Any advice on foreign bank accounts for students?

Arfa_2

My daughter is studying foreign languages and will be spending 6 months in France, followed by 6 months in Italy starting September, 2005 and will be working during her time away. She will have to open bank accounts in both countries so that her earnings can be paid into a bank.

Can anybody advise on the best banks to use for this purpose and also, what is the cheapest way of moving money from a UK bank account to a French or Italian bank account or between the French and Italian bank accounts?

Many thanks if you can.

newfoundglory

I can't really give advice on foreign banks, since I have no experience in this area. Other than to say, banking is probably not "free" as you know it in the UK. You can probably expect to pay for many banking services on accounts in other countries, so whatever you do make sure you shop around. You can try asking for advice in the current accounts forum, and see if anyone can recommend French and Italian banks.

As for moving money between UK and foreign banks, the advice is simple - DONT! Its far cheaper to simply use UK banking cards in foreign countries to spend money from a UK account (providing you have the right cards of course).

Nationwide BS Visa debit cards and credit cards are free of fees for spending abroad, and the nationwide debit card doesnt charge you for cash withdrawls at foreign ATMs; Liverpool Victoria's credit card is also free to use within the EU. Of course, you need to be over 18 to apply for any of these. But as foreign loading fess are not applied to foreign transactions made on these cards, it means spending (providing its charged to the card in the local currency), gets converted to sterling using the VISA wholesale rate - which is far better than any exchange rate a bank or specialist agent will give you to transfer money abroad. And of course the bill in the case of the credit cards can be paid from an existing UK bank account.

Savvy_Sue

Would also be worth asking at uni what students have done in previous years: she won't be the first to need to have done this! And I doubt it will be a trivial process: knowing how hard it can be to 'prove' one's identity to open a UK account, will she have to have an address and proof of residence in each country before she can open such an account?

Also given that both France and Italy are in the Eurozone, is it possible that one bank account will be viable for both situations?

jaimeo

will give you an account with proof from foreign institution that you are a student there though the will of course need address proof asap.

i was with societe generale- run of the mill in my opinion, will charge you for everything and be reluctant to even give you a worthwhile VISA card.

other banks are nightmares for proof of everything. i assume she is getting long birth certificate translated etc. etc?

nationwide suggestion is by far and away the best. i used my english card abroad all the time, though sometimes it was incompatible with chip and pin (though it IS a c&p card) i could always sign. the first couple of shops asked for extra id though it never happened after the first two weeks of being there- not the case of using same shops over and over but more looking and sounding native i guess!

open any old account but remember there are often fees related to withdrawing from other peoples cash points, and even cash points of the same company, but not the one built into your home branch in france. it can be a nightmare.

in summary- open an a/c if necessary to pay gaz de france etc. via dd. if you hunt about (or go to soc gen) you can get an a/c that will give you some money for joining. i got 50 euros. it cost 5 euros a month for an account. i was there for 10 months.....

as far as possible do not tie your money up there, it was hard to close accounts, they will charge you for almost anything and they are hot hot hot on overdraft misuse etc.

use a bank you go past everyday to avoid the non-homebranch problems.

one final tip- i always found it hard to speak to them on the phone so one day i rang and said (in french), is there anyone who speaks english in your branch? reply in broken english yes i will treat you problem...

me (in near fluent french), well i suppose i can try to explain en francais...

bank person (in perfect, comprehensible french- a rarity on the phone- in relieved tone) ok sir go ahead and we will help in anyway possible...

brilliant!

J

jaimeo

dont intra bank transfer- just withdraw cash in france and take it to italy. i assume if she is paid stagiaire pay in france she wont have a lot to be transferring so it wont be a problem to carry it on her.

it costs loads to transfer UK-EU banks- cost me 20 quid to transfer 20 euros.

anyway, as i said before, open any old bank account that is local, has low fees for transactions, and preferably one that gives money away for opening an account.

Arfa_2

Many thanks for your replies everybody.