Bank accounts abroad for longtermers (1 Viewer)

[cmcardle75]

Have many of you opened a foreign bank account? As we will be spending extended periods abroad from March we plan on opening an account in France and/or Spain otherwise we will be charged every time we draw money from a cashpoint. I have already swapped to a Halifax credit card as there is no fee for using it abroad. What are your experiences with foreign accounts or international accounts from a British bank? Has anyone discovered the cheapest way to access your money without having to pay to transfer it. I don't want a card I have to load with credit before anyone suggests that. I would love to hear about your experiences good and bad please

I used to have a Citibank account UK based. You can have US, Euro and Sterling accounts, with the debit card locked to whichever you need. No charges for debit card withdrawals. You could use 3rd party money transfer agents to get excellent rates when transferring large amounts of money between currencies, or just use Citibank to swap the occasional thousand.

I stopped when they started charging you if you didn't put enough money through your accounts and I didn't want to pay my salary into it. However, fulltiming you wouldn't struggle. This was a couple of years ago. No idea if it is still available.

 

[spitfire]

Credit agricole britline might be worth a look if you at looking or a euro account

 

[oaps on the run]

bank a/c portugul

HI to open bank a/c here you first need to get Fiscul no then it is just like using uk bank keep 3000 euro in a/c average over 3 months and no charge s we use BANIF find very good oaps on the run

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[Rapide561]

Bank

Hi

N&P are changing their terms and conditions in January, so only the Gold Class Account will offer the free atm usage (new customers only, exisiting customers not affected)

Russell

 

[Coolbeanz]

Hi

N&P are changing their terms and conditions in January, so only the Gold Class Account will offer the free atm usage (new customers only, exisiting customers not affected)

Russell

yes, I saw that on the webpage. The Gold Classic account sounds ideal though so I had better get that application in before they change that one too!!

 

[TravellingCliffs]

Spanish Banks

We have held accounts with two Spanish banks, the service is generally good but unlike British banks, nothing is free. It is common place to pay 4% to withdraw your own money from an ATM that is not operated by your own bank. The advantage is that you can pay for shopping and eating out with no charges but you can also do that with a few banks and building societies at home, just paying the exchange rate, (we use the Cumberland Building Society) and get excellent service and full internet banking.
All the best
Tony

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[canopus]

Haven't read through the thread fully but when we had thoughts on buying a house in Turkey, their law stated that you had to have a Turkish Income Tax number before you could open a bank account, so they got their cut out of the very attractive interest rate at the time - 16%.

Why don't we do that here in the UK ?

 

[Momo]

Really??? That would be great but.......
I wanted to open a Santander account in Spain as I bank with them in the UK, and was told I needed an NIE number - which you only get when you apply for residency??? Apparently you can get a temporary one (NIE number), but if you do that and don't confirm the residency within 3-6 months, its cancelled, and any accounts etc you have can be closed.

Maybe if this EU banking thing has been enacted, this might have changed???

According to my bank (La Caixa) any EU national can open a bank account in any bank in any member state as a nonresident by producing their Identity Card or Passport.

They are also given a Debit Card which is free of charge but not a Credit Card which is "usually" only available to residents. (Note the word "usually" as every rule is bendable!) :thumb:

Momo

 

[Billy23]

We have held accounts with two Spanish banks, the service is generally good but unlike British banks, nothing is free. It is common place to pay 4% to withdraw your own money from an ATM that is not operated by your own bank. The advantage is that you can pay for shopping and eating out with no charges but you can also do that with a few banks and building societies at home, just paying the exchange rate, (we use the Cumberland Building Society) and get excellent service and full internet banking.
All the best
Tony

If you need to have a bank in Spain, try using Barclays ES (not directly connected to Barclays UK), no charges from the Bank, and if you use Servi Red cash point (lots of them about, a sign normally in Bank window) you can withdraw up to 4 times per month with no charge to withdraw your Euro.

Also they pay YOU a small amount of interest each month on the money that passes through your account.

Hope that helps.

Happy Christmas

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[JJ]

Based on the info from Funster Elamessa (Steve) I have just finished jumping through all the hoops and now have a working CurrencyFair account.

This allows me to change pounds into euros and transfer them into my bank here (Portugal) giving me the exchange rate at the time and charging a very low percentage plus €3 all done from my phablet (Galaxy Note 2).

Even though my head hurts with all the thinking and working out how to do it I am very happy!

Thanks again Steve... Motorhome Fun improves my life again.

JJ :Cool:

PS. I tried to order a Caxton card to do this but they wanted my Uk LANDLINE number so couldn't do it.