Euro cheques/foreign bank accounts - advice needed

[Caribbeanqueen]

Probably a long shot, but here goes.

I receive quite a few cheques from clients in Euros. If I pay them into my UK account, I lose quite a lot in fees. I opened a Euro account (offshore), but they only take cheques over €750 and their fees are even higher.

Does anyone know of a solution of have the same problem?

Is it possible for me to open a bank account in a Eurozone country if I don't live there?

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

mmm, dh knows more about this but not available at mo. We have an account in France although we dont live there. Problem is i cant remember if we had our house out there before we had the account as that may of been the factor for the account.

Thanks for that. Would you be able to ask dh later? I'd be very grateful.

try Credit Agricole Brit Line 02.31.55.67.89

yep will ask later.

Barclay's offer Euro accounts. I couldn't see anything in their online bumph about minimum cheque value.

yeah I enquired at Barclays but they still charge a transfer fee.

You always have to pay something to exchange currency. That's one of the ways the banks make their money.

A Euro account lets you pay in cheques and keep the funds in Euros. When you do decide to convert the Euros into Sterling, you can get a better rate because you are converting one big amount instead of several piddly amounts.

The one I have at the moment is with Nationwide. they said the charges can often be as much as £60 for paying in a cheque!

Some of the cheques I get are pretty small, usually under €500 and some as low as €30 if for a single job, so I end up losing a lot.

It can also take about 6-8 weeks for the cheque to clear.

Looking at the Barclays website, it says that transfers between your Euro Account and Sterling Account are free.

HSBC also do Euro accounts: Info from website -

Costs and charges for Euro accounts
Debit interest payable in March, June, September and December.
£2.50 or Euro equivalent monthly fee.
£0.60 or Euro equivalent per cheque.
Other information
Cheques paid into foreign currency accounts from £4 per item.
Accounts must not be overdrawn unless we agree an overdraft limit.
Unauthorised and excess overdrafts will be charged at 7% over the appropriate currency base rate.
Unauthorised and excess overdrafts on Euro accounts will be charged at our standard overdraft rate.
There is a commission charge of 1% on foreign currency banknotes paid into or withdrawn from a foreign currency current account.

Citibank offer a Euro current account which can be linked to your UK account if you move your main bank account to them. You have to keep a high balance in the account to not be charged fees though, but they were the bank of choice for all mty old european expat colleagues

spoke with DH, yes we had the account before the house. Britline easy to deal with as they speak english. There will be a fee to transfer euros to sterling as with most banks but not sure of charges for this as havent transferred. Hope this helps

Thanks for that Littlestarsweeper.

Thanks to everyone else as well!