Euro Bank Account

languagestudent

Hi all,

Firstly, I'm not sure if I'm writing in the correct place so please feel free to direct me to the right place.

I'm a student and I will be starting a year abroad as part of my university course this September. I'll be splitting the year between working in Germany and studying in China.

Currently I am looking into bank accounts and specifically looking at bank accounts that are denominated in Euro but serviced in the UK. I see that most high street banks offer an account like this, but you have to be an existing customer of theirs (my accounts are with Barclays).

I could set up an account once I reach Germany, since my language skills are good enough, but this would mean closing the account once I leave the country. On top of this, German banks often charge for their basic accounts, and are more difficult for foreigners to open accounts.

I am in the process of applying for the Barclays Euro account as a sort of stop-gap for payments I receive, but this is not a solution to my question as they do not offer debit card functionality with this account.

If anyone has had previous experience of a similar situation, or if anyone knows any accounts which suit my needs then I'd love to hear from you. You would not only be helping me out, but also ten other students. :beer:

Voyager2002

Why do you need an account that is denominated in Euro? If you simply need fee-free access to your money while in Germany, you have several options (N and P classic; Metro Bank, or simply the Halifax Clarity credit card).

Otherwise, as you say Euro accounts are offered by several UK banks. That I know about is offered by Nationwide International: I don't know whether you need to be an existing customer to open this, but getting a Nationwide account is not very difficult.

eDicky

If you will have a German address have a look at N26: https://n26.com/

If not there's Comdirect if you want an account in Germany using your UK address: https://www.comdirect.de/

Otherwise there are the UK based solution mentioned by Voyager, plus Revolut: https://revolut.com