Most cost effective way to pay money to a euro account for a villa rental

skycatcher

Hi,

I need to pay for a villa rental in Euros to a bank account in Spain. Its approx £1500 worth. What is the cheapest method to do this? I have a starling account.

Thanks

eDicky

You can open the additional Starling euro account, if you haven't already, transfer the EUR there from your GBP account (0.4% fee on the mid-market rate), then send a SEPA transfer to the Spanish IBAN.

But beware, you have no protection with such a bank transfer, as you would have with a card payment, if there is anything fraudulent about whom you are paying.

J_B

eDicky said:

You can open the additional Starling euro account, if you haven't already ...........

Just tried that on mine .... but, "we can't open more accounts for you at the moment" (I have a (Ltd Co) business account and a personal one)

I will press the 'help' button!

J_B

Starling just replied ....

Thank you for getting in touch! Secondary accounts are subject to eligibility criteria, which means that the ability to apply for one of these accounts in the app will only be available for customers that match our criteria. We're sorry we're not able to help further with this at the moment.

I've asked what these criteria are, but I'm sure the answer will be 'sorry, we can't help'!

skycatcher

I used to have one but never used it and now it's disappeared! I never even had a warning that they were going to remove it!

J_B

J_B said:

eDicky said:

You can open the additional Starling euro account, if you haven't already ...........

Just tried that on mine .... but, "we can't open more accounts for you at the moment" (I have a (Ltd Co) business account and a personal one)

I will press the 'help' button!

J_B said:

Starling just replied ....

Thank you for getting in touch! Secondary accounts are subject to eligibility criteria, which means that the ability to apply for one of these accounts in the app will only be available for customers that match our criteria. We're sorry we're not able to help further with this at the moment.

I've asked what these criteria are, but I'm sure the answer will be 'sorry, we can't help'!

Sorry for replying to my own post!

Turns out there was a bug and my Euro Account is now open!

skycatcher

J_B said:

J_B said:

eDicky said:

You can open the additional Starling euro account, if you haven't already ...........

Just tried that on mine .... but, "we can't open more accounts for you at the moment" (I have a (Ltd Co) business account and a personal one)

I will press the 'help' button!

J_B said:

Starling just replied ....

Thank you for getting in touch! Secondary accounts are subject to eligibility criteria, which means that the ability to apply for one of these accounts in the app will only be available for customers that match our criteria. We're sorry we're not able to help further with this at the moment.

I've asked what these criteria are, but I'm sure the answer will be 'sorry, we can't help'!

Sorry for replying to my own post!

Turns out there was a bug and my Euro Account is now open!

Do you know if there are charges moving money from your £ account to your Euro account?

TELLIT01

I've had to do the same recently, as deposit for holiday accommodation in Greece.  We've been there several times so have no concerns about being scammed.  I did the transfer through my on-line banking app and was amazed to discover there were no charges.  The amount is entered in Sterling and the conversion show on the screen.  It's a little bit of a faff making slight adjustments to the Sterling amount to get the precise Euro figure.  That was with Lloyds.  When I did the same thing pre-Covid there were additional charges.

eDicky

TELLIT01 said:

I've had to do the same recently, as deposit for holiday accommodation in Greece.  We've been there several times so have no concerns about being scammed.  I did the transfer through my on-line banking app and was amazed to discover there were no charges.  The amount is entered in Sterling and the conversion show on the screen.  It's a little bit of a faff making slight adjustments to the Sterling amount to get the precise Euro figure.  That was with Lloyds.  When I did the same thing pre-Covid there were additional charges.

No 'charges', but what percentage markup did Lloyds apply to the mid-market exchange rate of that moment..?

eDicky

skycatcher said:

J_B said:

J_B said:

eDicky said:

You can open the additional Starling euro account, if you haven't already ...........

Just tried that on mine .... but, "we can't open more accounts for you at the moment" (I have a (Ltd Co) business account and a personal one)

I will press the 'help' button!

J_B said:

Starling just replied ....

Thank you for getting in touch! Secondary accounts are subject to eligibility criteria, which means that the ability to apply for one of these accounts in the app will only be available for customers that match our criteria. We're sorry we're not able to help further with this at the moment.

I've asked what these criteria are, but I'm sure the answer will be 'sorry, we can't help'!

Sorry for replying to my own post!

Turns out there was a bug and my Euro Account is now open!

Do you know if there are charges moving money from your £ account to your Euro account?

As I mentioned previously, 0.4% fee, mid-market (interbank) exchange rate.

Billip

I use "Wise" (formerly Transferwise) for sending euros to friends, European hotels, etc. Charges are minimal and you can top-up your account with euros throughout the year whenever you find the exchange rate is advantageous. It is also a great debit card when making purchases in Euroland, without the risk of accidentally choosing the "pay in GBP" option which we are often presented with !
It can be used for USD and other currencies too; in fact you can hold accounts in several currencies, put funds into each at the best time rate-wise, and have them available for when needed.