Gift sum of Euros

bowlhead99

Irish_Eyes_1977 wrote: »

I have a bank draft for 16000 euros. How can I change it through a currency conversion site? When are euros expected to improve vs the pound?

1) is the bank draft made out to you or to a currency conversion site? If it's for you, you have to pay out into your account and then you can electronically transfer the cash to the currency dealer and he can change it and send it you back.

2) it improved earlier today. It might worsen tomorrow when the next set of meeting minutes are published, if they show that some in the Bank of England are keen on raising interest rates. How much improvement are you wanting to wait for? If it's a lot, you might be waiting between a month and a decade depending how much you would like.

dzug1

Irish_Eyes_1977 wrote: »

I have a bank draft for 16000 euros. How can I change it through a currency conversion site? When are euros expected to improve vs the pound?

You can't change it through a currency conversion site - they are online and what you have is a piece of paper. A cheque by another name.


You can change it through a bank - easiest through your own but it doesn't have to be




second question - is unfortunately a daft question - there's no proper answer to it, just guesses which educated or not will turn out to be wrong.

Baloos_EUR_account

All Right!


As I'm new here, can anyone tell me why colsten hate me so badly?
I have a bit of a problem, asked for help politely, stated my recent experiences with High Street Banks, tried to explain myself, but he just jumped on every single sentence I wrote.
Is this the way here generally?

colsten

Baloos_EUR_account wrote: »

can anyone tell me why colsten hate me so badly?

I don't hate you. In fact, have no feelings for or against you at all. I am simply stating facts.

bowlhead99

Everyone has their own unique style. It's generally a place where you can get constructive feedback. Sometimes that will mean breaking down your posts into individual sentences to help see what can be easily explained.

I think basically you've suggested that the UK is not well set up for international banking, while the reality is that it's quite well set up for international banking, compared to other places in the world.

More than 99% of the people here don't need bank accounts in any other currency than GBP because that's what they get paid in and what they spend in.
If they want some foreign currency cash they can buy from a local branch.
If they want to convert small amounts of money back to GBP after a holiday, they can do that, and they won't mind the fee percentage because it's only a small amount.
If they want to deposit a foreign cheque into their GBP account, that can usually do that (for a fee).
If they want to receive foreign currency electronic transfers into their GBP current account they can generally do that too, sometimes it might need prior arrangement and might have a bad exchange rate.

Many banks can also offer foreign currency accounts through their affiliates although some just don't have the service at all, because the demand is so small. Halifax don't have forex accounts, because their core market has historically been as a building society offering savings and mortgages all in GBP. If you look wider, they are part of Lloyds banking group who can offer accounts through Lloyds International. However if you are not even their customer, just a random stranger walking through the door, the standard answer from the staff is that there is no product that they offer which will meet your needs. The "international" Lloyds accounts don't take cash deposits anyway.

TSB used to be part of Lloyds also but are now independent and based in Uk only with no need to take Eur deposits. So for different reasons you are struggling to get bank branches to take an interest, particularly as the service you want is not something their staff will ever be incentivised to sell.

Colsten has probably explored lots of options of different banks or accounts before settling on Citi. He is right that many branches (even Northern ones!) will allow you to deposit EUR into their normal GBP accounts if it is a cheque or electronic transfer. And he is right that they may be able to push you in the right direction of a foreign currency account if they offer it in their wider group and if you are willing to actually let them be your banker (for example HSBC would help me out with my Euro needs if I became a customer of theirs but not if I only wanted that one niche service).

But he's also right that your real problem is having a large quantity of cash that is not the currency of the country you are living in, when no bank wants to handle large cash deposits even if they are in the right currency for the country we're living in.

This is not a "fault" of the banks. Arguably London is a very important capital of world banking and has a significant role in world financial markets. So it's not true that the UK is not set up for international banking. The reality is, it is set up very well to meet the needs of people running their lives in the 21st century. What it is not set up for its people walking round with £20k cash in their pocket in a foreign currency, trying to turn it into electronic funds to transmit onwards. That is the type of thing you see on the 3rd world, and is not very usual or common in a modern regulated banking system.

To a bank, you are a headache that nobody wants because there is no real value in temporarily holding your money , there is only RISK.

LXdaddy

There is a big difference between being able to buy/sell foreign currency and being able to have a foreign currency account. I would be surprised if any of the highstreet bank branches in my local high street would have the ability to handle a foreign currency denominated account. Their head office might offer the facility but it would certainly be unusual.

I would expect to see foreign exchange rate boards in most of the high street branches (and in the Post Office) as all provide that service. All would be have the major currencies available and would buy reasonable amounts of foreign currency on demand.

What no UK financial establishment will do is accept a large cash amount without consideration of the anti money laundering regulations.

Your problem is not that you can't deposit Euros, it is that you can't deposit such a large amount of cash. None of the banks would let you open an account with £20,000 without some serious documentation.