Cyprus banking

exup said:

Sorry if this is posted elsewhere but...
we have a 'nice' problem in that we have proceeds of our house very soon and wondering what to do with it. :juggle:We want to move but not possible yet. Can we open a Cyprus bank account? Do we need to be there to do it? do we need a Cypriot address? Is this the best thing to do? We want the money available as soon as we want to buy, and the interest rate in Britain is very poor. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

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Good afternoon,

When we opened our bank account, four years ago, we had to provide bank statements from our UK bank, passports and the contract of sale for the house. As I understand it you do need to visit in person, it was a long involved process which included several cups of coffee, Cypriot pastry's and discussions about the dreadful state of education these days(????). I suggest you visit your bank of choice over here and ask their advise. Unless someone else knows otherwise?

Kind regards

exup said:

Sorry if this is posted elsewhere but...
we have a 'nice' problem in that we have proceeds of our house very soon and wondering what to do with it. :juggle:We want to move but not possible yet. Can we open a Cyprus bank account? Do we need to be there to do it? do we need a Cypriot address? Is this the best thing to do? We want the money available as soon as we want to buy, and the interest rate in Britain is very poor. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Click to expand...

Another thought there is a branch of the Hellenic and Bank of Cyprus in London, they may be able to advise you.

Mycroft said:

Another thought there is a branch of the Hellenic and Bank of Cyprus in London, they may be able to advise you.

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Pastries and coffee sounds good - and i can talk all day about education so things look good. I think we will visit a bank next time we are there then. Good job you told me about the bank statements though - I can print them off online. Thank you for replying.

Cyprus Bank

exup said:

Sorry if this is posted elsewhere but...
we have a 'nice' problem in that we have proceeds of our house very soon and wondering what to do with it. :juggle:We want to move but not possible yet. Can we open a Cyprus bank account? Do we need to be there to do it? do we need a Cypriot address? Is this the best thing to do? We want the money available as soon as we want to buy, and the interest rate in Britain is very poor. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Click to expand...

Hi We live in the UK and are moving to Cyprus next year, we have had a bank account in Cyprus for six years, it is with the Alpha Bank, it was all done by email and post, all they wanted was a letter from our bank and copies of our passports stamped and signed by our UK bank.

We make arrangements to collect debit cards etc from a branch in Larnaca when we visit, everything else is done on the internet, or my email.

Kind Regards

A word of caution at this time. Alpha bank is a bit wobbly due to very large debts by certain developers. Check on the status of any bank you choose. It wouldn't be great to put all your money into a bank that goes wallop.

Thank you for that information. We will be over for a holiday in 2 weeks time so will visit a bank for information. Any recommendations?

exup said:

Thank you for that information. We will be over for a holiday in 2 weeks time so will visit a bank for information. Any recommendations?

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Try the Laiki Bank. We have always found them very good to deal with. The main Paphos branch is near the law courts.

We came on holiday about a year ago. Whilst here we went into Bank of Cyprus and opened a ''Non resident'' account.
(Bring utility bills , ID and bank statement for last 3 months)
This gave us on-line savings account , that we could put money in/out .
They sent us a small pin code machine to access the i-banking .
Statements were regually sent to our home and we had a direct telephone contact number.
Everything was easy and straight forward.
When we arrived here , full time and got our Cyprus address , they then changed our account status to include debit cards and cheque book.
If possible have an account with the same bank back in your own country , as we did , it makes things easier.
Good luck