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Need Advise-Looking for Bank Best Rates For Receiving Funds in €
Comments
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I will have to look into the fees for having two accounts. That does sound a tad complicated.0
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lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Why don't you keep a french bank account open (the big traditional french banks like Socgen, BNP, CA, LBP, etc.. don't seem to be bothered by having non EU resident clients) ? The basic accounts might not be totally free, but the monthly fee should be modest (€2 to €2.5 per month for Socgen and BNP; I think Boursorama Banque is free), but I assume you already know all this.
Then have your pension paid in € into this € account (protected by the french FSCS). Then transfer € as needed to Revolut or Wise, and convert € to £ at minimal cost (but I suppose if the amount is large both Revolut and Wise might charge you a bit more).
Then, within Revolut, exchange € to £ at no cost (again for small size) at the moment of your choosing if you want to time the fx market. I have not tried with Wise.0 -
Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Why don't you keep a french bank account open (the big traditional french banks like Socgen, BNP, CA, LBP, etc.. don't seem to be bothered by having non EU resident clients) ? The basic accounts might not be totally free, but the monthly fee should be modest (€2 to €2.5 per month for Socgen and BNP; I think Boursorama Banque is free), but I assume you already know all this.
Then have your pension paid in € into this € account (protected by the french FSCS). Then transfer € as needed to Revolut or Wise, and convert € to £ at minimal cost (but I suppose if the amount is large both Revolut and Wise might charge you a bit more).
Then, within Revolut, exchange € to £ at no cost (again for small size) at the moment of your choosing if you want to time the fx market. I have not tried with Wise.
You could also maybe check out Boursorama Banque. It's a free online bank account (with a free debit card), it can be operated via web (it does have an app but I don't use it), I opened it post brexit from UK with my UK address. I have not transferred € from Boursorama to UK Revolut in €, but there is no reason this shouldn't work for free like it does with Socgen (who runs Boursorama).1 -
Agree the process is convoluted, but it guarantees a much better exchange rate at the end of the day. Much better than letting your French/UK bank accounts do the currency conversion themselves.
Personally however I'd recommend against Revolut given their reputation for bad customer service - in the event things go wrong, good luck getting it sorted. I've used Wise plenty of times without issue and would recommend. The HSBC global money account also gets good feedback, although I've not used it myself.1 -
I use HSBC for German Pension payments and yes the rates were dismal but there was no exchange fee UNTIL Jan 2024 and now HSBC charge 5pounds from the payment...am also looking elsewhere and finding this difficult so maybe one of the Gurus on here will advise further1
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Bea63 said:I use HSBC for German Pension payments and yes the rates were dismal but there was no exchange fee UNTIL Jan 2024 and now HSBC charge 5pounds from the payment...am also looking elsewhere and finding this difficult so maybe one of the Gurus on here will advise further0
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lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Why don't you keep a french bank account open (the big traditional french banks like Socgen, BNP, CA, LBP, etc.. don't seem to be bothered by having non EU resident clients) ? The basic accounts might not be totally free, but the monthly fee should be modest (€2 to €2.5 per month for Socgen and BNP; I think Boursorama Banque is free), but I assume you already know all this.
Then have your pension paid in € into this € account (protected by the french FSCS). Then transfer € as needed to Revolut or Wise, and convert € to £ at minimal cost (but I suppose if the amount is large both Revolut and Wise might charge you a bit more).
Then, within Revolut, exchange € to £ at no cost (again for small size) at the moment of your choosing if you want to time the fx market. I have not tried with Wise.
You could also maybe check out Boursorama Banque. It's a free online bank account (with a free debit card), it can be operated via web (it does have an app but I don't use it), I opened it post brexit from UK with my UK address. I have not transferred € from Boursorama to UK Revolut in €, but there is no reason this shouldn't work for free like it does with Socgen (who runs Boursorama).0 -
Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Why don't you keep a french bank account open (the big traditional french banks like Socgen, BNP, CA, LBP, etc.. don't seem to be bothered by having non EU resident clients) ? The basic accounts might not be totally free, but the monthly fee should be modest (€2 to €2.5 per month for Socgen and BNP; I think Boursorama Banque is free), but I assume you already know all this.
Then have your pension paid in € into this € account (protected by the french FSCS). Then transfer € as needed to Revolut or Wise, and convert € to £ at minimal cost (but I suppose if the amount is large both Revolut and Wise might charge you a bit more).
Then, within Revolut, exchange € to £ at no cost (again for small size) at the moment of your choosing if you want to time the fx market. I have not tried with Wise.
You could also maybe check out Boursorama Banque. It's a free online bank account (with a free debit card), it can be operated via web (it does have an app but I don't use it), I opened it post brexit from UK with my UK address. I have not transferred € from Boursorama to UK Revolut in €, but there is no reason this shouldn't work for free like it does with Socgen (who runs Boursorama).
As noted, BoursoBank account is free, and can be operated solely via their website (does not require app), and they send OTP passcodes to my [UK] mobile number and my registered email to validate operations.
UK Revolut is on free Standard plan, with fee-free fx conversion (presumably from € to £) on weekdays within the limit of £1000 per month. Anecdotal posts on MSE and HfP have suggested that Revolut [weekday] exchange rate might be slightly better than HSBC GMA rate.
So if you transfer up to the equivalent of £1k (currently approx €1170) per month, you are unlikely to incur any fee.2 -
lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Gypsy_Tart said:lon_don said:Why don't you keep a french bank account open (the big traditional french banks like Socgen, BNP, CA, LBP, etc.. don't seem to be bothered by having non EU resident clients) ? The basic accounts might not be totally free, but the monthly fee should be modest (€2 to €2.5 per month for Socgen and BNP; I think Boursorama Banque is free), but I assume you already know all this.
Then have your pension paid in € into this € account (protected by the french FSCS). Then transfer € as needed to Revolut or Wise, and convert € to £ at minimal cost (but I suppose if the amount is large both Revolut and Wise might charge you a bit more).
Then, within Revolut, exchange € to £ at no cost (again for small size) at the moment of your choosing if you want to time the fx market. I have not tried with Wise.
You could also maybe check out Boursorama Banque. It's a free online bank account (with a free debit card), it can be operated via web (it does have an app but I don't use it), I opened it post brexit from UK with my UK address. I have not transferred € from Boursorama to UK Revolut in €, but there is no reason this shouldn't work for free like it does with Socgen (who runs Boursorama).
As noted, BoursoBank account is free, and can be operated solely via their website (does not require app), and they send OTP passcodes to my [UK] mobile number and my registered email to validate operations.
UK Revolut is on free Standard plan, with fee-free fx conversion (presumably from € to £) on weekdays within the limit of £1000 per month. Anecdotal posts on MSE and HfP have suggested that Revolut [weekday] exchange rate might be slightly better than HSBC GMA rate.
So if you transfer up to the equivalent of £1k (currently approx €1170) per month, you are unlikely to incur any fee.0 -
No experience with France, but I have used my German bank account to send money to my UK Revolut account, where you can exchange up to £1000/month for free, and then transferred it to a UK bank account.1
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