What to do with Euro's

bakerbj

I have just completed some work in Europe and was paid in Euro's . I have 300,000. As the rate is not very good at the moment, i am unsure what to do with this money. No point asking if the rate will go up or down. Because if people knew that then they would be trading in currency now !

I currently have the money in a cheque and havent cashed it yet, I was going to open an euro account with Lloyds TSB, but was unsure about opening an off shore account and leaving it there.

Any advice would be great. I dont need to touch the money at the moment, although I might need to draw some by the end of the year, as not much work back here in the UK !

calypso_rhapsody

Nice work! I have a Citibank Euro account which seems to operate fine - if you decide to keep the money in Euros it may be worth comparing with the LTSB account. I know that when i opened mine a couple of years back the Citibank account appeared to be the best available at that time

innovate

One thing to watch out for is protection against the bank going bellies up. I am not sure whether UK bank accounts in foreign currency are covered by the FSCS guarantee, but if they are, it's £85K max. If you were to put the money into a Euro account with a bank on the continent, the max guarantee is €100K per financial institution. You'd also need to check whether there are any funny rules about residency.

In any case, if I were you, I would not put €300K, or the sterling equivalent, into any single bank. Might even be worth going back to who you worked for and ask for 4 cheques, to replace the one you have?

bigadaj

I'd pay it in now and then transfer out to get below the protection limits. PErsonal view is that the euro exchange rate has been over inflated for years, I think it will continue to fall and so would convert now, always think that a long term exchange rate is about 1.4 to the pound.