Receiving Euros - What is the best UK bank account?

SamDude

Hello all,

I receive irregular payments in Euros for work that I carry out.

The payment is made to my First Direct account as they do not charge any fees for incoming Euro payments. However, I do not know the rate that will be used until the payment has been made.

Is there an up-to-date comparison of the different fees and currency exchange rates used by UK banks?

I have a few different accounts (Nat West, Santander, HSBC...) but can't find the information that I'm looking for (e.g. higher fee, but better exchange rate) to stick with FD or change the incoming payments to another account.

grumbler

The rates banks use aren't published anywhere, but typically you lose ~3% on conversion. The main difference is in the flat fees that the bank and, possibly, the intermediary bank charge.

SamDude

Thanks - I was aware that the rates were unpublished, because I couldn't find them(!)

So when First Direct send me a letter (each time a Euro payment is received), it states the full Euro amount that I was expecting and then the exchange rate used to convert to GBP.

If I dig out a couple of old letters with the dates and exchange rates used, could I compare it with say Barclays/Santander/Nat West?
(or crowdsource historical rates from others here?)

grumbler

I don't know where you can find this information, but personally I wouldn't bother.
For small amounts it's the fee that really matters.
For big amounts consider using specialised companies instead of bank transfers: https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/France-UK?amount=1000&bType=1&ref=filter

SamDude

The payment can only be paid to a bank account, otherwise I would have looked at one of the specialised companies.

The amount due is between 1500 and 2000 Euros, not sure if that is classed as a small amount? (not to me, it's not...)

grumbler

SamDude wrote: »

The payment can only be paid to a bank account, otherwise I would have looked at one of the specialised companies.

I think it's a bank account for most companies, although most likely the payment will require a special reference.

The amount due is between 1500 and 2000 Euros, not sure if that is classed as a small amount? (not to me, it's not...)

This depends on whether ~€50 amount that you can potentially save is big or small for you.