Domino

the last time I talked to Santander about opening a euro acct with a branch in the UK all I got was a 1000yard stare. They didnt even seem to understand that Santantder was actually Spanish, part of the Eurozone, etc.

but then I asked an LTSB branch about an international/offshore account and asked for a form and they told me they didn't know what I was on about. When I said i had read about it on the internet they didnt want to look it up, just told me to go back to the internet.

Sorry, old school, think customer service staff should get told about the bigger picture i.e. outside their branch doors. But (being sexist) what do you expect about 18-22yo females filling in time before going off on Mat Leave, caked on makeup, high heels too big, large smile - until you ask them a question then their mind seems to zoom off into the nether regions trying to remember what they learnt at the Coventry training session 6m ago....

It used to be my local LTSB branch had "funny money" stored in a square biscuit tin, which got dragged out and riffled through when you asked for currency exchange to go on holiday. If they hadnt got enough they would offer to order it in, come back in 3-4 days.
Local Co-op had a fully operational FX, it was so good with prices and availability you had to queue with all the local Asians making money transfers.

Customer Service in British Banks is an oxymoron, the staff are moronic and quite honestly a waste of space - unless you have all the details, acct no etc and want to pay in a couple of squids. anything that pushes the boundaries the smallest amount makes you out to be weird and a trouble maker. Even paying in charity donation money they had to put me into an open plan office and couldnt find someone to deal with me.

missile

Rubbish, I started this thread about getting money OUT of spain using a currency exchange broker, but I will excuse you for going off topic..

I am well aware Santander UK plc is a wholly owned subsidiary. You should be aware that it has also been downgraded to Aa3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santander_UK
Many people have bank accounts in spain and UK .... I am one of them!

FYI, not ALL spanish banks were downgraded. A total of 16 spanish banks were downgraded. Mine was not one of those.

FYI, there are several options for transferring funds between a.n.other UK bank to a bank in spain which do not incur fees. Santander may not be the best bank to choose. SIMPLES

Domino

that sounds good, took some out of my LTSB acct via La Caixa atm last week and got charged £2.40 for the transaction at a rate 4.5c below the market Euro rate at that time.

FX is a minefield and there is no map of what/where.

amideislas

Downgraded? Oh, that means if you have money in it, you could lose it all?

I would like you to show me the trend of banks who have failed and all client deposits lost. Tell me how many banks this has happened to in this generation of bank failures, please. Worldwide.

Some banks are doing better than others. Some may even fail. But NONE of them will lose your money. Please...

missile

For your info, you will be charged for withdrawing money from non Santander cash machines. Insure Expats is not too happy>

missile

Where did I say anything like that? What I have said is there are many options and Santander is not one I would recommend.

You can read the links that I have posted to understand exactly what downgrading means = simples.

Lynn R

Has anyone had experiences (good or bad) of using xe.com for currency transfers? I am thinking of opening an account with them but would be interested to hear from anyone who has first hand knowledge. Thanks.

missile

I have an account with XE.com and subscribe to their daily currency market analysis. IMHO, they seem to be one of the better brokers.

Lynn R

Thanks, that's reassuring.

frigilianafreddy

I have used currencyfair for well over a year now. I get consistently better rates than caxton, HiFX, the banks etc. A transfer to their account is instant, you don't have it at risk for days. When you exchange and transfer to your spanish bank again the transfer is within one day. I probably wouldn't use it for a house purchase but in lots of £500 its been very good.

Use it, try it and ignore comments from some here who have never used it

amideislas

Well, you can do it the simple way, or the expensive and cumbersome way.

Santander has lousy service? Erm... so do most banks, a lot of these useless FX cards that cost a lot and give you terrible exchange rates, playing on your fear that your bank will fail or you can't convert your Pounds to Euros at a reasonable rate.

One thing Santander does well is that they don't charge you fees and give you good rates of exchange when you withdraw in Euros from your Santander UK sterling account. A lot of expats use this solution because it's the simplest and least expensive. No funny acme-fx cards and transferring money here and there and all over the place.

And opening a Euro account in the UK is not the wisest move... probably why the banks there don't understand it.. like I said before - you shouldn't be keeping your treasures in Euros right now anyway, better in sterling or dollars, unless you don't mind losing up to 30% of its value over the next year or so...

missile

I have no need for your advice and no wish to continue an off topic discussion.

amideislas

My apologies. I thought the title of this thread was "Currency Exchange".
Should have gone to spec savers.

And just in case you weren't aware, you aren't the only one reading this thread, so I couldn't give a flying dynamic flip whether you like my advice or not. It's still good advice that quite a few people agree with, and others may actually benefit from.

Cheers...

missile

It is not very good advice and it seems you have limited knowledge and experience of how currency exchange services work.

Good luck to those who choose to follow your advice. They may find it difficult to locate a Santander branch with a cash machine in many places on mainland spain.

amideislas

Coming from you, that's hardly any endorsement or an insult, considering your well-documented history of both exaggeration and total lack of knowledge of virtually any topic - particularly the ones having to do with money, economics politics, and sociology.

But OK, obviously I can't speak for the entire mainland, but there is at least one santander in every town here.