Fineco multicarrency exchange rate

AKILI

Hi I have opened a Fineco UK multicurrency account and my experience has been pretty positive.

You have both a UK and Italian bank account no which allow you to pay in the 2 countries in the most appropriate currency. The biggest advantage I see from this account is that the Exchange rate spread is very appealing. If I take Transfer Wise as baseline and calculate the difference of the resulting Euros from Exchanging pounds 5000 to Euros the difference was 5 Euros less fineco tan transfer wise.

Can anyone with Fineco UK account in Pounds and Euros confirm my analysis?

Thanks

Voyager2002

One correction: the only currency that you can pay in as cash is sterling, and only in the UK.

And if you need to make a payment in a currency other than sterling you are likely to face various bank charges (not just Fineco because the payment may pass through various banks) meaning that this is uneconomic for relatively small amounts.

steve_blake1490667

My experience of Fineco has also been very good. Their exchange rates are very good, almost the same as the inter-bank rate shown on xe.com. They're probably the best option if you want to receive USD or Euro payments from overseas as they don't have any fees for incoming payments and give you great forex rates. However be aware that when they send GBP payments to UK accounts, they use SWIFT which most UK banks charge for. A few such as Starling and Nationwide don't charge for incoming SWIFT payments in GBP irrespective of amount.

If I was to complain, its that its a bit of a faff to convert your USD or EURO funds to GBP and get the money transferred to your UK bank account. It takes 2 working days to do the currency conversion from USD/EUR to GBP and then a further 3-4 working days to get the money showing up in your UK bank account. Still, if you receive regular payments from overseas then its worth the hassle as it works out cheaper than the likes of transferwise.

AKILI

Hi Thanks your perspective is useful. I receive GBP into an HSBC account. I intend to send GBP from HSBC to Fineco and then change GBP within the fineco account.

Are you saying that HSBC might charge to send ££ from my current account to the GBP account, even if sort code and account no are UK ones? That was not my assumption.

AKILI

Well but if I change the funds in the fineco account from ££ to Euros (since there is this facility) the only charge I am going to incur is the fineco exchange rate spread, which I have verified seems to be pretty competitive.

steve_blake1490667

AKILI wrote: »

Well but if I change the funds in the fineco account from ££ to Euros (since there is this facility) the only charge I am going to incur is the fineco exchange rate spread, which I have verified seems to be pretty competitive.

No, your UK bank will NOT charge you to send funds to your Fineco GBP account. Its from your Fineco GBP account to HSBC which will see HSBC charge a incoming SWIFT transfer fee. Though i believe HSBC waive the fee if the incoming transfer is less than GBP 100. At least that's what FirstDirect do so imagine its the same with HSBC. When sending GBP from my Fineco GBP account to UK, i send them to my Starling account and then onto First Direct.

OceanSound

Can I top-up fineco GBP account with a debit card?, or does it only accept bank transfers?

Roger1

Voyager2002 wrote: »

... if you need to make a payment in a currency other than sterling you are likely to face various bank charges (not just Fineco because the payment may pass through various banks) meaning that this is uneconomic for relatively small amounts.

You make a very important point.

I opened a Fineco account with the objective of making and receiving CHF payments. CHF is one of the available currencies. My payment to a Swiss account cost me £20 SWIFT fee and the credited Swiss account also deducted charges. I won't be repeating the exercise except in emergency.

I haven't yet received a CHF credit. There seems little incentive if I can't use CHF to pay CHF accounts sensibly.

stphnstevey

What are the actual exchange rates and where are they listed on the site?

Aidanmc

stphnstevey wrote: »

What are the actual exchange rates and where are they listed on the site?

https://help.finecobank.com/uk/banking/multicurrency.html#multicurrency-service