect you'll need to apply for those after the account is open, if you need them.

Everything is done online or by phone, statements are sent by email. They make a big think of not being able to use in branch statement printers which is a common thing in Germany.

I took the form to my local branch of Clydesdale who point blank refused to sign and stamp it. I will be writing to complain. The alternative is to get it signed by a solicitor which is what I ended up doing.

There don't appear to be any fees and interest on balances, some of the offers with the DKB club look quite good too €89 for a Hilton room in particular.

I posted of the application last week, still haven't heard anything. If you have any more questions let me know. I speak German

ETA: There are other options in addition to DKB.

jrusso

Jew wrote: »

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

I'm just going to use xe.com, rates seem fair and there don't seem to be any upfront charges. If you can find a bank offering free SEPA transfers let us know!

jrusso

Quick question: When I close my dollar and euro accounts with Citi how will they give me my funds? Cheque?

Hills_and_far_away

I get a small monthly pension from an employer I once worked for in France. After paying UK tax it's worth about 58 EUR a month. I put it towards an annual holiday in France and I set up a Citibank Euroaccount for it to be paid into. I wasn't too bothered about any interest, just easy access to my money wherever I am in France, via an ATM card.

Now Citibank have told me they are going to charge their standard foreign customers £5 a month - that plus what's happening to the Euro is going to wipe out the value of my tiny pension.

So I'm looking for either a UK based account that will receive EUR charge-free or a France based account that will not charge me to operate it, at least (bank or Post Office). And can I open an account in France if I don't have a permanent address there?

Suggestions please!

Jew

Hills_and_far_away wrote: »

or a France based account that will not charge me to operate it, at least (bank or Post Office). And can I open an account in France if I don't have a permanent address there?

Take a look at a previous post in this thread about DKB (a German bank), they allow you to do all that. It shouldn't make a difference whether the account is German or French, no?