Euro account

Hi Folks

I run a small business, and since we have a few customers in continental
Europe, I thought it might be a good wheeze to open an account in euros to
make it easier for them to pay me.

You would have thought this would be a fairly common sort of thing to do
these days. But I tried phoning my bank this morning (NatWest), and spoke to
5 different people, none of whom seemed to know how such things work in
practice. No-one could tell me what the charges are for having such an
account. They've promised to get back to me.

Does anyone have any experience of such things? At the moment, either I or
my customers, or usually both, get completely screwed with bank charges any
time anyone in euroland tries to pay money into my sterling account. Would
having an account in euros help matters?

And does anyone else find it disturbing that NatWest should find it such a
difficult request to deal with?

Best wishes

Adam

Re: Euro account

"Adam" <> wrote in message
news:447d6ddd$0$683$
> Hi Folks
>
> I run a small business, and since we have a few customers in continental
> Europe, I thought it might be a good wheeze to open an account in euros to
> make it easier for them to pay me.
>
> You would have thought this would be a fairly common sort of thing to do
> these days. But I tried phoning my bank this morning (NatWest), and spoke
> to 5 different people, none of whom seemed to know how such things work in
> practice. No-one could tell me what the charges are for having such an
> account. They've promised to get back to me.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of such things? At the moment, either I or
> my customers, or usually both, get completely screwed with bank charges
> any time anyone in euroland tries to pay money into my sterling account.
> Would having an account in euros help matters?
>
> And does anyone else find it disturbing that NatWest should find it such a
> difficult request to deal with?
>
> Best wishes
>

I know that the banks are not yet geared to Euro accounts but just having a
quick look at the NatWest site I found refrences to international banking
and currency accounts.





I am with Alliance and Leicester and on the one occasion someone sent me
Euros by a bank transfer I was not charged any transaction fees. That is a
personal, not business account.
You may find with a foreign currency account that you will pay more in
various maintenance/transaction charges than if you just paid Euros into
your sterling account and had it converted to sterling. Unless you will
always keep the received money in Euros and/or need to pay in Euros it
probably will work out more expensive. It does not really make it more
difficult for your customers to pay into your sterling if you quote them in
Euros

divoch

Re: Euro account

"Adam" <> wrote in message
news:447d6ddd$0$683$
> Hi Folks
>
> I run a small business, and since we have a few customers in continental
> Europe, I thought it might be a good wheeze to open an account in euros to
> make it easier for them to pay me.
>
> You would have thought this would be a fairly common sort of thing to do
> these days. But I tried phoning my bank this morning (NatWest), and spoke
> to 5 different people, none of whom seemed to know how such things work in
> practice. No-one could tell me what the charges are for having such an
> account. They've promised to get back to me.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of such things? At the moment, either I or
> my customers, or usually both, get completely screwed with bank charges
> any time anyone in euroland tries to pay money into my sterling account.
> Would having an account in euros help matters?
>
> And does anyone else find it disturbing that NatWest should find it such a
> difficult request to deal with?
>
> Best wishes
>
> Adam

I used to have a business Euro account with HSBC in England about 4 years
back.

There was a minor monthly fee involved but can't remember specifics..

Adrian Smith

Re: Euro account

"Adam" <> wrote in message
news:447d6ddd$0$683$
> Hi Folks
>
> I run a small business, and since we have a few customers in continental
> Europe, I thought it might be a good wheeze to open an account in euros to
> make it easier for them to pay me.
>
> You would have thought this would be a fairly common sort of thing to do
> these days. But I tried phoning my bank this morning (NatWest), and spoke
> to 5 different people, none of whom seemed to know how such things work in
> practice. No-one could tell me what the charges are for having such an
> account. They've promised to get back to me.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of such things? At the moment, either I or
> my customers, or usually both, get completely screwed with bank charges
> any time anyone in euroland tries to pay money into my sterling account.
> Would having an account in euros help matters?

a euro a/c may help for a sizeable number of transactions. a handful of
transactions may leave you paying monthly fees which detract from any
savings.

however, it is important to try to reduce transaction charges.

you must quote the IBAN and BIC codes for your bank a/c to foreign
remitters.

the IBAN contains your bank sort code and a/c no along with check digits and
some letters that refer to your bank. it was introduced to improve the
accuracy of foreign payments. if one digit in the IBAN is wrong, the
transaction cannot be performed. this is better than the money being
received in a suspense a/c waiting to be claimed back.

the BIC identifies your bank branch to the remitting bank.

i believe this will stop you being charged to receive the money. without
this data, the receiving bank will often charge to receive the money. the
european commission has been pressuring banks for years to stop
double-charging and i think the IBAN system is designed to reduce it.

also, do not accept cheques from overseas. these are particularly costly to
cash as they have to be sent back to the country they were issued. ensure
that you tell customers that you can only accept electronic payments.


