Money in Euros

NickIve

I have a thousand pounds worth of Euros. Can anyone suggest the best thing to do with them? Is it worth exchanging them or most of them into sterling, or is there a UK bank account I can pay them into and get interest etc? Surely there must be something more financially viable than just keeping them in my drawer and spending them abroad as and when? Thanks

Ballard

Being as the interest rate for EUR is negative you probably wouldn't want to keep them in a bank account in that currency (realistically you'd probably struggle to open one anyway). If you have no immediate need for them you'd be best of exchanging them to Sterling. Look around but coventgardenfx.com or thomasexchangeglobal.co.uk would be the first places I looked.

colsten

It's always a bit strange when people have a wad of cash at home. But leaving that aside: Barclays do a Euro account into which, I believe, you can pay cash in the UK. It comes with T&Cs that you may or may not be able to meet.

Forget about earning interest - the rates for retail customers have for some time been as miserable for Euros as they are now for GBP.

Whether it's a good idea to exchange the lot, or some of it, into GBP depends what your plans are. If you want to spend it eventually in Euroland, it would probably not be smart to exchange (all) the Euros into GBP. OTOH, if  you are not expecting to spend (all) the Euros, exchanging might be an idea. You will get a relatively decent exchange rate when buying GBP with Euros at the moment, as the Pound is at an all time low (and may be sinking even further in the next few months, if the trend continues). Again, though, you won't get much interest for GBP these days.

wmb194

Bigger picture, if you have interest bearing debts the most profitable thing to do might be to put the money towards paying those down. Euro deposit rates are far, far worse than for sterling, so forget that. The pound is still c.9% above its all time lows but, as Colsten suggests, you could just hold them as a small hedge against the pound falling in value some more. Another option is to, say, keep half and sell half.