I get paid in Euros which bank is best?

frankyizzy10

Hi

I hope someone can help?

I work for a Russian Clinic, but live in the UK, I get my monthly salary in Euros paid into my Lloyds account by chaps payment.

The clinic I work for use the Euro to GBP exchange rate each month to work out how much they should pay me. for example this month when they calculated it the Euro to GBP exchange rate was around 1.34 according to XE. However when it reach LLoyds they exchanged it at 1.46 so I lost around £160.

This is the same everything month as LLoyds exchange it at a much higher rate than the exchange market figure.

I am due to start getting bonuses this month also so means I am going to lose hundreds every month.

Any suggestions of which bank is best to use to get the best rate and lose the least amount of money?

Many thanks

grumbler

frankyizzy10 wrote: »

The clinic I work for use the Euro to GBP exchange rate each month to work out how much they should pay me. for example this month when they calculated it the Euro to GBP exchange rate was around 1.34 according to XE. However when it reach LLoyds they exchanged it at 1.46 so I lost around £160.

What is your salary stated in: £ or €?
If it's £, why can't your company pay it in £? Why do they convert it to €?.

This is the same everything month as LLoyds exchange it at a much higher rate than the exchange market figure.

Typically, you'll lose ~3% on conversion with any bank.
That said, 1.34/1.46 is far more than 3%.
The last time the rate was 1.36 was in the middle of June, so even the rate fluctuation within few days cannot explain that big difference.

You have to try to avoid the conversion in the first place.

frankyizzy10

Hi

We agreed the salary in Euros. My expenses are in £ so every month I put in total amount in EUR and total amount in GBP. they then calculate total based upon the exchange rate.

How do I avoid the conversion?

agrinnall

I don't believe they are using CHAPS to make the payment as that's a sterling only system. They will probably be using SWIFT. Does your employer bear the cost of the transfer or do you have to pay that in addition to the exchange loading?

Probably your best option if they insist on paying in Euros is to open a Euro account and do the transfer to a sterling account yourself using the likes of Transferwise. I'm out of touch on which UK banks offer what Euro accounts but a search of the board should find many threads on the subject. It could be that having a Euro and sterling account with the same bank may allow you to do internal transfers at spot rate, but it's not something I know much about.

frankyizzy10

Hi

No they pay the costs for the transfer.

Ok thanks will look into which bank offers the Euro account, I did ask Lloyds but they said I had to earn a huge amount - I think it was somewhere around £75000 before they would give me a Euro account with preferential rates

Thanks for the reply

grumbler

frankyizzy10 wrote: »

We agreed the salary in Euros. My expenses are in £ so every month I put in total amount in EUR and total amount in GBP. they then calculate total based upon the exchange rate.

So, do they use the exchange rate for expenses only?

How do I avoid the conversion?

Ask them to use the interbank rate for converting your salary into £ and pay in £. This will stop losses on conversion, but obviously cannot protect your from the rate fluctuations.

frankyizzy10 wrote: »

Ok thanks will look into which bank offers the Euro account,

There are no free € accounts in UK. Even if you get one you'll find it difficult to use in UK without losing on conversion.
That said, I don't understand how you can live in UK and work for a Russian clinic.

frankyizzy10

Hi Grumbler

I am a UK based Patient Coordinator so work in the UK and assist patients from the UK, USA, Australia and Scandinavia access treatment at the clinic in St Petersburg .

Thanks for the advice I will ask them to use the Lloyds bank amount for conversion and see if they will

grumbler

frankyizzy10 wrote: »

...I will ask them to use the Lloyds bank amount ...

What do you mean?

What I meant was to use the interbank rate, e.g. http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/ for converting the agreed € salary into ££, adding the expenses in ££ and making the transfer in ££, not €.

Also, Lloyds charge £7 for receiving foreign transfers of £100+.
Some (most?) UK banks don't charge for this. See this old thread for some idea, but the information can be not up-to-date:
Interwetten deposits and withdrawals: your experience

agrinnall

grumbler wrote: »

What I meant was to use the interbank rate, e.g. http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/ for converting the agreed € salary into ££, adding the expenses in ££ and making the transfer in ££, not €.

But that's assuming that the OP's employer has access to sterling funds, which if they are based in Russia is quite unlikely. The OP agreed a salary in Euros, I'm not sure why you think the employer should be responsible for payment in another currency.

grumbler

agrinnall wrote: »

But that's assuming that the OP's employer has access to sterling funds, which if they are based in Russia is quite unlikely.

Do you know this or assume? I know that even ordinary people can easily have free online accounts in €/$/£ linked to a main account and easily do conversions. It's VTB24.

The OP agreed a salary in Euros, I'm not sure why you think the employer should be responsible for payment in another currency.

If I thought they should be responsible, I would have said 'demand', not 'ask'. Very likely they convert RUB to €. If so, converting to £ instead wouldn't make it more difficult to them, but would prevent losses on the second conversion. Even more likely they have an account in £ as they have customers from UK.

eDicky

grumbler wrote: »

What I meant was to use the interbank rate for converting the agreed € salary into ££, adding the expenses in ££ and making the transfer in ££, not €.

This is the key advice, because the main losses are caused by the incoming euros hitting a GBP account, allowing the bank to impose a lousy exchange rate and charges.

It appears that your employers' reference currency is the euro, and they are sending your salary and expenses from their euro account in St Petersburg or Luxembourg or wherever. If they send it in GBP converted by their bank, there will be a conversion loss at that end instead. Only if the remittance is made using a broker, who will also do the conversion at a decent rate, can the losses to be reduced.

For example, as well as using XE to calculate the euro equivalent of your expenses, use them to transfer your salary. Your employers would also avoid having to pay their bank's charge for the SWIFT transfer. But if they don't want to arrange it themselves, perhaps you could sign up with XE yourself and register your UK account and your employers' account as a source. Then have them pay the agreed amount of euros to XE's account (in the same country as the source account so usually free of charge), who then convert it to GBP and deposit it in your account (from their London account so free of charge).

Maybe a British agent such as Transferwise or FairFX could do the same thing slightly cheaper, but they may not have an account to receive the funds in the country where your employer banks. XE are everywhere. Perhaps OandA do the same thing, I'd not heard of them before.