Joined
·
8 Posts
Having read through some of these threads it seems like some of you are getting a raw deal over your money.
We’ve now retired out here and transfer money and withdraw it, don’t get charged a bean, and get an advantageous exchange rate.
Remember that every service that a UK bank offers you, makes them money and costs you.
We have a bog standard bank account with LloydsTSB (which we had before we moved here).
Remember the following will cost you money from a bank:
Having offshore UK bank account
Getting UK bank to change GBP to Euros
Transferring money from UK to Greece
If you do not still have a UK Bank Account or you gave up your UK Credit Cards as some of our friends have then you were crazy.
Ours is simplicity…
Online we transfer GBP from our LloydsTSB account to a UK Currency Exchange company – no charge.
We then get the currency exchange to buy the Euros – yes there is a “charge” in the rate but it is always better by about 2-3% than from a UK bank.
The currency exchange company then transfer the money to our Greek bank account – no charge.
We get no charge from our Greek bank (Emporiki) for receiving the money.
When we want cash we either go to the branch or use their ATM’s to draw out cash – no charge.
Over here we have opened only a Savings Account – you don’t need anything else and bizarrely (or maybe not knowing the UK) the money gets to Greece in half the time it takes to transfer from LloydsTSB.
We also have a Nationwide Credit Card – again obtained whilst still in UK and this is still the cheapest way to buy anything of any consequence as the exchange rate on the card is better than we ever get with cash!
You will not be able to open a UK Bank Account or get a UK Credit Card if you are resident in Greece and trying to do it using a UK address will not work unless you still own the property in the UK. However there is no problem (now) with having UK Bank Accounts or UK Credit Cards registered with a Greece address as long as they were obtained in the UK against a legitimate UK address. We even have replacement Debit and Credit cards posted out here.
Hopefully this may be of some help to you, please ask any more questions.
Ian
We’ve now retired out here and transfer money and withdraw it, don’t get charged a bean, and get an advantageous exchange rate.
Remember that every service that a UK bank offers you, makes them money and costs you.
We have a bog standard bank account with LloydsTSB (which we had before we moved here).
Remember the following will cost you money from a bank:
Having offshore UK bank account
Getting UK bank to change GBP to Euros
Transferring money from UK to Greece
If you do not still have a UK Bank Account or you gave up your UK Credit Cards as some of our friends have then you were crazy.
Ours is simplicity…
Online we transfer GBP from our LloydsTSB account to a UK Currency Exchange company – no charge.
We then get the currency exchange to buy the Euros – yes there is a “charge” in the rate but it is always better by about 2-3% than from a UK bank.
The currency exchange company then transfer the money to our Greek bank account – no charge.
We get no charge from our Greek bank (Emporiki) for receiving the money.
When we want cash we either go to the branch or use their ATM’s to draw out cash – no charge.
Over here we have opened only a Savings Account – you don’t need anything else and bizarrely (or maybe not knowing the UK) the money gets to Greece in half the time it takes to transfer from LloydsTSB.
We also have a Nationwide Credit Card – again obtained whilst still in UK and this is still the cheapest way to buy anything of any consequence as the exchange rate on the card is better than we ever get with cash!
You will not be able to open a UK Bank Account or get a UK Credit Card if you are resident in Greece and trying to do it using a UK address will not work unless you still own the property in the UK. However there is no problem (now) with having UK Bank Accounts or UK Credit Cards registered with a Greece address as long as they were obtained in the UK against a legitimate UK address. We even have replacement Debit and Credit cards posted out here.
Hopefully this may be of some help to you, please ask any more questions.
Ian