Best Euro account?

mopezone

For several years now I have had a Euro account with KBC in Ireland - I get paid in Euros for some freelance work and I would rather have it in Euros so that I'm not hit with conversion charges - I have a KBC debit card and so I can use this with complete freedom when I'm in the eurozone.
The problem is that KBC in Ireland is closing and I have to find somewhere else for my money - it's not a lot, around €20k, but I want to be able to transfer it without charge to a new Euro account which provides a debit card.
Can anybody suggest a solution?

eDicky

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

PragueAddick

eDicky said:

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

That's interesting, I had never heard of Fineco before. Up to now when transferring usually GBP to Czech crowns I use Wise. I had a look at Fineco but could not see very quickly how their fees match up for a given transaction. I asked their chat for a currency quote and it was slightly lower than Wise, which really does offer mid-market rates, but there are fees on top (which they recently raised). 

Has anyone compared currency transaction costs of Wise and Fineco? (of course Wise is not offering banking services, although I believe they plan to)

Marchitiello

PragueAddick said:

eDicky said:

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

That's interesting, I had never heard of Fineco before. Up to now when transferring usually GBP to Czech crowns I use Wise. I had a look at Fineco but could not see very quickly how their fees match up for a given transaction. I asked their chat for a currency quote and it was slightly lower than Wise, which really does offer mid-market rates, but there are fees on top (which they recently raised). 

Has anyone compared currency transaction costs of Wise and Fineco? (of course Wise is not offering banking services, although I believe they plan to)

Fineco UK multi currency account does not charge fees for conversion within the accounts as their margin are built within the conversion rate. I have mostly use it for GBP- EUR conversion and their net exchanged amount have always been higher than what was quoted by either Wise or Starling. I stress this point of converted net amount, as when you purely look at the rate it may seem slightly worst but as they do not charge fees on top of it like Wise and Starling do, the net converted amount is always better than the other two. However there is a slight delay to the process so not ideal if you need the converted currency immediately. Fineco let you order one Debit Card for free and pay for a second card; I was an early adopter so both GBP and EUR cards are free for me (you still pay for the delivery charge as they ship the cards via DHL from Italy) but if I had to pay for an extra card, I would simply choose to have one only, the EUR card, as any balance I would need in GBP I could simply transfer to one of my many GBP account and use it from there. Also, note that aside of GBP to GBP UK transfer or Euro SEPA transfers, payments from your other currency accounts may incur in charges at the receiving end as it will use Swift payment.

Other consideration you may make are:
- Starling let you use the same Debit Card to access both  EUR and GBP accounts
- Wise does not have a banking licence, so not deposit protection, which would be relevant if you keep your €20k balance in there.

one final consideration:

HSBC UK has just launched recently a Global Money multi currency account with very competitive rates. You can hold many currencies and make payment outwards but you cannot get paid (at the moment) in any other currency but GBP. HSBC launch marketing material does commit to enable direct currency payments in each specific account but there is no timeline yet for this. 

Band7

A friend of mine and I use Fineco a lot for EUR to GBP and for GBP to EUR. They are a bit slow but always have the best exchanged amount.

If we need speedier transactions, we use Starling, but the difference to Fineco is usually max 1 working day. We also use Starling when we have a need to use a Euro debit card, which is quite rare (we prefer paying with credit cards, e.g. Halifax Clarity).

We have stopped using Wise as they got a bit carried away with their fees, and because they don't offer FSCS protection.

mopezone

Thanks to all who posted - I think I'm going to go with Starling

Miles86

Marchitiello said:

PragueAddick said:

eDicky said:

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

That's interesting, I had never heard of Fineco before. Up to now when transferring usually GBP to Czech crowns I use Wise. I had a look at Fineco but could not see very quickly how their fees match up for a given transaction. I asked their chat for a currency quote and it was slightly lower than Wise, which really does offer mid-market rates, but there are fees on top (which they recently raised). 

Has anyone compared currency transaction costs of Wise and Fineco? (of course Wise is not offering banking services, although I believe they plan to)

Fineco UK multi currency account does not charge fees for conversion within the accounts as their margin are built within the conversion rate. I have mostly use it for GBP- EUR conversion and their net exchanged amount have always been higher than what was quoted by either Wise or Starling. I stress this point of converted net amount, as when you purely look at the rate it may seem slightly worst but as they do not charge fees on top of it like Wise and Starling do, the net converted amount is always better than the other two. However there is a slight delay to the process so not ideal if you need the converted currency immediately. Fineco let you order one Debit Card for free and pay for a second card; I was an early adopter so both GBP and EUR cards are free for me (you still pay for the delivery charge as they ship the cards via DHL from Italy) but if I had to pay for an extra card, I would simply choose to have one only, the EUR card, as any balance I would need in GBP I could simply transfer to one of my many GBP account and use it from there. Also, note that aside of GBP to GBP UK transfer or Euro SEPA transfers, payments from your other currency accounts may incur in charges at the receiving end as it will use Swift payment.

