Student bank accounts in Europe

[Oldowl]

If your DC has studied in Europe, what did they do about a bank account?

Did they get charge every time you paid sterling into the account to change it into Euros?

DD is hoping to study in Europe next year and will need to pay for accommodation in Euros although all her funds will be in sterling.

Are borderless accounts like TransferWise the way to go or is there an alternative?

Monzo is good up to a point, though they now have a monthly limit of £200 cash before charging (3%). They do use commercial rates, not tourist, & purchases aren’t charged.

It’s a brilliant app and very easy to keep track of.

(DS2 has a semester in the Netherlands & supermarkets there only accept Maestro. He did get one eventually but got by on cash until then)

If your DD can pay for her rent with MasterCard then there’d be no charges with Monzo.

We use Revolut.... I think it's similar to Monzo - the free maximum is the same, but the charge is only 2%

www.revolut.com/fr/fairusage?lang=en

What’s the Revolut app like, Marianne?

Monzo is now an actual current account, so you can have direct debits etc with it. Both my adult DSs are using it like that.

Dd has the Transferwise borderless account, it's working fine so far. I can transfer her money into the UK account and she shifts it over into the European bit to pay her rent. You pay a charge each time you do an internal transfer, but it's 0.35% atm, i.e. move £200 and pay 70p.

She's hopefully going to be in three different European countries this year so didn't want to open a different account in each.

A friend mentioned recently that she was using and liking Starling. I also had a thread about bank accounts in the summer, and I think a couple more suggestions were made, but dd went with Transferwise in the end.

@GiantKitten
It's fairly intuitive.... even I can manage to work it out..... and of course the youngsters who were born with mobilephones in their hands have no problems.....

I'd have a look at Starling which is, like Monzo, an app only bank but they currently don't have a limit on free foreign transactions. There is also a facility to make payments directly into overseas bank accounts at what looks like a good rate with low charges.

Another vote for Monzo. Opening up a bank account in another country looked like more effort than it was worth, DD is away for a year in Europe, using her Monzo card, & pays rent using the Transferwise facility within Monzo

I just came across this articie.... looks as if Starling is better than Monzo and Revolut....

www.lovemoney.com/bestbuys/1573/best-debit-cards-use-abroad-foreign-usage-fees-top-current-account-holiday-spending