Working Abroad

AWG12

I'm looking for advice, having the opportunity to live and work abroad for a couple of years, can anyone recommend the best way to bank?
I wish to keep my current UK account in place to pay bills etc .. (my son will be house sitting) but obviously don't want to be hammered with charges.
In my new position, I would be paid monthly in Euro and would like to transfer a percentage of this back to my UK account.

agrinnall

Most banks will allow you to keep an existing account (ISAs may be an issue) but not open new ones if you are living abroad. I would suggest that you tell them your overseas residential address but keep your UK address for correspondence, but other may think differently.

For transfers into your account it's best (or at least cheaper) not to use the banking system but to use a currency broker (e.g. Transferwise - lots of others to choose from) instead - it may be worth doing transfers less frequently than you are paid so that any charges are levied maybe once or twice a year.

eDicky

AWG12 wrote: »

In my new position, I would be paid monthly in Euro and would like to transfer a percentage of this back to my UK account.

For this you probably need an account in your name with IBAN for it to be paid in to, ideally able to receive euros without conversion.

A Fineco Bank multi-currency account would achieve this (see the referrers board for a promo code that expires tonight), also the TransferWise 'Borderless Account', and Revolut now provides a personal IBAN for euros.

A portion of your income can then be converted and sent to your UK GBP bank account using the above solutions, at the best rates and with minimal fee (zero for Revolut up to £5k/mth conversion).

agrinnall

eDicky wrote: »

For this you probably need an account in your name with IBAN for it to be paid in to, ideally able to receive euros without conversion.

While that might be the case I'm not really convinced. I would expect that the OP needs to top up his UK Sterling account in order to pay bills, credit cards, etc. The account he has now will almost certainly already have an IBAN.

eDicky

agrinnall wrote: »

While that might be the case I'm not really convinced. I would expect that the OP needs to top up his UK Sterling account in order to pay bills, credit cards, etc. The account he has now will almost certainly already have an IBAN.

The idea is to avoid having euros sent directly to a normal UK GBP bank account, which will involve a fee to receive them and an awful conversion rate to pounds. The solutions I mentioned will have no such drawbacks and can be used to convert and send on funds to a regular UK bank with maximum preservation of value.

trailingspouse

You'll need a local bank account to pay your way in your new location, as well as to receive your pay, and a credit card would be sensible as well. Two years is quite a long time, so it's worth setting these things up from the get go.

Whatever way you choose to pay money across to the UK, it's going to cost you per transaction, so limiting the number of transactions per year is the simplest way to save money doing it. You could do this by building up funds in your UK bank account to tide you over for say three months, then paying across enough money from your Euro account to fund the next three months, and so on.

All the best in your new venture - we went to work abroad for 6 months and ended up staying 4 years...

vouch0r

not sure if there are limits but revolut allow euro payments into this account, would be useful .

would need to check if any limits apply though and 100% carry alternative day to day currency card without fees (monzo, starling etc)

eDicky

trailingspouse wrote: »

You'll need a local bank account to pay your way in your new location, as well as to receive your pay,

I also began to think of this as being useful for a two year stay. It can be a euro account in the country of intended residence or anywhere else in the Eurozone, because the employer will be able to pay salary in to it by SEPA free of charge regardless. For example an account with KBC Ireland could be set up in advance, the basic version has no fees and provides a card without fees in Eurozone.

From such an account it's possible to transfer euros up to £5k equ per month to pounds into a UK account with zero fees and at the Interbank exchange rate (weekdays), then 0.5% fee for more, by using Revolut. Limits can be raised easily to £100k/year with source of funds verification. The Revolut MasterCard (£5) can also be used for everyday expenses in any currency. Similarly TransferWise or Fineco could be used for such transfers at minimal expense.