Wedding abroad - Euros Savings account?

CherryBlossom300

Hey I’m getting married in Italy next year so all the services are going to have to be paid in euros. I wanted to know if there are any euro saving accounts? If so do they offer any interest? or am i better keeping my money in pounds for now?

DullGreyGuy

CherryBlossom300 said:

Hey I’m getting married in Italy next year so all the services are going to have to be paid in euros. I wanted to know if there are any euro saving accounts? If so do they offer any interest? or am i better keeping my money in pounds for now

Why do you want to achieve by having savings in Euro now? 

Generally you'd convert early if you expect a big movement in FX, think a different jurisdiction will have better interest rates or are risk adverse and so want to avoid any FX risk. On the basis of your question it doesn't appear to be the middle one. 

Have you chosen suppliers? Do you know how you need to pay them (debit card -v- bank transfer etc),obv not everyone accepts cards?

friolento

None in the UK.

If you have an address in the EU, you might be able to get an account with the country‘s branch of Raisin.

As interest rates in the EU are lower than in the UK, and very unlikely to become higher, you are probably better off saving in the UK.

To change your Pounds into Euros, and to make payments in Euros, you could consider a Starling Euro account, a Wise account, or HSBC Global  Money. All of them have keen exchange rates but don’t do decent savings accounts. Wise does not have FSCS protection, so you wouldn’t want to park larger sums with them for any length of time.

fonesaver

friolento said:

None in the UK.

If you have an address in the EU, you might be able to get an account with the country‘s branch of Raisin.

As interest rates in the EU are lower than in the UK, and very unlikely to become higher, you are probably better off saving in the UK.

To change your Pounds into Euros, and to make payments in Euros, you could consider a Starling Euro account, a Wise account, or HSBC Global  Money. All of them have keen exchange rates but don’t do decent savings accounts. Wise does not have FSCS protection, so you wouldn’t want to park larger sums with them for any length of time.

Revolut pay 1.19% in their Euro Savings account

wmb194

CherryBlossom300 said:

Hey I’m getting married in Italy next year so all the services are going to have to be paid in euros. I wanted to know if there are any euro saving accounts? If so do they offer any interest? or am i better keeping my money in pounds for now?

You can earn interest on euro deposits with Trading212 (a stockbroker), currently split between three banks - Barclays, JPM and NatWest - but can also be invested in money market funds. At the moment it pays 4%.

https://www.trading212.com/interest-on-cash

Wise is another option. Not a bank but instead your money is invested in a Blackrock money market fund.

https://wise.com/gb/interest/

poolboy

Euro savings rates are tiny, you are better off putting some gbp into a transfer company and keeping an eye on rates, currently 1.2 which is pretty good given recent history, if they nudge up to say 1.22, buy a few more.  I did this but got told off by currency transfer house for keeping a largish balance with them, they are for transfers not holding, so be warned.

WastedWords

wmb194 said:

You can earn interest on euro deposits with Trading212 (a stockbroker), currently split between three banks - Barclays, JPM and NatWest - but can also be invested in money market funds. At the moment it pays 4%.

https://www.trading212.com/interest-on-cash

Trading 212 rate drops to 3.7% from 1-Nov. Still seems to be the best available though.

Rheumatoid

Wise currently 3.24% on € balance 

friolento

WastedWords said:

wmb194 said:

You can earn interest on euro deposits with Trading212 (a stockbroker), currently split between three banks - Barclays, JPM and NatWest - but can also be invested in money market funds. At the moment it pays 4%.

https://www.trading212.com/interest-on-cash

Trading 212 rate drops to 3.7% from 1-Nov. Still seems to be the best available though.

Similar to Wise not FSCS protected.

onomatopoeia99

Lloyds International offer Euro savings account, which unlike their international current account does not come with income or deposit requirements that I can see.  Interest rate isn't great though, so depends why you want to save in Euros rather than Pounds.

friolento

onomatopoeia99 said:

Lloyds International offer Euro savings account, which unlike their international current account does not come with income or deposit requirements that I can see.  Interest rate isn't great though, so depends why you want to save in Euros rather than Pounds.

Does it come with FSCS protection?