euro accounts and trading with people on the continent

[Batfink]

With the dying pound its bringing some great opportunities to export to the continent. The issue is I get charged a fortune for transferring and receiving payments in Euros.

I'm thinking of opening a euro account. Will this stop me getting charged for IBAN money transfers?
Obviously I will be charged for taking money out of that account and converting to pounds but transferring one payment a month will be cheaper than multiple smaller ones.

I have a business bank account with abbey so will ask them about what they offer but I have been told that National Irish Bank have a free euro account.

K.

[Eric Mc]

Who are the National Irish Bank?

[skwdenyer]

Eric Mc said:

Who are the National Irish Bank?

Probably means Bank of Ireland, no? At least with an Irish bank the monies are relatively safe - for now

[DonnyMac]

When I have a customer pay in a foreign currency I expect them to pay the charges to convert to sterling - is this unusual?

[Bodo]

DonnyMac said:

When I have a customer pay in a foreign currency I expect them to pay the charges to convert to sterling - is this unusual?

Depends if you want the foreign currency or British Pesos.

[seaninog]

skwdenyer said:

Eric Mc said:

Who are the National Irish Bank?

Probably means Bank of Ireland, no? At least with an Irish bank the monies are relatively safe - for now

No, no, no, no. National Irish bank are a division of National Australia Bank who own Yorkshire Building Society and Clydesdale bank in this country. While NAB are one of the World's banks to emerge relatively unscathed from the current crisis, you should be aware that National Irish Bank is Not covered by the Irish Government's Guarantee Scheme.

[Eric Mc]

Thanks for the clarification. I'd never heard of them - but then again, I left Ireland 23 years ago.

[skwdenyer]

seaninog said:

skwdenyer said:

Eric Mc said:

Who are the National Irish Bank?

Probably means Bank of Ireland, no? At least with an Irish bank the monies are relatively safe - for now

No, no, no, no. National Irish bank are a division of National Australia Bank who own Yorkshire Building Society and Clydesdale bank in this country. While NAB are one of the World's banks to emerge relatively unscathed from the current crisis, you should be aware that National Irish Bank is Not covered by the Irish Government's Guarantee Scheme.

Sorry. I'll repeat several times: I must not assume, I must not assume... Like Eric, I'd never heard of them!

I must say that, in the absence of a government guarantee, I'd be wary of jumping into bed right now with an overseas bank I'd never heard of At least the Irish are guaranteeing deposits formally. Our lot are dithering, with the usual "trust us" claptrap which, nonetheless, provides enough wiggle room for them to deny us any cover if the roof really does cave in.

[Batfink]

this would not be to hold a deposit. As soon as a few grand is in there it would be transferred to my uk bank.

K.

[skwdenyer]

Batfink said:

this would not be to hold a deposit. As soon as a few grand is in there it would be transferred to my uk bank.

K.

Sorry, I had presumed that the main point of running a separate, Euro-denominated account was in order to give yourself the opportunity to choose when to exchange it for sterling (if at all), and to choose who to use to make that exchange and transfer.

If all you are going to do is to clear a few payments through it before transferring the lot over pretty quickly, what is the benefit of running the separate account?