TSB customer looking for new account. Please help!!

ChrisNY_2

Hello to everybody.

I have opened a current account with TSB last November since it was the only bank which accepted to open a full current account with debit card using only my EU passport.

Now I would like to move to another bank since i need to use both GBP and EURO and TSB does not provide such an option.

My needs :

1. Current account in GBP (already have with TSB)
2. Current account in EURO
3. Debit card for both currencies in order to avoid FX charges while traveling within EURO countries.
4. Internet banking in order to check and operate both accounts.

No overdraft is needed and no checks or credit cards.

The things stated above are the minimum. Any additional services , offers , promotions will be highly appreciated.


I am holder of EU passport and the only proof of address i can provide for the moment is the current TSB bank account statement and a mobile phone utility bill since i am staying as a guest at my girlfriend's house while searching for a job in the UK.

Thanks for reading and sorry for my poor english.

Chris

grumbler

ChrisNY wrote: »

The things stated above are the minimum. Any additional services , offers , promotions will be highly appreciated.

Forget about "additional services , offers , promotions".

€ accounts in UK are normally not free.
If you have €, keep using your old card(s).
If you get paid in ££, you'll lose on converting them to €.

Try opening a normal £ account in MetroBank or Norwich & Peterborough BS or getting Halifax Clarity credit card:

• Cheap Travel Cards

You can find some decent prepaid cards there as well for spending in Europe.

ChrisNY_2

I think that you have misunderstood my post.

I don't want to make any currency conversions through the bank.
For currency conversions i ONLY use Transferwise service and nothing else.

I just want to check the option to have only one bank in the UK in order to operate my savings in GBP and EURO.

As i said, for the moment i have only a GBP current account in TSB and a visa debit card but no account or card for EURO.

I read that several UK banks offer EURO accounts to UK residents if they already have a GBP account , and this is why i want to check this option.

If it is not possible to have one bank for both currencies in the UK , please tell me which is the best offer these days for a GBP account in order to move from TSB.

I hope it is now more clear.

Thank you.

PeacefulWaters

Why not keep the TSB account and open a Euro account elsewhere?

Archi_Bald

ChrisNY wrote: »

I read that several UK banks offer EURO accounts to UK residents if they already have a GBP account , and this is why i want to check this option.

If you already know which UK banks offer Euro accounts, what is your question?

ChrisNY wrote: »

If it is not possible to have one bank for both currencies in the UK , please tell me which is the best offer these days for a GBP account in order to move from TSB.

This is quite confusing. As you said yourself, there are several UK banks that offer Euro accounts. By definition, UK banks also offer accounts in GBP. So it is possible to have one bank for both currencies. Are you perhaps looking for a single account in multi-currency? Not sure anyone offers this, though you can find banks that offer a single VISA debit card linked to multiple accounts in different currencies.

How would you judge "best offer"? Do you mean best joining bonus, best credit interest rate, best loan rate, best branch network, best overdraft rates?
Why do you want to move from TSB?

ChrisNY_2

Archi_Bald wrote: »

If you already know which UK banks offer Euro accounts, what is your question?


This is quite confusing. As you said yourself, there are several UK banks that offer Euro accounts. By definition, UK banks also offer accounts in GBP. So it is possible to have one bank for both currencies. Are you perhaps looking for a single account in multi-currency? Not sure anyone offers this, though you can find banks that offer a single VISA debit card linked to multiple accounts in different currencies.

How would you judge "best offer"? Do you mean best joining bonus, best credit interest rate, best loan rate, best branch network, best overdraft rates?
Why do you want to move from TSB?

The reason for moving from TSB is because they do not offer accounts in EURO at all.

So since i need to have accounts and debit card or cards for both currencies i need to move from TSB. I have explained in my first post why i chose TSB in the beginning.

I prefer having only one bank but if it this is not possible what are my best options based to my needs?

I mostly care about the extras (joining bonus , travel insurance , cash back , promotions) and good internet banking and not about the interest , overdraft , or loan rate.

Thanks

pmduk

Transfers between banks in UK are usually instant, which may explain peoples' suggestions of splitting savings accounts between banks.

grumbler

ChrisNY wrote: »

So since i need to have accounts and debit card or cards for both currencies i need to move from TSB.

I still don't understand why you *need* a € account if you get paid in £. Did you read the article I quoted?
You can have a £ account that can be used for spending in € without any charges and any currency exchange loading.

Archi_Bald

ChrisNY wrote: »

So since i need to have accounts and debit card or cards for both currencies i need to move from TSB.

This is not logical. You don't need to move, you want to move. Apart from your personal preferences, there is nothing that forces you to have all your affairs with the same bank. In fact, it's quite wise to have accounts at more than one bank, in case of any problems with one of them. As pmduk already mentioned, transferring money from one bank to another is easy, and it costs nothing.

Other than that, have you read grumbler's suggestions?

ChrisNY_2

For the moment i have income in EURO from house rents outside UK and no income in GBP but i live in the UK looking for a job.

I want to move the payments i receive in EURO in a UK bank since i live in UK and since it will be more quick to have full access to my money.

As i said i chose TSB and opened a classic current account there since it was the best option i found for a bank account+plus debit card without needing to provide proof of address when i arrived in the UK.

Four months later i want to check the option to move all my banking in the UK. I thought that it would be easier to have one bank for both currencies but if you do not suggest this option i can have more than one bank.

There is no reason for moving from TSB if i open a EURO account in another UK bank. I just thought that now that i can provide the bank statement as proof of address i would be able to choose a better option compared to TSB. I don't have any problem with them i just guess that there will be much better account options compared to TSB which i didn't have due to the fact that i was not accepted as a new customer when i arrived to the UK. That's all.

Thank you.

SuperHan

You will incur costs transferring the money internationally though. Your rental tenants will want to pay to a local account (as it's much easier and not as costly) and then you will have to transfer the euros out of this account to your new UK euro account, which will most likely incur a charge.

The most sensible thing to do (is assuming they exist) is to open a bank account wherever your properties are that allows you to withdraw £ for minimal cost.

When I lived in France and earned my money in £ in to an British bank account, the cheapest way of having access to my money was to withdraw euros using a Nationwide card (which were good at the time) and then pay them in to my French account as running a £ bank account, transferring between currencies or transferring monies internationally was too expensive.