Citibank (sounds great!)

[Jilett]

Hi
I've just read an article in this months French Property News. It says this: If you need to regularly use both sterling and Euros you can open one of the linked Euro and sterling accounts with Citibank. (Also Cater Allen - which I've never heard of) This essentially means that you have a Euro account and a Sterling account at the same branch and you can transfer money back and forth from one account to the other without incurring exchange costs.
This sounds good to me but I'm a learner.
Any advice or comments?
Thanks
Janet

[freddy]

There are exchange costs unfortunately as you have to cross their dealing price (bid/offer spread) but Citibank are relatively competetive and tend to charge less than 1% from mid-market. They also have a very good internet banking set-up and have even learnt how to pick up the phone these days (used to be up to 30 mins wait). They will charge you monthly fees if your overall balance with them in all currencies averages below around 2k I think.

I used to have an account with Citibank in Paris as well, but found them to be hopeless. When I was asked for evidence of salary - I suggested they spoke to Citibank in London where I have banked for years, but they would not speak to each other! I would recommend Citibank in the UK though.

Cater Allen were a tiny UK private bank, but I believe that they were acquired by Abbey National a few years ago, and are fully guaranteed by them, which is particularly important to avoid a Barings-type problem.

[Acer]

Thanks very much Peter. A GREAT site! It'll take me quite a while to explore it all, but what a hive of info!