From: axel@white-eagle.invalid.uk
Subject: Re: Euro account
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:42:36 GMT

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