Advice needed on a Euro Bank Account

[Vixter]

We will be fulltiming in Europe soon and believe that a Euro bank account for cash withdrawl and a debit card will be necessary to avoid paying commission to use our usual UK accounts. We are in Singapore at the moment & it is SO difficult to get information from our home bank (HSBC), but their website indicates that an Offshore account would be necessary & even then we wouldn't have a Euro debit card. What does everyone else do when in Europe for long periods of time?

[chas]

hi- try nationwide building society for all your EU direct debit cash needs.

[JohnP]

If you are a member of the Caravan Club try Frizzels. There they do not charge commission for Europe and you can set up a Direct debit so that they can withdraw the full balance at the end of each month. This worked for us when in NZ for six weeks although we did have to pay some charges because we were out of Europe, but these were reasonable.

[Vixter]

Thks for the info, have looked at the nation wide website and it would appear that its essentially a sterling based account that lets you draw Euros and does not charge commission but I dont know how favourable the exchange rates are as they are calculated on a daily basis and the poor old tourist ( in every sense of the words!!) generally comes of worst all the time. All I want is to open a bank account in the UK fill it with Euros and then have a Euro check book and credit/debit cards to be able to spend at my leisure in Europe. I thought it would be such a simple thing to do !!!!!!!!

[bognormike]

The Uk banks' attitude to euros is that it's a foreign currency and will charge huge transaction charges for moving money about. It may be better to have an account in one of the countries in the Euro; that way you can at least use draw cash & make payments on plastic without any exchange differences. How easy it is to open one, I don't know! The problem with all banks will be money laundering rules & you not having a fixed address.....

[alanmac]

Like Chas above I would suggest Nationwide Building Society. I use their debit card and there is no commission charge and I have been pleased with the rates. I have used it in France,ItalySlovenia, Croatia and Spain without problem.

[chas]

Hi Vivter, you say you would put a fair amount of money in a U.K. bank in euros, and I dont think you will find one, but if it was possible, what would the rate of exchange be when this occured, and then when you came to draw money out , you can be sure that sods law would apply and you would find that the exchange rate would be higher than when your euros went into your bank! Keep life simple, go with the flow and enjoy. chas

[Derek Uzzell]

Vixter: Previous forum postings have indicated that Nationwide's Debit Card (but NOT its Credit Card) is a favourite of regular motorhome visitors to Continental Europe due to its unique totally-no-fee cash-from-ATMs feature. Like alanmac, my experience of the Nationwide ATM-usage exchange rate is that (although it obviously varies on a minute-by-minute basis) it's no worse than the rate you'd get for a no-commission within-Europe credit card transaction. In other words, there's no exchange rate penalty evident for euro ATM cash withdrawals. We looked at the offshore bank account option when we were buying a motorhome abroad, but it seemed to be more geared to businesses than individuals. It didn't seem worthwhile for us, but it might be if you are full-timing. Another obvious option would be to open a 'foreign' account (see www.britline.com for info on one example), but bank charges are the norm for Continental European accounts and interest rates may be uncompetitive compared to UK bank accounts. And, of course, you'll take an exchange-rate hit whenever you need to move Sterling into the account. (Searching the forum on "Nationwide", "britline" or "bank account" should retrieve useful earlier threads.) For anyone contemplating long term of full-time motorcaravanning abroad, undoubtedly the best start-point to find information is Barry and Margaret Williamson's website www.magbaztravels.com

[Vixter]

Thanks to all concerned for their most useful contributions so far, all are being considered! Vixter

[Rapide561]

Please note the following. If you open a Euro bank account with a French Bank, the cheques are drawn on France. You cannot simply waltz into Marks and sparks in spain and use the cheques. You would need an account with a bank in each country you intend to visit. When I say you can't use the cheques - you can - but the item becomes a "cheque negotation" or worse and even more expensive to process, a "collection". I suggest you have a Nationwide account and forget about an overseas bank account unless like me you will be staying in only one country. As a guide, if you gave me a cheque for 200 euros drawn on a French bank, my bank would charge me about £10.00 to process it. The Euro clearing system is limited to "per country" and not for all countries using the currency.

[Norma]

You can open an accout with Credit Agricole. I'm sure I found the information on this site but I can't find it via the search option. We looked into it but it looked fairly expensive and find it easier to take cash and travellers cheques (cashed at no charge in French PO's) Though we don't fulltime so this may not be of any help.

[Derek Uzzell]

Norma: I suspect that you didn't set the Date Limit far enough back as the thread you want was begun in Nov 2005. (And that's my 100!)

[BrianR]

I can recommend the Crédit Agricole current account, that is, their Britline account. This is a telephone/internet account, so you can use it whilst travelling. The downside is the annual charge, both for the account and for the debit card, which amounts to about £30 pa. As a previous poster said, the cheques can only be used in France, but the debit card is universal. The advantage is that you avoid all exchange comversion costs. You need to work out whether these would offset the annual charges. The staff are all fluent in english and very helpful. You will find the details on www.britline.com. Brian

[fjmike]

But the BIG question is Does the Britline debitcard work in the automatic petrol stations (worth £30 a year just for peace of mind :-D )

[Mel E]

If it's a French Card, then yes it will do so. Don't know what Derek's aversion to Nationwide's Credit Card is, but it too imposes no transaction charges and the exchange rate used is the same as for other Visa Cards - so you save typically 2.5% to 3% per transaction on the Credit Card. Great for topping up the wine in those large specialist Hypermarkets!