Euro account

Lampylamp

Hi. I would like a euro bank account so I can buy stuff and draw out cash fee free when in Europe. Any suggestion? Don't want a monthly fee. Happy to leave 2k balance.

jonesMUFCforever

This is asked a lot but in reality does not exist.
As the UK is not in the Euro any bank accounts opened here would be based offshore and would not be free.


Can you please tell us how much you would use such an account in reality? There may be other products available which may suit and be almost fee free such as Halifax clarity credit card.

grumbler

Lampylamp wrote: »

I would like a euro bank account so I can buy stuff and draw out cash fee free when in Europe. Any suggestion? Don't want a monthly fee. Happy to leave 2k balance.

This can be a £ account or a £ credit card: Cheap Travel Cards

I don't see Nationwide FlexPlus account mentioned, but it's well worth looking at for withdrawals in Europe if you can justify paying £10 p.m. for other benefits: Best Premier Current Accounts
For purchases there are credit cards that don't charge for conversion.

Slaphead

I though citibank were doing this now.
Either you have an existing current account with them,
or you maintain a set balance in the euro/dollar account
or you pay a £5 a mont fee.
Anybody using this? Know of similar?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Slaphead wrote: »

I though citibank were doing this now.
Either you have an existing current account with them,
or you maintain a set balance in the euro/dollar account
or you pay a £5 a mont fee.
Anybody using this? Know of similar?

Linky here.

grumbler

Is it really worth paying £5 p.m. just for "drawing out cash fee free when in Europe"?

And it's still unclear how much it costs to load the € account by converting ££ at "Citi UK Reference Exchange Rates".

Slaphead

grumbler wrote: »

And it's still unclear how much it costs to load the € account by converting ££ at "Citi UK Reference Exchange Rates".

I think most people asking questions in this thread would be starting with Euros in the first place and not wanting to convert them to £ to hold in a uk bank account and then convert back to euros to spend on holiday etc.

grumbler

Well, it was just one person that asked the question, and most people living in UK don't have a regular income in €€.

Slaphead

grumbler wrote: »

Well, it was just one person that asked the question,

Original question of course and myself in post 4,

Anybody using this? Know of similar?

Hazzanet

Slaphead wrote: »

Anybody using this? Know of similar?

I used to use Citi a while ago, but closed the USD, EUR and GBP accounts when the charges were introduced on the GBP account if you didn't meet certain criteria.

I found customer service to be a challenge at times (was based abroad and it was hard to decipher the accents), if you have more than one account, having just the one card between all of the accounts made life a little difficult at times (I managed to convince them to issue two in the end) in terms of the exchange rate, I always found it reasonable to competitive.

The only thing to remember is that it's not a 'true' EUR account; it has a UK sortcode and account number (and IBAN of course) but as it was UK based, SEPA payments in and out attracted [significant] charges as a result.

System

Their customer service has improved.

Their website has recently been upgraded and their call centre appears to be based somewhere in England.

Their reference rates wern't actually not too bad as I used the GBP account to withdraw USD using Citi ATMs in the USA. I calculated it cost me about 30p for each ATM withdrawal (vrs Clarity rate) and I obviously saved on the surcharge than many US machines charge.

Hazzanet wrote: »

I used to use Citi a while ago, but closed the USD, EUR and GBP accounts when the charges were introduced on the GBP account if you didn't meet certain criteria.

I found customer service to be a challenge at times (was based abroad and it was hard to decipher the accents), if you have more than one account, having just the one card between all of the accounts made life a little difficult at times (I managed to convince them to issue two in the end) in terms of the exchange rate, I always found it reasonable to competitive.

The only thing to remember is that it's not a 'true' EUR account; it has a UK sortcode and account number (and IBAN of course) but as it was UK based, SEPA payments in and out attracted [significant] charges as a result.