Euro account

KCube

Does anyone know of an wasy way to open a cheque account in Euros? I have 3 bills to pay & my bank wants to charge me £21 for each bacs transfer !! One of the invoices is only for €13

I would consider leaving about £250 in the account I guess - some accounts I have investigated want a balance of £10000 - a bit out of my league

Thanks
Karen

bengal-stripe

When you're the next time in the Euro-zone, go into a bank and enquire about opening an account. Mind you, most continental banks charge a monthly fee, something like 3 or 5 EUR (unless you have a salery to go in every month).

If you only want the account for the occasional eBay transaction, that might be a bit dear.

Chadsman

IIRC citibank offer a Euro denominated account without charges for 'normal' transactions.
Alternatively I would imagine the high street banks with a retail presence in the Euro area might also offer same. Try HSBC, RBS or Barclays... Bank of Ireland may offer a Euro account to UK residents.

bandraoi

If you write a sterling cheque and they lodge it to their account it's likely to be cheaper and less complicated.

jonesMUFCforever

bandraoi wrote: »

If you write a sterling cheque and they lodge it to their account it's likely to be cheaper and less complicated.

The only problem being that the drawer of the cheque will have to pay for the international clearance of the cheque (this being the same cost as if you had sent an Int. Money payment in first place) and the receiver of the cheque will have to pay a negotiating charge at their end.

A lose - lose situation I'm afraid.

bandraoi

A Sterling cheque lodged to my euro account last week.
£300 = E433.46
An exchange rate of 0.692

My bank were quoting me £17.50 for the same transfer.
At exactly the current exchange rate - [SIZE=-1]0.674713 (which I wouldn't have gotten)
I would have had E418.70

In my experience this usually is the cheapest way.
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[Deleted User]

Is there any way you could make payment via paypal - they use a range of currencies.

alfie74

KCube wrote: »

Does anyone know of an wasy way to open a cheque account in Euros? I have 3 bills to pay & my bank wants to charge me £21 for each bacs transfer !! One of the invoices is only for €13

I would consider leaving about £250 in the account I guess - some accounts I have investigated want a balance of £10000 - a bit out of my league

Thanks
Karen

Irish bank accounts recently have been changing over to being fee-free. I set up one with the Ulster Bank when I was in Dublin. Needed ID (passport,etc) 6 months of statements, utility bill. No problem being on UK address. It may be the case that some Irish banks with UK branches may be able to help you without having to travel and turn up in person. It all depends on how much you use it. For me to make eBay payments in Euro, I have to send by signed letter, instructions to the bank. Slows things up a bit. Each Euro transfer costs 51c and they sent me confirmations to the UK address (and the postage on that is 78c ) Shouldn't cost more than a day of your time and a cheapie flight to get here. Just phone the banks up and find out what you need to bring.

HTH,
Rich