Foreign Currency Account
Foreign Currency Account
Author
Discussion

Dicky Knee

Original Poster:

1,085 posts

147 months

Thursday 17th November 2022
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My company has recently started working with an Australian company. They want to pay me in AUD and I am happy to receive AUD as I am Australian and have expenses in AUD. I will be booking this through a UK company so I do need for payments to come through a company account.

Stupidly I thought I just call Barclays Business banking and they will set up an AUD account for me. They want to see a history of AUD receipts into my GBP company account (which they will automatically convert into GBP) which I would then need to sell to buy the AUD I want. There are hoops to jump through like providing the invoices, a business plan showing estimates of timing and size of receipts etc. I'm not going to pay the Barclays spread on the way in and way out so looking for an alternative.

My accountant confirmed that Barclays are painful to deal with on Foreign Currency accounts but aren't unique on this and switching to HSBC or NatWest would be equally miserable.

He suggested Revolut and looking at their website it seems like a good solution. As I won't be holding much of a balance in the account I'm not too bothered about them not being a bank.

Does anyone else use Revolut and has the experience been good? Any other solution I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance,

Dicky

egomeister

7,202 posts

279 months

Thursday 17th November 2022
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I have a transferwise multi currency account (personal) but I think they offer the same product for business - they will give you an Aussie account number etc. From memory this still isn't a true account with the 85k protection, but you seem happy with that.

Another alternative is maybe Starling although you'd have to check they do AUD. I haven't used them personally but I have friends who use it for Euros and are happy.

MisanoPayments

508 posts

58 months

Thursday 17th November 2022
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Happy to help OP and chat about the options available to you, with no sell :-)

grumbas

1,063 posts

207 months

Friday 18th November 2022
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egomeister said:
I have a transferwise multi currency account (personal) but I think they offer the same product for business - they will give you an Aussie account number etc. From memory this still isn't a true account with the 85k protection, but you seem happy with that.

Another alternative is maybe Starling although you'd have to check they do AUD. I haven't used them personally but I have friends who use it for Euros and are happy.
This, although they've rebranded to simply Wise now. Been using them for years both business and personal and it's just simple and painless, fees are minimal and reasonable too.

skwdenyer

18,405 posts

256 months

Sunday 20th November 2022
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Another vote for Wise. Use them daily.

Dicky Knee

Original Poster:

1,085 posts

147 months

Tuesday 22nd November 2022
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Thanks all.

I'll take a look at the alternatives.

biggiles

1,938 posts

241 months

Tuesday 22nd November 2022
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Another vote for (Transfer)Wise - a doddle to set up for business use.

classicaholic

2,035 posts

86 months

Tuesday 22nd November 2022
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Thanks to everyone for the Wise idea, we have just opened an account in a few minutes, this will be great for our foreign transactions.