Other consideration you may make are:
- Starling let you use the same Debit Card to access both  EUR and GBP accounts
- Wise does not have a banking licence, so not deposit protection, which would be relevant if you keep your €20k balance in there.

one final consideration:

HSBC UK has just launched recently a Global Money multi currency account with very competitive rates. You can hold many currencies and make payment outwards but you cannot get paid (at the moment) in any other currency but GBP. HSBC launch marketing material does commit to enable direct currency payments in each specific account but there is no timeline yet for this. 

There is a workaround for this at HSBC. If you also have an HSBC Currency Account you can receive international payments in that, and it counts as one of your accounts so you're able to transfer in currency to your Global Money Account.

Marchitiello

Miles86 said:

Marchitiello said:

PragueAddick said:

eDicky said:

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

That's interesting, I had never heard of Fineco before. Up to now when transferring usually GBP to Czech crowns I use Wise. I had a look at Fineco but could not see very quickly how their fees match up for a given transaction. I asked their chat for a currency quote and it was slightly lower than Wise, which really does offer mid-market rates, but there are fees on top (which they recently raised). 

Has anyone compared currency transaction costs of Wise and Fineco? (of course Wise is not offering banking services, although I believe they plan to)

Fineco UK multi currency account does not charge fees for conversion within the accounts as their margin are built within the conversion rate. I have mostly use it for GBP- EUR conversion and their net exchanged amount have always been higher than what was quoted by either Wise or Starling. I stress this point of converted net amount, as when you purely look at the rate it may seem slightly worst but as they do not charge fees on top of it like Wise and Starling do, the net converted amount is always better than the other two. However there is a slight delay to the process so not ideal if you need the converted currency immediately. Fineco let you order one Debit Card for free and pay for a second card; I was an early adopter so both GBP and EUR cards are free for me (you still pay for the delivery charge as they ship the cards via DHL from Italy) but if I had to pay for an extra card, I would simply choose to have one only, the EUR card, as any balance I would need in GBP I could simply transfer to one of my many GBP account and use it from there. Also, note that aside of GBP to GBP UK transfer or Euro SEPA transfers, payments from your other currency accounts may incur in charges at the receiving end as it will use Swift payment.

Other consideration you may make are:
- Starling let you use the same Debit Card to access both  EUR and GBP accounts
- Wise does not have a banking licence, so not deposit protection, which would be relevant if you keep your €20k balance in there.

one final consideration:

HSBC UK has just launched recently a Global Money multi currency account with very competitive rates. You can hold many currencies and make payment outwards but you cannot get paid (at the moment) in any other currency but GBP. HSBC launch marketing material does commit to enable direct currency payments in each specific account but there is no timeline yet for this. 

There is a workaround for this at HSBC. If you also have an HSBC Currency Account you can receive international payments in that, and it counts as one of your accounts so you're able to transfer in currency to your Global Money Account.

Are there any charges for the HSBC currency account? Like monthly/yearly fee, fees for receiving money or paying them out (same currency/no conversion involved). We had a similar set up with one of my business accounts and we were paying many fees, paying/receiving from customer /suppliers abroad (this was years ago) .

Band7

Marchitiello said:

Are there any charges for the HSBC currency account? Like monthly/yearly fee, fees for receiving money or paying them out (same currency/no conversion involved). We had a similar set up with one of my business accounts and we were paying many fees, paying/receiving from customer /suppliers abroad (this was years ago) .

No charges, account can sit there for free largely or totally unused. On its own, it's a pretty useless account as the exchange rate is terrible. But to use as an account to receive foreign currency into (or out of), which you then transfer to the Global Money account, it could come in handy. I haven't personally tried this as I am quite happy with Fineco and Starling for the time being.

Miles86

Marchitiello said:

Miles86 said:

Marchitiello said:

PragueAddick said:

eDicky said:

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

That's interesting, I had never heard of Fineco before. Up to now when transferring usually GBP to Czech crowns I use Wise. I had a look at Fineco but could not see very quickly how their fees match up for a given transaction. I asked their chat for a currency quote and it was slightly lower than Wise, which really does offer mid-market rates, but there are fees on top (which they recently raised). 

