Citibank and processing of UK Pensions

fiveshets

Hi Everyone
We live in France and each month our pensions are paid in £s from DWP to Citibank who convert to Euros and pay into our French bank account. Receipt of the triple lock bonus was gratefully received but ever since the initial May payment our pensions have been converted losing money each month. I know the exchange rate varies, but to be always going down ? Does anyone else experience the same ? The DWP just told me it was the exchange rate and Brexit, not really helpful.
Thank you in advance for your input

wmb194

fiveshets said:

Hi Everyone
We live in France and each month our pensions are paid in £s from DWP to Citibank who convert to Euros and pay into our French bank account. Receipt of the triple lock bonus was gratefully received but ever since the initial May payment our pensions have been converted losing money each month. I know the exchange rate varies, but to be always going down ? Does anyone else experience the same ? The DWP just told me it was the exchange rate and Brexit, not really helpful.
Thank you in advance for your input

Is Citibank charging you fees and is it giving you a good exchange rate? 

If you can open an account you might get a better exchange rate with Wise. You can open accounts in many different currencies.

https://wise.com/gb/account/

The exchange rate is back to roughly Financial Crisis levels.

gt94sss2

fiveshets said:

Hi Everyone
We live in France and each month our pensions are paid in £s from DWP to Citibank who convert to Euros and pay into our French bank account. Receipt of the triple lock bonus was gratefully received but ever since the initial May payment our pensions have been converted losing money each month. I know the exchange rate varies, but to be always going down ? Does anyone else experience the same ? The DWP just told me it was the exchange rate and Brexit, not really helpful.
Thank you in advance for your input

See https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad including

If you choose to be paid in your local currency, the amount will be converted using the exchange rate at the time of the conversion. There’s a conversion charge of 0.39% before payment. 

If you choose to be paid in pound sterling, there will be no charge.

The Pound/Euro exchange rate goes both up and down. Brexit has nothing to do with it.

eskbanker

fiveshets said:

ever since the initial May payment our pensions have been converted losing money each month. I know the exchange rate varies, but to be always going down ? Does anyone else experience the same ? The DWP just told me it was the exchange rate and Brexit, not really helpful.

Not sure what else you expect the DWP to tell you when fluctuations are indeed caused by the exchange rate (albeit not Brexit) which you'd already accepted?  You can check the exchange rate at any and all times, and validate that it has indeed dropped from 1.20 in May to 1.13 more recently, so you should expect your converted amounts to be in line with that.  Of course it doesn't always go down though!

WastedWords

fiveshets said:

..... since the initial May payment our pensions have been converted losing money each month. I know the exchange rate varies, but to be always going down ? Does anyone else experience the same ? 

Since May, pretty much yes.