bank with lower currency exchange fees?

stillEuropean

I am now in receipt of a Canadian dollar monthly pension annuity cheque as well as a USD direct deposit each month for which my bank (Natwest) charges over £10 each to  convert to £. Is this standard or is there any way to avoid such large sums.  Is there any bank that charges less?

Daliah

Use the wise.com Borderless account (no FSCS protection, but ok for transfers), or perhaps Fineco Bank (got Italian equivalent to FSCS). 

Daliah

Are you actually receiving a  cheque from Canada? If so, that's a bit 1970s, can you get that changed to an electronic transfer?

[Deleted User]

Try CAD: Canadian Dollar | UK Currency Account - Wise

You could also look at Tangerine / Scotia Bank in Canada as these give you cheap access to Barclays ATMs in the UK.

stillEuropean

Thanks for the help. Yes, its a cheque and no, they won't use direct deposit. I already checked that.  I'll check out Tangerine  thoughI wonder if I can open an account from the UK...

Daliah

stillEuropean said:

Thanks for the help. Yes, its a cheque and no, they won't use direct deposit. I already checked that.  I'll check out Tangerine  thoughI wonder if I can open an account from the UK...

Surely they can pay electronically into a Canadian bank account? With Wise you get a CAD account number, institution number and transit number, registered to Wise in Ottawa, Ontario. You can then exchange the CAD within seconds to GBP (or other one of the other currencies supported by Wise). I believe Fineco works in the same way.

Daliah

stillEuropean said:

Thanks for the help. Yes, its a cheque and no, they won't use direct deposit. I already checked that.  I'll check out Tangerine  thoughI wonder if I can open an account from the UK...

Even if you did manage to get a Tangerine account, how would you then get your money to the UK? 

Wise (or Fineco) solves the lot for you.