Best account for ltd business paid in Euros

BenjaG

Wywth wrote: »

I think HSBC charge £8 per transaction (for amounts over £100 equiv)

If you have a Euro deposit account with HSBC UK they actually charge €14 per transfer. However, if you operate a current account in the Eurozone (e.g. with HSBC France) you'll pay €0.22 per transfer in Euros, even when transferring funds to the UK (as long as you send Euros, even if this is converted into GBP when it arrives).

bni

We use a currency broker, our clients transfer money into their Euro account with our client reference and broker then sells Euros for Sterling at a competitive rate (on our instruction) and money is in our bank account the next day.

We don't pay any fixed transaction fees and it is much cheaper than what our bank offers us, plus we have better control over the rate we are paying and when to execute the conversion.

terra_ferma

A while back I was about to open an account with CityBank, then my circumstances changed and it was no longer needed, but you may want to take a look at their Euro account
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm

How it works

Simply open a US Dollar or Euro Current Account and transfer the money you want to use overseas into that account.
If you fund your account in a currency other than the one of your account these funds will be converted into the currency of the account (using Citibank reference exchange rates).
You can then withdraw funds and make purchases using your Citibank Visa DebitCard in either Dollars or Euros when overseas.

I was also looking at this service:
http://www.hifx.co.uk/

HiFX has created a simple, online international payments service.

Designed for businesses which transact £1million or less of foreign exchange a year, HiFX Online allows businesses to convert £50 – £300,000 at the touch of a button and gives you the quickest, easiest and most cost effective way to pay overseas suppliers and staff, receive international payments, settle invoices and conduct business abroad.

at the time they were recommended by other posters here on MSE, but that was a couple of years ago, so you may want to do a bit of research yourself

HTH

Wywth

BenjaG wrote: »

If you have a Euro deposit account with HSBC UK they actually charge €14 per transfer. However, if you operate a current account in the Eurozone (e.g. with HSBC France) you'll pay €0.22 per transfer in Euros, even when transferring funds to the UK (as long as you send Euros, even if this is converted into GBP when it arrives).

I actually meant a GBP account in the UK and get paid a Euro amount into it (as the OP was advised in post#2) - the Euros being converted into GBP by the bank upon deposit.

paco_3

Mistral001 wrote: »

Paco

From that post you have spent the last year living in Germany. Are you returning to UK?

I have spent the last year paying German tax but lived all around the world. Mainly China.

paco_3

Thanks for everyones reply. I'll start checking up on some of your links.

I could open a German account next to the company i work for. I just dont want the hassle of 2 bank accounts.

paco_3

bni wrote: »

We use a currency broker, our clients transfer money into their Euro account with our client reference and broker then sells Euros for Sterling at a competitive rate (on our instruction) and money is in our bank account the next day.

We don't pay any fixed transaction fees and it is much cheaper than what our bank offers us, plus we have better control over the rate we are paying and when to execute the conversion.

Hi,

What broker do you use?

Mistral001

paco wrote: »

I could open a German account next to the company i work for. I just dont want the hassle of 2 bank accounts.

This is a wise policy to adopt in my view. The few accounts the better and most businesslike way of running things as far as I can see. It seems to be bucking the trend in the UK these days though.

I believe in Germany most people just have one account and many people do not have credit or debit cards.

Wywth

Mistral001 wrote: »

...I believe in Germany most people just have one account and many people do not have credit or debit cards.

Credit/debit/charge cards (difficult to know exactly what you would call them as they all appear to operate slightly differently to ours in the UK) have become far more widely common in Germany since about 25 years ago when even fuel stations didn't accept them - they are widely accepted nowdays at almost all fuel stations across Germany

It's PayPal that the Germans still don't like.