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Starting out as a Freelancer in the UK (specifically banking)
Autor vlákna: Christopher Smith
Claire Cox
Claire Cox
Velká Británie
Local time: 20:35
francouzština -> angličtina
+ ...
Go for it! Jan 9, 2013

Tom in London wrote:

The most recent payment in Euro I received via Natwest was dated 27 December. THe exchange rate applied by Natwest was 0.8001983 and of course they also deducted £7 (!!!!!) for doing the transaction.

So even though the rate is slightly better than First Direct, this is completely cancelled out by the £7.

I'm seriously thinking about switching from NatWest to First Direct.


I didn't have any very recent payments to offer you for comparison, but I did receive a Euro payment into my FD account on 28 December, so the day after the rate you quoted. They applied a rate of 0.8032, so better again than the NatWest rate. The payment I received was for 1925 Euros, so by my reckoning I'd have been £6 worse off with the NatWest exchange rate, plus the further £7 commission charge, so £13 overall - that adds up over the year! I know rates are subject to fluctuation over the course of the day and from day to day, but the historic average figures on xe (http://www.xe.com/currencytables/) suggest a commercial rate of 0.8138 for the 27th and 0.8182 for the 28th, so very little difference. I do also recall that when I was in the transitional period with payments going into both accounts, the FD rate was always better on the odd occasion I received payments on exactly the same day - I can't give you figures off the top of my head, as it's some years ago now.

I haven't any axe to grind on First Direct's behalf, but like Sonia I've been very impressed with the service and the switch itself was painless - I only wish I'd done it sooner. The only thing I would say is that it took me ages to get clients to transfer my details despite numerous reminders. I kept the two accounts running side-by-side for about a year and still had some stragglers "forgetting" and paying into the old account despite the new details being in red on the invoices in question.

Also, with the NatWest system, I sometimes used to amalgamate monthly invoices if I thought they were just going to creep over the £100 limit for the commission charges to increase from £1 to £7, whereas now I just issue monthly invoices regardless of the amount because there's no fee - much better for administration and cashflow!

Good luck - I certainly haven't regretted making the change.

[Edited at 2013-01-09 09:52 GMT]
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
Velká Británie
Local time: 20:35
Člen (2008)
italština -> angličtina
Thanks Claire Jan 9, 2013

I may have more questions before I go for it !

I'm having a problem deciding WHEN because I'm going to be very busy for the next few months and won't be able to track all my incomings/outgoings on a daily basis.

Also: I have been ripped off twice by Natwest offering me a special bonus rate on savings accounts, so long as I applied within a set time-frame, which I did, only to discover (later and with much expensive calling to 0845 numbers) that I wasn't getting that ra... See more
I may have more questions before I go for it !

I'm having a problem deciding WHEN because I'm going to be very busy for the next few months and won't be able to track all my incomings/outgoings on a daily basis.

Also: I have been ripped off twice by Natwest offering me a special bonus rate on savings accounts, so long as I applied within a set time-frame, which I did, only to discover (later and with much expensive calling to 0845 numbers) that I wasn't getting that rate.

[Edited at 2013-01-09 09:54 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
XXXphxxx (X)
XXXphxxx (X)  Identity Verified
Velká Británie
Local time: 20:35
portugalština -> angličtina
+ ...
Cooperative Bank Jan 9, 2013

I've only just migrated over to them but can recommend them for a marvellously simple website, good customer service and no charges for receiving Euros. My bank in France charges €3.50 to make the transfer so it all works out quite nicely. The last transfer was mid-December and Coop's ROE was 0.790202. I can also vouch for the fact that there's no issue at all with holding this a/c abroad, provided all the income is still declared to HMRC. We apply one rate (the average for the year) to all in... See more
I've only just migrated over to them but can recommend them for a marvellously simple website, good customer service and no charges for receiving Euros. My bank in France charges €3.50 to make the transfer so it all works out quite nicely. The last transfer was mid-December and Coop's ROE was 0.790202. I can also vouch for the fact that there's no issue at all with holding this a/c abroad, provided all the income is still declared to HMRC. We apply one rate (the average for the year) to all income in the tax year using HMRC's own rate: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/exrate/yearly_rates.htm ▲ Collapse
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
Velká Británie
Local time: 20:35
Člen (2008)
italština -> angličtina
Thanks Claire - again Jan 11, 2013

Hopefully this isn't off topic (I've been advised that I was "drifting")

Thanks to all the advice offered here I have now initiated the process of moving to FirstDirect, who have confirmed to me that up to GBP 50K they do not apply any charges for receiving payments in another currency so long as the payer has my IBAN and BIC code.

Thanks again!

And to Lucia: if this was off-topic I apologise; it wasn't intentional.
 
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Starting out as a Freelancer in the UK (specifically banking)






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