>
> And does anyone else find it disturbing that NatWest should find it such a
> difficult request to deal with?

i am not in the least surprised.

in my experience, bank policy appears to be to sack anyone over the age of
about 50 leaving dumbos who know nothing.

>
> Best wishes
>
> Adam
>

Re: Euro account

On Wed, 31 May 2006 11:20:13 +0100, Adam wrote:

> And does anyone else find it disturbing that NatWest should find it such a
> difficult request to deal with?

Not really because I don't bank with them, but their lack of clue is one of
the reasons I don't bank with them.

FWIW, I trade in the UK and Italy. I find it better to have an account in
the UK (sterling) and one in Italy (euro). To transfer funds between
accounts I use a currency broker which costs a lot less than using the
banks own service. Every UK bank runs a rip-off operation for transferring
fuinds from sterling to euro whether it is payment to a third party or
transfer between accounts held at the same bank.

Re: Euro account

Adam <> wrote:
> I run a small business, and since we have a few customers in continental
> Europe, I thought it might be a good wheeze to open an account in euros to
> make it easier for them to pay me.

> You would have thought this would be a fairly common sort of thing to do
> these days. But I tried phoning my bank this morning (NatWest), and spoke to
> 5 different people, none of whom seemed to know how such things work in
> practice. No-one could tell me what the charges are for having such an
> account. They've promised to get back to me.

> Does anyone have any experience of such things? At the moment, either I or
> my customers, or usually both, get completely screwed with bank charges any
> time anyone in euroland tries to pay money into my sterling account. Would
> having an account in euros help matters?

I think that Barclays offers a Euro-account.

> And does anyone else find it disturbing that NatWest should find it such a
> difficult request to deal with?

No. Typical bank.

When I was taking out a new account at Barclays some years ago I
was told that Euro accounts (I had not asked for one nor shown any
interest in one) were *legally* only available to those who earned
money in Euros... which was a load of nonsense of course. However
I could not be bothered to point out the error of the ways of the
monkey... opps... I meant clerk opening my account since I just
wanted the paperwork dealt with asap and enjoy the rest of my lunch
break in the pub.

Why not open an account in a Euroland country and get access to all the
various Continental banking features?

Axel

Re: Euro account

Steve Firth wrote:
> To transfer funds between
> accounts I use a currency broker which costs a lot less than using the
> banks own service.


Can you post details?
Irma

Inviato da X-Privat.Org - Registrazione gratuita

Re: Euro account

Irma Troll <> wrote:
> Steve Firth wrote:
> > To transfer funds between
> > accounts I use a currency broker which costs a lot less than using the
> > banks own service.
>
>
> Can you post details?
> Irma
>
I use xetrade.com, they are one of the few brokers where you can do
the whole transfer online with no phone calls etc. required. You do
need to make a couple of phone calls to set up your account with
them.

--
Chris Green

Re: Euro account

On 1 Jun 2006 11:49:23 +0200, Irma Troll wrote:

> Steve Firth wrote:
>> To transfer funds between
>> accounts I use a currency broker which costs a lot less than using the
>> banks own service.
>
>
> Can you post details?

I use this lot:



I've been using them since they were a handful of blokes working from an
office with no capital to speak of. They've always provided a first class
service, transferring funds based on trust and simply requiring a
comittment to pay with 24 hours of intiating the transfer.

Due to fuckwitted government regulations it's now a tad more difficult than
it used to be but still faster and more reliable than any bank that I have
used.

Re: Euro account

"Steve Firth" <%steve%@malloc.co.uk> wrote in message
news:
> On 1 Jun 2006 11:49:23 +0200, Irma Troll wrote:
>
>> Steve Firth wrote:
>>> To transfer funds between
>>> accounts I use a currency broker which costs a lot less than using the
>>> banks own service.
>>
>>
>> Can you post details?
>
> I use this lot:
>
>

another couple to try:-

Custom House
HIFX:

>
> I've been using them since they were a handful of blokes working from an
> office with no capital to speak of. They've always provided a first class
> service, transferring funds based on trust and simply requiring a
> comittment to pay with 24 hours of intiating the transfer.
>
> Due to fuckwitted government regulations

.....the only type of regulation in this country :-(

> it's now a tad more difficult than
> it used to be but still faster and more reliable than any bank that I have
> used.