Euro Bank Accounts

londoninvestor · 9 November 2018 at 7:32PM

saunderd wrote: »

I have a Spanish current account and no longer wish to keep my money in Spain. I have looked further into Barclays and HSBC - both are pretty useless accounts - no card to use your money and the only way to access it is to transfer in and out via another account (= fees). Santander International and their Gold Account offers a card & so far appears to be the only other option. Having gone into a branch they didn't know anything about it so I will need to investigate further.

With the Santander Gold account, bear in mind that it's not FSCS protected as it isn't a UK-domiciled account. It's an account with a Jersey or Isle of Man branch of a UK subsidiary of a Spanish overall parent.

Jersey and IOM have their own compensation schemes, but not as well resourced as the FSCS.

I don't see it as particularly unsafe myself, but given your desire to get your money out of the Spanish system, worth thinking about.

As you say, the Barclays account doesn't offer a debit card. But (as mentioned on another thread on this board), it does let you make outward SEPA payments without a fee, as long as you do them online.

So a potential alternative solution would be to get a Transferwise / Revolut / etc account with a debit card - or indeed a KBC or Ulster Bank or Santander Gold - and transfer smallish amounts from Barclays into that account when you want to spend on the debit card. You could keep most of your money FSCS protected that way.

Saabgirl · 9 January 2019 at 8:08PM

Hi.
We have a similar issue.
We are selling a UK based boat in Euros to someone from Polland via a UK based yacht broker who has a Euro account, so they can receive the buyers payment in Euros.
We wish to keep the money in Euros and add to it for when we buy another boat in Greece.
We would then like to use the account whilst in Greece for extended periods, but this is a secondary consideration.
We would like the Euro account to be FCS covered.
Any advice about the best Euro accounts available.
We are looking at Barclays and Ulster banks.
Many Thanks.

eDicky · 10 January 2019 at 11:04AM

Saabgirl wrote: »

Hi.
We have a similar issue.
We are selling a UK based boat in Euros to someone from Polland via a UK based yacht broker who has a Euro account, so they can receive the buyers payment in Euros.
We wish to keep the money in Euros and add to it for when we buy another boat in Greece.
We would then like to use the account whilst in Greece for extended periods, but this is a secondary consideration.
We would like the Euro account to be FCS covered.
Any advice about the best Euro accounts available.
We are looking at Barclays and Ulster banks.
Many Thanks.

It's a similar situation to the original two, as you say, and the solutions given above are more or less the same.

A euro account with a mainland UK bank that has FSCS protection will have the lack of facilities such as euro debit card, so to have both features you will probably have to combine two types of account.

DannyPearce90 · 10 January 2019 at 2:05PM

Look for an online bank instead.

edydotmail · 10 January 2019 at 2:13PM

You can open an euro account online with HSBC France or Bunq in the Netherlands.

bfg_hightower · 11 January 2019 at 12:58PM

Hi All,

Seems like I maybe should have posted this to this Thread....

I have a EUR currency account with a well-known high-street branch. I receive regular payments into this account with no option to receive these payments as GBP sterling for a whole host of reasons which I wont go into here.

I have my primary GB pound sterling spending current account with the same bank which my wife and I use for all of our bills, standing orders etc.

I was drawn into the account by the fact that I do my regular banking with the same company and their statement that: "There's no monthly fee for the account and no payment fee when sending money to another [same bank] account anywhere in the world" Also when you read the Fee Information document it gives the impression it won't cost you a penny to run the account.... however....

The EUR:GBP is currently at 0.90 at the time of writing according to certain FEX sites.

The BEST rate that my bank has EVER given me to transfer my EUR from my currency account to my spending account IN THE SAME BANK is 0.87 just this morning (according to the indicative pre-transaction rate displayed on my online banking screen).

So say I receive 10,000 EUR per year into my currency account @ 0.90 I should be receiving 9000 pounds on that.

(I know that no bank will give me open market FEX rates - but bear with me here).

@0.87 I receive 8700 pounds on that €10,000. or to put it in other words, my bank could make £300 on my EUR.

Now let's add the fact that i) you don't see the actual FEX rate they use until after the transaction is posted, and ii) 0.87 is the best rate they've ever given me, so the mean rate is a few percent lower. iii) Then let's add the fact that they invert the FEX (e.g. 1.14905000) after the transaction happens on all paperwork records. iv) Now let's add the fact that I pay the same bank for a premium current account a not insubstantial sum of money anyways.

= I can't help but feel like I am being screwed.

So dear readers, my questions to you:
1. Is there a more efficient way to receive and convert regular EUR amounts into GBP?
2. Is my bank charging me a fair rate?

eDicky · 11 January 2019 at 2:26PM

bfg_hightower wrote: »

= I can't help but feel like I am being screwed.

So dear readers, my questions to you:
1. Is there a more efficient way to receive and convert regular EUR amounts into GBP?
2. Is my bank charging me a fair rate?

Considering, as you mention, their pretence of no costs being involved and the lack of transparency about exchange rates in advance, I can understand your feeling of being screwed. But HSBC are no different to any other UK bank in imposing ~3% margin on any conversion, including to/from their 'currency' accounts.

This can be avoided by using the solutions mentioned in this and the other threads, although there is likely to be a charge for sending euros elsewhere from the euro account you now use. The only benefit of such an account is the FSCS protection, otherwise they are best avoided.

Shashy · 11 January 2019 at 3:51PM

Starling are about to launch a EUR account.

Great App, no overseas transaction/cash withdrawl fees, no account fees.

bfg_hightower · 14 January 2019 at 10:41AM

@eDicky much appreciated. I shall begin to look at alternatives.

Nessie23 · 10 February 2019 at 2:39PM

bfg_hightower wrote: »

Hi All,

So dear readers, my questions to you:
1. Is there a more efficient way to receive and convert regular EUR amounts into GBP?
2. Is my bank charging me a fair rate?

Until the Starling account is released to everyone (hopefully should be just a few weeks) you could use Revolut to carry out the conversion (on weekdays, they have a worse conversion rate on weekends). You will not get FSCS coverage whilst your money is with Revolut, but it doesn't have to be there very long. Transfer money in, convert to GBP and then transfer money out. "Client funds are stored under a segregated trust account at Barclays/Lloyd's."

https://www.revolut.com/help/more/security/is-my-money-safe

Euro Bank Accounts

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