Has anyone compared currency transaction costs of Wise and Fineco? (of course Wise is not offering banking services, although I believe they plan to)

Fineco UK multi currency account does not charge fees for conversion within the accounts as their margin are built within the conversion rate. I have mostly use it for GBP- EUR conversion and their net exchanged amount have always been higher than what was quoted by either Wise or Starling. I stress this point of converted net amount, as when you purely look at the rate it may seem slightly worst but as they do not charge fees on top of it like Wise and Starling do, the net converted amount is always better than the other two. However there is a slight delay to the process so not ideal if you need the converted currency immediately. Fineco let you order one Debit Card for free and pay for a second card; I was an early adopter so both GBP and EUR cards are free for me (you still pay for the delivery charge as they ship the cards via DHL from Italy) but if I had to pay for an extra card, I would simply choose to have one only, the EUR card, as any balance I would need in GBP I could simply transfer to one of my many GBP account and use it from there. Also, note that aside of GBP to GBP UK transfer or Euro SEPA transfers, payments from your other currency accounts may incur in charges at the receiving end as it will use Swift payment.

Other consideration you may make are:
- Starling let you use the same Debit Card to access both  EUR and GBP accounts
- Wise does not have a banking licence, so not deposit protection, which would be relevant if you keep your €20k balance in there.

one final consideration:

HSBC UK has just launched recently a Global Money multi currency account with very competitive rates. You can hold many currencies and make payment outwards but you cannot get paid (at the moment) in any other currency but GBP. HSBC launch marketing material does commit to enable direct currency payments in each specific account but there is no timeline yet for this. 

There is a workaround for this at HSBC. If you also have an HSBC Currency Account you can receive international payments in that, and it counts as one of your accounts so you're able to transfer in currency to your Global Money Account.

Are there any charges for the HSBC currency account? Like monthly/yearly fee, fees for receiving money or paying them out (same currency/no conversion involved). We had a similar set up with one of my business accounts and we were paying many fees, paying/receiving from customer /suppliers abroad (this was years ago) .

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/currency-account/

For Euro to/from EEA no, outside of that there are some charges.

adindas

Miles86 said:

Marchitiello said:

Miles86 said:

Marchitiello said:

PragueAddick said:

eDicky said:

If you're a UK resident I would suggest Starling Bank or Fineco UK.

That's interesting, I had never heard of Fineco before. Up to now when transferring usually GBP to Czech crowns I use Wise. I had a look at Fineco but could not see very quickly how their fees match up for a given transaction. I asked their chat for a currency quote and it was slightly lower than Wise, which really does offer mid-market rates, but there are fees on top (which they recently raised). 

Has anyone compared currency transaction costs of Wise and Fineco? (of course Wise is not offering banking services, although I believe they plan to)

Fineco UK multi currency account does not charge fees for conversion within the accounts as their margin are built within the conversion rate. I have mostly use it for GBP- EUR conversion and their net exchanged amount have always been higher than what was quoted by either Wise or Starling. I stress this point of converted net amount, as when you purely look at the rate it may seem slightly worst but as they do not charge fees on top of it like Wise and Starling do, the net converted amount is always better than the other two. However there is a slight delay to the process so not ideal if you need the converted currency immediately. Fineco let you order one Debit Card for free and pay for a second card; I was an early adopter so both GBP and EUR cards are free for me (you still pay for the delivery charge as they ship the cards via DHL from Italy) but if I had to pay for an extra card, I would simply choose to have one only, the EUR card, as any balance I would need in GBP I could simply transfer to one of my many GBP account and use it from there. Also, note that aside of GBP to GBP UK transfer or Euro SEPA transfers, payments from your other currency accounts may incur in charges at the receiving end as it will use Swift payment.

Other consideration you may make are:
- Starling let you use the same Debit Card to access both  EUR and GBP accounts
- Wise does not have a banking licence, so not deposit protection, which would be relevant if you keep your €20k balance in there.

one final consideration:

HSBC UK has just launched recently a Global Money multi currency account with very competitive rates. You can hold many currencies and make payment outwards but you cannot get paid (at the moment) in any other currency but GBP. HSBC launch marketing material does commit to enable direct currency payments in each specific account but there is no timeline yet for this. 

There is a workaround for this at HSBC. If you also have an HSBC Currency Account you can receive international payments in that, and it counts as one of your accounts so you're able to transfer in currency to your Global Money Account.

Are there any charges for the HSBC currency account? Like monthly/yearly fee, fees for receiving money or paying them out (same currency/no conversion involved). We had a similar set up with one of my business accounts and we were paying many fees, paying/receiving from customer /suppliers abroad (this was years ago) .

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/currency-account/

For Euro to/from EEA no, outside of that there are some charges.

That is HSBC currency account, not HSCB Global Money account. And as another person said it's a pretty useless account as the exchange rate is terrible. 

I wonder have anyone personally tried to send say EUR from KBC.ie to HSBC Global money Account wallet and if it is even allowed and there is no charge for it. I remember someone about a month ago wrote you still could not send same foreign Currency to the same foreign currency account on HSBC global. But I have not personally tried them.