Getting paid in Euros

OceanSound

I'm due to get paid by a company based in Germany. They pay in Euros through direct bank transfer or PayPal (I have to choose).

What is the best method to receive the money. I remember asking HSBC about 'live rates' a couple of years ago, and it turned out customer will be unaware of the conversion rate until after the conversion and it appears on your recent transactions/statement. Also, they charge for receiving payments over 100 GBP.

I'm hesitant to use PayPal, because they do charge a fee at the senders end (even if it's small, it's not really clear and obvious). Also, Paypal takes a cut on the exchange rate when I convert to pounds. So, did some research today, and it seems transferwise borderless and revolut are good options.

Exchange (Conversion) rate wise I don't know which one (transferwise vs revolut or any other for that matter) offers the best rate. Transferwise usually offer really competitive rates, I think revolut should be identical, if not better. (this is going by the rates they offer on their prepaid card, which is of course different because it's converting the other way. i.e. Buying a foreign currency using Pounds.

Also, Transferwise charges a small fee for conversion. I believe it’s 0.50%'on the amount that’s converted’ for Euro to Pound conversion.

Any idea what the revolut exchange rate would be like and if there are any fees? According to their blog there is no fee and they offer the 'real exchange rate'.

eDicky

Forget about PayPal and major banks such as HSBC. There's Fineco Bank UK, TransferWise Borderless Account and Revolut for directy receiving your pay in euros.

You're basically right about TransferWise, Revolut also uses the perfect interbank rate on weekdays {slightly off on weekends} and charges no fees except 0.5% for conversion in excess of £5k/month.

agrinnall

It sounds like your employer wants to do a direct bank to bank transfer, which is probably the simplest option for them but an expensive one for you. I would suggest that you open a Euro account somewhere (I think it may be possible in Ireland if you can't get one free in the UK) so that the transfer is done through SEPA at no charge, and then you can transfer the money from your own account using whatever is the best intermediary.

silverwhistle

OceanSound wrote: »

Also, they charge for receiving payments over 100 GBP.

Really? I've had a few small transfers in Euros as a result of online language teaching, (we're talking 240 E - 500ish) and no charges from Smile and a reasonable bank rate.


On my invoices I put transfer via SWIFT, SEPA or TIPANET and if there's any difference to the sender I don't know about it.

OceanSound

silverwhistle wrote: »

On my invoices I put transfer via SWIFT, SEPA or TIPANET...

can i ask why you put this. If you didn't, is there a chance that the payment would go through a system that attracts fees/gives rubbish exchange rate?

Voyager2002

agrinnall wrote: »

It sounds like your employer wants to do a direct bank to bank transfer, which is probably the simplest option for them but an expensive one for you. I would suggest that you open a Euro account somewhere (I think it may be possible in Ireland if you can't get one free in the UK) so that the transfer is done through SEPA at no charge, and then you can transfer the money from your own account using whatever is the best intermediary.

As already mentioned, Fineco (UK) offer a bank account that is suitable: you can receive the transfer in Euro and either hold it as a Euro balance or convert to sterling for a minimal fee.

agrinnall

Voyager2002 wrote: »

As already mentioned, Fineco (UK) offer a bank account that is suitable

Mentioned while I was writing my post. I still have my doubts about Fineco, who when I last looked are regulated in Italy, not exactly a model of financial rectitude or political stability (I see that the UK arm is "subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority").

Voyager2002

agrinnall wrote: »

Mentioned while I was writing my post. I still have my doubts about Fineco, who when I last looked are regulated in Italy, not exactly a model of financial rectitude or political stability (I see that the UK arm is "subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority").

I do hope you are wrong about this, since a large chunk of my pension savings are invested on their platform!


The part of my experience that is relevant to the OP is that (i) they have provided instant currency exchange at favourable rates, (ii) when I needed to withdraw £5,000 to another account the process was smooth, although it took a few days to arrive.

OceanSound

I must say, payment to begin with is less than 100 Euro, as it was only a few hours work. But it may well increase as I take on more work.

Seems for transferring (and holding) larger sums it's worth considering a bank like SMile as they are FSCS protected.

BTW, I noticed that Transferwise is fully FCA regulated, and that they keep our money in UK Barclays bank. So, if Transferwise goes under our money is refunded. Not so, if Barclays does. Looks like revolut is also fully FCA regulated.

agrinnall

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I do hope you are wrong about this, since a large chunk of my pension savings are invested on their platform!

Wrong in what way? Their regulation information is listed at the bottom of the UK bank home page, where it's clear that the regulator of the parent company is the Italian authorities, and there is only partial regulation within the UK. It does go on to say that further information on just how much UK regulation there can be provided on request.



My comments on the reliability of the Italian financial and political systems are my own opinion, but hardly unique. You have to take your own view on whether they are a suitable place to hold a large proportion of your savings, I'm not sure that I would.

OceanSound

I've opened Euro accounts with Transferwise, Revolut, and Monese. Of these Monese was the simplest and quickest (ID requirement had already been fulfilled from before), transferwise was 2nd quickest (took less than an hour to process ID even though website said takes 7 days). Revolut was a lot more complicated. It wouldn't accept the scan of my ID or the selfie on two occasions. i.e after 10 minutes it came back and said. Cannot accept do it again. 3rd time it said it needs 24 hours to process. roll on 24 hours, heard nothing, so contacted them via app.

Customer support checked the ID docs and said account is active. However, when I check Euro local account, the 'activate' button is still showing. Tap/click on it nothing happens. Messaged support. God knows when they will get back to me. The feedback about their support is not great. Apparently they are recruiting 100 bods in 1 day to beef up support line.

Fineco UK bank was a no go. I got to nearly completing the application (which takes forever, as they seem to want to make you sign-up for a trader account, whilst also wanting to cover their backs for various regulatory requirements. Some questions I've never heard of under the sun) then suddenly screen went back to start of application, as if I had entered nothing. Apparently the application is saved, but I cannot receive SMS code because it can only be received when inside the local network (I'm abroad now).

BTW, has anyone used Monese Eurozone Account for receiving Euro?, I checked the app, to convert 100 EURO. You pay 1% fee (1 EUR). Exchange rate on app now is 1 EUR = 0.8769 GBP

Seems pretty close to the mid-market rate on xe.com which is 0.8781