Best bank account for Euro payment (Cross border commuter)

Mackle

If I were a cross border commuter working in a country that the UK had a double taxation agreement with and received a salary in Euros, which UK current account would suit that arrangement best?

I've just got off the phone to Metro Bank, who said whilst it was free to use a metro bank card in the Eurozone, certain forms of Euro currency payment in to the account would have a £10 charge and it would be MasterCard's daily exchange rate that would be used.


Is there any other UK account that I should be considering if my salary is in euros and I'm spending a lot of time in the eurozone?

flavione74

Have a look at Fineco UK, which offers a multicurrency account.
Keep in mind that transfer from Fineco to a UK bank account might not be free, because IIRC they are still not able to use faster payments for that - I think they use a standard SWIFT money transfer, and your UK bank might charge you.
Also keep in mind that the backend is based in Italy, so many operations can take one working day to be completed.

System

Ulster Bank (ROI/ EURO) lets your use NatWest/RBS ATMs free of charge in GB. Perhaps that might be an option?

eDicky

Mackle wrote: »

I've just got off the phone to Metro Bank, who said whilst it was free to use a metro bank card in the Eurozone, certain forms of Euro currency payment in to the account would have a £10 charge and it would be MasterCard's daily exchange rate that would be used.

I think you (or they) misunderstood, the MasterCard rate without added fee is applied when using their card in Europe, but if euros are paid in to the GBP account, as well as the fee they will load ~3% on the conversion, same as any bank.

App-based Revolut is not a bank, but they provide a personal IBAN for receiving euros. You can then convert to GBP at the perfect interbank rate (weekdays) and send to your bank or use the card. No fees for that except 0.5% on conversions in excess of £5k/month, £5 for plastic card, 2% on cash withdrawals >£200/month.

https://www.revolut.com/

There's also Fineco Bank UK, as mentioned (look for sign-up bonus in the Referrals board), and the TransferWise 'Borderless Account':

https://transferwise.com/borderless-c?

Mackle

Thanks all

I needed to give bank details to my German employer by today so for quickness I just opened up two MetroBank accounts - one current account, and one Euro account.

Current account has a card, Euro one doesn't.
Euro one charges no fee for Euro payments, but does have a €5 a month account fee.

They are both managed from the same online banking login, so I just log in and transfer my salary from my Euro account to my current account.

That gets me paid at the end of this month anyway, and I'll look in to Fineco and Transferwise as more permanent options too. Ulsterbank might not be a bad shout either!

Mackle

Looks like Metro Bank isn't going to be the long term answer - despite what I was told on the phone and in branch, I cannot transfer between my Sterling and Euro accounts online, and the exchange rate used when transferring between them is not the MasterCard rate but an "internal rate" which to transfer €1800 from Sterling account to Euro account is going to cost me over €100 because of the rate being pretty bad.

Once I've received my November salary, I'll close both of these accounts as in practice it's not the solution that was discussed.

System

Worth considering DKB. I don't know whether they are currently accepting applications with a UK address; their application form certainly lets you enter one. Or maybe you have an address in Germany anyway? Everything is done on-line; they have no physical counters.
Free SEPA transfer, of course, to a UK bank account (but UK bank will take a cut in the exchange rate to GBP). You get a VISA card which you are encouraged to keep in credit. You can use this card to withdraw euro from cash machines in the eurozone without any fees. If you pay in more than 700 euro a month to the current account you can also use the VISA card in the UK without any exchange loading.

Mackle

DKB not accepting UK applications, I tried a month ago :P

Nor are N26.

Mackle

Just setup TransferWise - it's given me a DE IBAN which will make my employer happy and has the proper exchange rate which should make me happy.

Looks like there is a small charge per outbound transaction, but it's minute compared to what the Metro Bank internal currency rate was going to cost me

heathrow

flavione74 wrote: »

Have a look at Fineco UK, which offers a multicurrency account.
Keep in mind that transfer from Fineco to a UK bank account might not be free, because IIRC they are still not able to use faster payments for that - I think they use a standard SWIFT money transfer, and your UK bank might charge you.
Also keep in mind that the backend is based in Italy, so many operations can take one working day to be completed.

Alternative have a foreign currency account with a UK Bank. HSBC does Euro accounts. You can use it to hold money before sending it for conversion to GBP via a broker. The fineco account is excellent but not everything's working yet - i.e. faster payments.

(Annoying - I have one, and want to use it...)

Mackle

heathrow wrote: »

Alternative have a foreign currency account with a UK Bank. HSBC does Euro accounts. You can use it to hold money before sending it for conversion to GBP via a broker. The fineco account is excellent but not everything's working yet - i.e. faster payments.

(Annoying - I have one, and want to use it...)

Thanks, sounds like when Fineco is fully working it will be a superb account to have.

My intention at the moment is to get my salary paid by my employer in to my TransferWise as it has a DE(/German) IBAN, move from TransferWise Euros to TransferWise GBP, then move that in to my Metro Bank GBP account where I can then spend my salary and not be penalised for buying things in Germany.

It's a long and convoluted way of doing it, but at least it satisfies my employers payroll department who insist that they have to manually approve non-DE IBANs before each pay run.


If this ends up getting too complicated and expensive with currency conversations / buying things in the Eurozone with my Metro Bank card, I can always P85 myself and move residence to Germany.