Euro bank account (to accept funds from house sale in Europe)

kuklinka

Hello, I am a Barclays customer and before I go and take out a Euro account with them wondered if there were any better options to take delivery of proceeds of house sale in France (inheritance split with my mother)

We will be able to take the funds at the end of the month and we don't need to immediately convert.

Once it's sitting in euros in Barclays, we can then decide how to convert it. To date, what are the best ways of doing this - P2P or Transferwise?

eDicky

Don't you have a French bank account to keep the euros? If not, you could open one with Britline / Soci!t! General. If you put euros in a UK account you may find that currency brokers such as TransferWise cannot accept them for conversion and you are at the mercy of Barclays and their exchange rates. Better to check, or perhaps someone else knows for sure. . .?

System

Barclays offer a Euro denominationed account - it might still have a small fee.

Nationwide International (based in the IOM) are backed fully by Nationwide in the UK also have Euro savings accounts.

benjus

eDicky wrote: »

Don't you have a French bank account to keep the euros? If not, you could open one with Britline / Soci!t! General. If you put euros in a UK account you may find that currency brokers such as TransferWise cannot accept them for conversion and you are at the mercy of Barclays and their exchange rates. Better to check, or perhaps someone else knows for sure. . .?

Britline is Credit Agricole, not SocGen

I've found Britline fine, but the account opening process is a bit drawn out.

kuklinka

I'll look into Britline. Barclays want 2 pct for any withdrawals.

Why can't transferwise take UK based euros? Just out of interest?

grumbler

kuklinka wrote: »

Why can't transferwise take UK based euros? Just out of interest?

I'd be surprised if they really they cannot. The only question is the cost of the transfer. A € transfer from a UK account will be not free and will cost the same as a transfer to EU.

eDicky

kuklinka wrote: »

Why can't transferwise take UK based euros? Just out of interest?

Perhaps they can take them, but they are only likely to accept euros into their euro account, somewhere in the Eurozone, and the cost of your sending them would negate the whole purpose. They would probably advise against it or decline. Let's ask them... (I'm overseas now).

TransferWise and similar services are for avoiding bank charges on international payments. They receive your funds in GBP from your UK account to theirs by FP or BACS free of charge, and then pay the corresponding amount in local currency into the payee's account from their bank account in the same country, also free of charges - for example euros by SEPA transfer. The money only moves in their accounting and the small commission you pay is their revenue. But if it's not the local currency being sent or received it doesn't work.

Britline is one of very few Eurozone bank accounts that can be opened using a UK address, probably the only others are with banks in the Irish Republic, to which free SEPA transfers can be made from France (Single European Payment Area).