U.K euro accounts

[Ty Korrigan]

Hello, I have just had an annoying letter informing me that I have been charged 29.90euros for banking a clients cheque. This is because this cheque was a U.K euro account and something I thought nothing of except for having to sign the back when I handed it to the cashier.

As the cheque was just for 120euros I am unable to accept this level of costs when banking.

The wiser amoungst you may counsel me on this... My client is a regular one and I wish to keep his custom. When I inform my client that I am unable to accept his cheque should I also ask him for the difference?

regards

[zeb]

Yes I got caught by this!

Mention it to him and ask him to send you euro cheque (from French bank - most property owners here have them) or sterling cheque (send facture in euros but with sterling conversion).

Good luck. We didn't manage to get the charge paid by the customer but have had no problems since.

[Val_2]

Stue, we got caught out too by someone in the UK paying us with a Nat West euro cheque. The CMB cashier didn't even know what it was and had to ring head office and then we were charged 25€ to have it transferred to our account - couldn't ask the client to reimburse this cos he was a good payer and the bill was a couple of thousand euros.

This same client could never understand why his EDF account was always in the red,apparently it was because he was paying the bills from the UK for the amounts on each invoice with the same NW euro cheques and EDF were charging him for the transfer costswhich meant he always owed them money.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]Hello, I have just had an annoying letter informing me that I have been charged 29.90euros for banking a clients cheque. This is because this cheque was a U.K euro account and something I thought noth...[/quote]

All of the UK banks can provide your clients with a Euro cheque drawn on a French bank (and they are not expensive) - all the UK high street banks have French "Partners". I do this with my English clients frequently. Most of them never have enough dosh in their French accounts!

 

[YCCMB]

I was given to understand by a French hotelier that it doesn't matter where you have your bank account ( i.e. which EU member country outside France). If you write a euro cheque anywhere in the Euro zone to pay for something in another country in the zone, bank charges are incurred!! I was quite stunned when he told me that he'd paid charges on Euro cheques from Germany, Spain, etc.

I'm not making this up to make myself feel better either - I don't have a UK Euro account

Yet another shining example of the advantages of the single European currency (and I'm quite in favour of the Euro, or at least I thought I was!)