# Banks (ha!)



## mdekkers (Jul 3, 2013)

Hi All,

Any advice on bank accounts? I understand it is hard to get a new account right now, any suggestions for a good bank that will do personal and business accounts? We will keep our banks in the UK for sure, but our bank (Natwest) doesn't have a presence or affiliate in Cyprus, and when asked for advice about banking in Cyprus our business manager simply said: "yes, don't" - which isn't very helpful....

Many thanks

Martijn :ranger:


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2013)

mdekkers said:


> Hi All,
> 
> Any advice on bank accounts? I understand it is hard to get a new account right now, any suggestions for a good bank that will do personal and business accounts? We will keep our banks in the UK for sure, but our bank (Natwest) doesn't have a presence or affiliate in Cyprus, and when asked for advice about banking in Cyprus our business manager simply said: "yes, don't" - which isn't very helpful....
> 
> ...


We visited 4 different ones. Ended up with CO-OP because fees were reasonable and they have everything. And I can put cash on the account if the customers choose to pay cash, which many does these days. 

There is really no trouble opening an account, it only take time, around a week.

Anders


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

There are rumors about the stability of many of the banks here. Initially we were with Alpha but switched to Hellenic because of the random charges as did many others.

So far Hellenic have been fine but we mainly use them for paying money in from the UK and retrieving it from the ATM or paying via plastic.


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## mdekkers (Jul 3, 2013)

Thats great, thanks both of you for your answers. I read that there is some brouhaha about co-ops at the moment? I like the idea of a co-op, but am concerned with the fragmentation and capital risks there appear to be with the Cyprus co-op's. Will go see Hellenic and look for a coop in Paphos though.

Thanks again!!

Martijn :ranger:


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2013)

mdekkers said:


> Thats great, thanks both of you for your answers. I read that there is some brouhaha about co-ops at the moment? I like the idea of a co-op, but am concerned with the fragmentation and capital risks there appear to be with the Cyprus co-op's. Will go see Hellenic and look for a coop in Paphos though.
> 
> Thanks again!!
> 
> Martijn :ranger:


There is also rumor that BoC will not survive.

Correct with the CO-OP:s. Trojka demands that they merge many of them to be bigger. They have suggested a plan for that to the government. 

I would use any Cyprus Bank for daily business, not for depositing large amounts.

But then it seems that this haircut strategy will be a legal strategy in all the EU countries. 
But still, 100 000 euro is protected

For us the Hellenic managers behavior when we were there was just horrible, and I will never set my foot there again

Anders


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## mdekkers (Jul 3, 2013)

Vegaanders said:


> For us the Hellenic managers behavior when we were there was just horrible, and I will never set my foot there again
> Anders


Interesting - can you provide details? Was this in Paphos?

Thanks!!

Martijn :ranger:


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

We have been told by our accountant that Europe are discussing abolishing the 100K guarantee if your bank goes down.
We do have an account in another bank besides the BoC and we will be moving some of our money there to minimise our risks and when we go to the UK in September we will be taking as much as we can with us to put in our UK bank.


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2013)

Veronica said:


> We have been told by our accountant that Europe are discussing abolishing the 100K guarantee if your bank goes down.
> We do have an account in another bank besides the BoC and we will be moving some of our money there to minimise our risks and when we go to the UK in September we will be taking as much as we can with us to put in our UK bank.


I would say that if this rumor is true, then the bank system all over Europe will break down. So I don't believe it.

Eu has just decided that the method used on Cyprus will be allowed all over EU from 2017. But also that the 100 000 guarantee will be in force.

Rumors are dangerous.
Anders


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## DaveKim (Mar 25, 2013)

Veronica said:


> We have been told by our accountant that Europe are discussing abolishing the 100K guarantee if your bank goes down.
> We do have an account in another bank besides the BoC and we will be moving some of our money there to minimise our risks and when we go to the UK in September we will be taking as much as we can with us to put in our UK bank.


Hi Veronica
That's a very wise thing to do 
If you need another account to use I can lend you mine


Dave


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2013)

DaveKim said:


> Hi Veronica
> That's a very wise thing to do
> If you need another account to use I can lend you mine
> 
> ...


The problem is if they check when they fly out. Limit is 1000 euro I think. They say they check a lot

Anders


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

I find discussion of the removal of the 100k guarantee hard to believe too.

What has been published is a proposal to legalise the theft of funds above the 100k level as a standard part of the liabilities of a failing bank. Thus depositors would become liable despite having no control over the bank's financial strategies unlike shareholders.

Pete


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2013)

PeteandSylv said:


> I find discussion of the removal of the 100k guarantee hard to believe too.
> 
> What has been published is a proposal to legalise the theft of funds above the 100k level as a standard part of the liabilities of a failing bank. Thus depositors would become liable despite having no control over the bank's financial strategies unlike shareholders.
> 
> Pete


The result from a move like that, would be kilometers of ques in every bank in Europe within 24 hours and a total collapse of the bank system as we know it.

Sorry but the accountant is totally wrong

Anders


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

I know that most of the comments on this subject relate to the Cyprus based banks, but there are others such as USB which may be worth a little consideration/investigation.


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## Guest (Jul 5, 2013)

Pam n Dave said:


> I know that most of the comments on this subject relate to the Cyprus based banks, but there are others such as USB which may be worth a little consideration/investigation.


If this rumor was true, then it would be all banks in the EU that had no guarantee. And there are many bad banks

Anders


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

Sorry Anders I wasn't clear. BoC and the Co-Ops are rumored to have stability problems but the foreign based banks don't seem to have those issues. It could be that they have hidden their problems.


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## Guest (Jul 5, 2013)

Pam n Dave said:


> Sorry Anders I wasn't clear. BoC and the Co-Ops are rumored to have stability problems but the foreign based banks don't seem to have those issues. It could be that they have hidden their problems.


There is many banks that has got state aid all over Europe. All these banks must be considered unstable. I think RBS is one candidate

Anders


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## Guest (Jul 17, 2013)

The more I know the more I understand that the Cypriot banks got into trouble dealing with the bank dragons of Europe.

It seems that the banks still are very old fashioned and use old systems. New systems like Internet banking is far from what mainland Europe banks offer.

When we finally got a bank account with reasonable fees and possibility to put cash money on the account an other problem occured. This is Co-oP and I don't know if they are all the same. The Co-oP internet bank can not be used to transfer money abroad, like paying bills etc. Only payments inside Cyprus is possible. To transfer I need to visit the bank. And this is nothing that comes with the haircut, it has always been like this. 

But ofc you can get the internet bank in French... Even if all manuals are in Greek....

Anders


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