More information on a
Citibank account
You can transfer money from your sterling account to your euro account at a
very competitive rate (the buy/sell spread seems to be minimal, according to my
calculations shifting money in both directions, around 1.8%). To withdraw money,
you get a visa delta card which can be used in pretty much any ATM in Spain at
no cost (from many experiences---but looking at the
website in July 07 they appear to say that only withdrawals from Citibank ATMs
are free; if so this is major change). Normally you can withdraw up to
600
euros a day. Some machines only allow 300 but some machines allow 500.
But you can just put your card in twice to get 300
twice. You can also use the card as a debit
card for direct purchases, again (apparently) at no cost. It works very well -
you can go into an internet cafe and transfer funds between your accounts and
walk to the nearest ATM and withdraw them immediately. One minor drawback of the
Citibank account is that unless you live in central London you will have to do
all your banking by internet or by phone (which is also free), which is probably
fine for most people. I have had no problem doing this - indeed it works very
well. You may also have to make this your main account in order to avoid any
charges since you must maintain an average balance of
2000 pounds across (i.e., adding up) all you accounts each month to avoid a
charge (i.e., you can drop below 2000 some of the month so long as you
make up for it, and you don't need to have £2000 in your euro
account ); otherwise they charge €20 a month for the
euro account unless you have an enhanced current account (which costs).
Recently (2007) they have introduced monthly charges
for the account. However this seems to be for an enhanced version; the basic
"access"
account which is free appears to be as it was; people who didn't take action
were moved onto the more expensive account. The website is inconsistent about
what account you need to have a free euro acount irrespective of your balance,
but I understand it is the Citibank Plus one.
There is a discussion of the account on a
BBC moneybox programme (5/6/04) and you can check out the
transcript.
Their details about the amount you need in your accounts to avoid any
charges appear to be inaccurate however; see above.
As far as I understand things, this will not help you transfer large amounts of
money (e.g., for buying a property) as there is no free way of getting the money
out of the account other than by card, unless you also have a Spanish Citibank
account. To get the latter, you have to be living in Spain already! (One
internet company which specialises in that is Foreign Currency ~ direct
(www.currencies.co.uk/index.asp),
which I have seen recommended on a message board.)
I have looked for similar deals from other banks but have not been able to
find one. Some have off-shore euro accounts, but these seem rather complicated.
By comparison I have found Citibank very easy to use.
Tell me if you know of better deals.
