Best way to receive euros

Chomeur

I get paid occasional sums in euros and am currently having them paid into my Santander account where I expect a big commission is levied. Should I have them paid in somewhere else? I don't go to the eurozone more than once a year or so, so it's probably best that I just convert the euros to pounds as I receive them rather than have a euro account I can use abroad. 

I have accounts with Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Monzo, Monese, Natwest, HSBC, fineco and Revolut so plenty of choice without opening a new account. Alternatively I can have them paid into Paypal.

Thanks

eskbanker

Traditional high street players are unlikely to be as cost-effective as the fintech accounts you have, so you're probably better using Fineco or one of the others....

penners324

Get a Starling Euro account 

Band7

Fineco is likely to give you the most Pounds for your Euros though they are a bit slow and their website is atrocious. App slightly better. 

I wouldn't use Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Natwest at all, and Monzo only reluctantly (IIRC they are using Wise for their currency business). Definitely would not use Revolut or Paypal as they aren't banks.

One to keep an eye on is the HSBC Gobal Money account. It currently cannot receive Euros but allegedly this will soon be possible.

Chomeur

Band7 said:

Fineco is likely to give you the most Pounds for your Euros though they are a bit slow and their website is atrocious. App slightly better. 

I wouldn't use Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Natwest at all, and Monzo only reluctantly (IIRC they are using Wise for their currency business). Definitely would not use Revolut or Paypal as they aren't banks.

One to keep an eye on is the HSBC Gobal Money account. It currently cannot receive Euros but allegedly this will soon be possible.

Yes, fineco is hard work. When I try to log in on my PC they say they are sending an alert to my "mobile code devices". It never arrives though. Seems like too much trouble.

Inclined to try Starling.

We're not talking large amounts of money here btw, so if your reason for saying don't use a non-bank is protection of funds, I don't think that's a concern.

Chomeur

OK, Paypal is diabolical. 4.5% conversion fees. https://www.paypal.com/vg/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees#:~:text=If your transaction requires a,conversion service charge of 4.5%.

wmb194

Another option is Wise. Fineco is good if you can get it to work and withdrawals to sterling take a couple of days and are free with Nationwide - it'll accept incoming Sepa deposits without charging a fee.

eDicky

If you have both GBP and EUR accounts with Monese you can receive the euros by SEPA, convert to pounds at interbank rate with no fee, then send to your bank account fee-free. I've just sent £2k in the other direction, it took only seconds as usual, so not much risk from lack of FSCS protection. You can do the same with Starling Bank costing 0.4% on conversion.

Band7

If security of funds isn't a major issue, you could try outfits like Atlantic Money or Currencyfair. Different outfits come tops for different amounts - although I have never found one that beats Fineco. 

https://www.monito.com/en/compare/transfer/fr/gb/eur/gbp/1000 will compare the e-money outfits, but not Fineco / Starling / HSBC.

Sometimes you can find cashback deals like this one https://www.topcashback.co.uk/currencyfair/. Don't get fooled by the cashback amount, as sometimes you get less with cashback than you would have got without.

Chomeur

eDicky said:

If you have both GBP and EUR accounts with Monese you can receive the euros by SEPA, convert to pounds at interbank rate with no fee, then send to your bank account fee-free. I've just sent £2k in the other direction, it took only seconds as usual, so not much risk from lack of FSCS protection. You can do the same with Starling Bank costing 0.4% on conversion.

Hmm, I'm trying to open a EUR account with Monese and it just says "Processing...This can take a few minutes...We''l notify you when it's ready." But nothing has happened after several days. Perhaps I need to chase them.

Band7

How about using a bank or a money transfer service?