Banking in 2 countries, multiple currencies

colsten

Hope you have better luck with your web development.

CKhalvashi

mark10525 said:

CKhalvashi said:

mark10525 said:

eDicky said:

mark10525 said:

We're in the process of moving countries, from the UK to Italy, and we're waiting for the residency to be finalised. While that's happening I can't open an bank account in Italy.

Are you sure..? A couple of years ago I was able to walk into a bank and open an account as a non resident with just my British passport and Italian codice fiscale (tax id). Something may have changed, such as brexit, but other non-EU citizens seem to open Italian accounts with no problem, such as a Venezuelan friend doing an Italian language course on a 3-month visa-free stay.

Anyway, if you still have a UK address there's Starling Bank and Fineco Bank UK, as mentioned, and with an Italian address you can open an N26 euro bank account and (I believe) produce your residence card later. You can choose a German or Italian IBAN.

I asked Fineco Bank but they said that I'd have to be a resident in order to open an account. We're winding things up in the UK now and just waiting on the permit to be issued, so it shouldn't take long. I could open the account with the UK address, but then the debit card would get sent there and I'd have to wait for the postal redirect to reroute it.

I've had a look at all the alternatives quite exhaustively now, but every single one has absolutely terrible reviews. What's odd is that banks aren't noted for customer service and yet all these alternative companies seem to manage to be even worse. Revolut looks great superficially. I opened a personal and business account and have the debit cards. The app has so many features and it's precisely what I need, but the means of obtaining customer service is diabolical so I'm not going to use it.

In the meantime I'm going to keep using the UK account to make international transfers and payments where possible even though it's more expensive because they have a phone number and a support service if something goes wrong, like the Transferwise shambles.

If there were to be a problem making a payment I can't honestly imagine that Halifax would lock the account and take nearly three weeks to let me have access to my money again. I am guessing that these international pseudo-bank companies attract fraudulent transactions and since they're just a front for another bank that's doing the processing, they are powerless. If their bank says no, the customer's experience collapses into farce and the pseudo-bank then hides behind the KYC regulations and "online chat", and does whatever they like, pretending they have no accountability.

Fineco looks ideal so I'll go for that, hopefully next week and I'll then finally be able to shut everything in the UK down.

No, Halifax would likely simply write to you stating that your account is blocked and will be closed without giving you any reasons why, as will most UK banks.

Another high street bank has taken 2 months for someone to have access to their money (click here), which allegedly caused Mr L problems with accessing funds with another bank, likely due to fraud markers.

Does this mean that I can apply to Transferwise for compensation of £250?

No.

Each case will be dealt with on its merits. Your claim likely will fail at the first hurdle, being that there was no guarantee of any timescale for the transfer to take place.

Transferwise are not a bank and as far as I can see have not given you any misinformation or handled your case incorrectly. Verifications needed to be made which took some time, and it would not be wise for any financial institution to transfer funds without being completely sure that everything is above board.

Your complaint has, therefore, been handled completely correctly and in line with both the law and the terms of the contract.