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Euro to sterling Bank accounts with low fees and great exchange rate :-)

I need help! My husband will be getting paid in euros, and we obvs use sterling. Can anyone recommend a bank for this please? Low fees and best exchange rate? Please, we're stuck and in a stump. We opened a starling account, but I'm just clueless about this all.
When he gets paid in euros, we will be hoping to transfer it into our joint santander, unless anyone knows a better way for this. Thanks everyone
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  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Newshound!
    edited 13 January 2020 pm31 8:33PM
    I need help! My husband will be getting paid in euros, and we obvs use sterling. Can anyone recommend a bank for this please? Low fees and best exchange rate? Please, we're stuck and in a stump. We opened a starling account, but I'm just clueless about this all.
    When he gets paid in euros, we will be hoping to transfer it into our joint santander, unless anyone knows a better way for this. Thanks everyone
    What was the purpose of opening the new account with the company that you have mentioned, especially if you are clueless about it?
    How exactly is your husband being paid in Euros? Is he working outside the UK or … ?
    How is the Euro payment of his earnings being made? Does he have a (foreign) Euro bank account into which he will be paid or what? You mention transferring it to your joint Santander account, but transferring it from where?.
  • DCFC79
    DCFC79 Posts: 40,614 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I need help! My husband will be getting paid in euros, and we obvs use sterling. Can anyone recommend a bank for this please? Low fees and best exchange rate? Please, we're stuck and in a stump. We opened a starling account, but I'm just clueless about this all.
    When he gets paid in euros, we will be hoping to transfer it into our joint santander, unless anyone knows a better way for this. Thanks everyone


    Whats wrong with using Starling ?
    Money gets paid in and you transfer it to another account of your choice, you will need to look if there is a conversion fee. Monzo might be an option, dont know if theres a conversion fee.

    Transferwise would be an option.

    Barclays have a euro account.
  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Newshound!
    DCFC79 wrote: »
    Whats wrong with using Starling ?
    Money gets paid in and you transfer it to another account of your choice, you will need to look if there is a conversion fee. Monzo might be an option, dont know if theres a conversion fee.

    Transferwise would be an option.

    Barclays have a euro account.
    Nothing is wrong with Starling as such except that it is a UK account as are the others you have mentioned, but if the husband is working outside the UK can't really imagine the employer wanting to be bothered paying into a UK account rather than a local account.
    I feel that if the OP is as clueless as they claim, it's odd that they would have just gone and opened this account for no apparent reason.
  • colsten
    colsten Posts: 17,597 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Starling all the way. Dead easy to use. You obviously need both, a Starling GBP and a Starling Euro account for it to work.

    Call their CS and ask them to walk you through if you don't know what to do.
  • jbryce
    jbryce Posts: 55 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    Nothing is wrong with Starling as such except that it is a UK account as are the others you have mentioned, but if the husband is working outside the UK can't really imagine the employer wanting to be bothered paying into a UK account rather than a local account.
    I feel that if the OP is as clueless as they claim, it's odd that they would have just gone and opened this account for no apparent reason.

    Starling have a Euro account, so they can make a SEPA transfer into it.
  • colsten
    colsten Posts: 17,597 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 13 January 2020 pm31 8:48PM
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    can't really imagine the employer wanting to be bothered paying into a UK account rather than a local account.
    That shouldn't be any problem. All the employer needs is an IBAN. The Starling IBAN starts with GB. Transferwise IBAN used to start with DE, but either has been, or is imminent to be, changed to start with BE. EU employers should be used to using IBANs starting with all sorts of country codes.

    The UK is currently in the SEPA zone, so payments into a Euro account are free of charge for the payer. There's no reason why this should not continue after Brexit (except if some idiot decides we should leave that, too).
  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Newshound!
    edited 13 January 2020 pm31 8:49PM
    jbryce wrote: »
    Starling have a Euro account, so they can make a SEPA transfer into it.
    So if for example you were from France and had an account with a French bank and worked here in the UK, do you seriously believe that your employers payroll department would be very happy about paying you by SEPA transfer? They would tell you to go an open a (basic) UK bank account.
    colsten wrote: »
    That shouldn't be any problem. All the employer needs is an IBAN. The Starling IBAN starts with GB. Transferwise IBAN used to start with DE, but either has been, or is imminent to be, changed to start with BE. EU employers should be used to using IBANs starting with all sorts of country codes.

    The UK is currently in the SEPA zone, so payments into a Euro account are free of charge for the payer. There's no reason why this should not continue after Brexit (except if some idiot decides we should leave that, too).
    Not disagreeing with you but can't actually see many employers actually agreeing/being bothered to do it.
  • colsten
    colsten Posts: 17,597 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 13 January 2020 pm31 10:06PM
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    So if for example you were from France and had an account with a French bank and worked here in the UK, do you seriously believe that your employers payroll department would be very happy about paying you by SEPA transfer? They would tell you to go an open a (basic) UK bank account.
    I think you are confusing matters. The thread is about getting paid in Euros, and the recipient then wanting to transfer those Euros to GBP. A daily (well, monthly more like) occurrence for residents of Northern Ireland who work in the Republik of Ireland, for instance.

    SEPA transfers are for cross-border Euro transfers only. So the Northern Irish Resident could have a Starling Euro account in the UK, with an IBAN starting with GB. The employer would pay the salary to that IBAN. All Irish employees of that employer would also be paid into an IBAN, but theirs would probably start with IE. It could, however, start with just about any EEA country code. It doesn't matter. It's just a sequence of letters and numbers, an account number. It costs the employer 100% the same whether they pay into an Irish, a British, a Dutch, a Greek, a Latvian etc etc etc Euro account. It also costs the employees the same to receive their salary into their Euro accounts (i.e. nothing). What may not cost the employees the same is the operation of their Euro account, just as it doesn't cost us the same to operate GBP accounts, but that's an entirely different issue.


    Ben8282 wrote: »
    Not disagreeing with you but can't actually see many employers actually agreeing/being bothered to do it.
    There is no bother involved. The employer merely instructs their bank to pay to an IBAN, and the bank handles the transfers. Employers who pay in Euros expect to be given an IBAN by their employees.

    If you mean employers wouldn't want to be bothered to exchange the Euros that they pay into GBP, I would agree. But that's no what is being suggested.

    .
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 18,399 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    So if for example you were from France and had an account with a French bank and worked here in the UK, do you seriously believe that your employers payroll department would be very happy about paying you by SEPA transfer? They would tell you to go an open a (basic) UK bank account.
    Not disagreeing with you but can't actually see many employers actually agreeing/being bothered to do it.

    Well until the OP comes back and answers the questions. Everyone is flying in the dark.
    Life in the slow lane
  • Why not just open a Transferwise.com account? You can create multiple currency accounts within your account and transfer funds between them at better exchange rates than the high street bank.
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