# moving to cyprus



## punkz (Jul 11, 2015)

hi everyone I,m new to the site so I would just like to say hello to everyone. I,m looking to move to Cyprus hopefully sometime next year, I,ve just been reading about opening a bank account. can I open an account in a Cypriot bank while I,m still over in the uk? I,m also planning to still work in the uk, can I have my wages payed into a Cypriot bank account? would be gratefull for any info on this matter.


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

punkz said:


> hi everyone I,m new to the site so I would just like to say hello to everyone. I,m looking to move to Cyprus hopefully sometime next year, I,ve just been reading about opening a bank account. can I open an account in a Cypriot bank while I,m still over in the uk? I,m also planning to still work in the uk, can I have my wages payed into a Cypriot bank account? would be gratefull for any info on this matter.


Hi,

We are with Hellenic Bank here in Cyprus. We opened our account last September, and needed to produce our passports and either a rental agreement or a bill of sale, so unless you can produce both of these items, I don't think that it will be possible. I am aware that some banks (not Hellenic) also require a utility bill before allowing a new account to be opened.

As far as paying your wages into a Cypriot bank account is concerned, I would advise against it. Far better to retain a UK account and use a currency exchange facility like Curremcy Fair or Transferwise to ensure that you get the best rates at the right times. We are with Currency Fair and I have no hesitation in recommending them. You get very close to bank rate, and pay just €3 per transfer regardless of the amount.


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

punkz said:


> hi everyone I,m new to the site so I would just like to say hello to everyone. I,m looking to move to Cyprus hopefully sometime next year, I,ve just been reading about opening a bank account. can I open an account in a Cypriot bank while I,m still over in the uk? I,m also planning to still work in the uk, can I have my wages payed into a Cypriot bank account? would be gratefull for any info on this matter.


Hi, welcome to the forum.

I doubt if there is anywhere where you can open a bank account without presenting yourself in person at a branch, this is mainly due to anti money laundering requirements.

Most people, including myself, will recommend keeping your UK account for payment of wages/pension etc and transfer funds to Cyprus as and when however Cyprus banks are getting much stronger following the 2013 problems. Liquidity is much improved and there have been a number of management changes for the good.
As stated previously you will need to provide proof of address and property ownership or rental plus passport etc. It's a very easy process, you just need to decide which bank to use and on this point everybody has their own opinion.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Rema said:


> Hi, welcome to the forum.
> 
> I doubt if there is anywhere where you can open a bank account without presenting yourself in person at a branch, this is mainly due to anti money laundering requirements.
> 
> ...


I would have agreed in the past about having pensions paid into UK accounts but Barclays are closing all accounts of people who are resident in Cyprus unless they have at least 100K in the accounts or have a UK address as well.
It has caused us a nightmare having to sort out the mess they have left us in and I am told other UK banks will soon follow suit. We have had to open a sterling account with the Bank of Cyprus for our pensions to paid into (that was the easy part as the bank have been really helpful) Now we are trying to organise our pensions to be paid into it, that is not so easy with some of the private pension companies. We havn't yet contacted DWP for our state pensions, hopefully that will be less of a problem.

What we have discovered though is that by having sterling in our Cyprus account, when we want to transfer some to our euro account we will get the full rate for the day with just a €5 charge. That is far better than any of the currency companies offer.


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## southcoastlady (Apr 18, 2015)

Veronica said:


> I would have agreed in the past about having pensions paid into UK accounts but Barclays are closing all accounts of people who are resident in Cyprus unless they have at least 100K in the accounts or have a UK address as well.
> It has caused us a nightmare having to sort out the mess they have left us in and I am told other UK banks will soon follow suit. We have had to open a sterling account with the Bank of Cyprus for our pensions to paid into (that was the easy part as the bank have been really helpful) Now we are trying to organise our pensions to be paid into it, that is not so easy with some of the private pension companies. We havn't yet contacted DWP for our state pensions, hopefully that will be less of a problem.
> 
> What we have discovered though is that by having sterling in our Cyprus account, when we want to transfer some to our euro account we will get the full rate for the day with just a €5 charge. That is far better than any of the currency companies offer.


When we first came here (3 years ago) I had my UK state pension paid in euros into my Hellenic account. When the banking crisis came I had to swop it to be paid into the uk account but have recently changed it back again to the hellenic. Good rate of exchange and on time. We still have martin's occupational pension paid into our UK account to maintain commitments in UK. This all works well for us with no charge made for having the Euro equivalent paid direct into the HELLENIC.


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

Veronica said:


> I would have agreed in the past about having pensions paid into UK accounts but Barclays are closing all accounts of people who are resident in Cyprus unless they have at least 100K in the accounts or have a UK address as well.
> It has caused us a nightmare having to sort out the mess they have left us in and I am told other UK banks will soon follow suit. We have had to open a sterling account with the Bank of Cyprus for our pensions to paid into (that was the easy part as the bank have been really helpful) Now we are trying to organise our pensions to be paid into it, that is not so easy with some of the private pension companies. We havn't yet contacted DWP for our state pensions, hopefully that will be less of a problem.
> 
> What we have discovered though is that by having sterling in our Cyprus account, when we want to transfer some to our euro account we will get the full rate for the day with just a €5 charge. That is far better than any of the currency companies offer.


Yes, Barclays has posed an interesting situation. Happy you are getting things sorted though.
I'm intrigued to know about the Sterling to Euro transfer charge of €5 and 'full rate' at the bank of Cyprus. Sounds exceptional what they are telling you, usually banks build their commission into the rate they offer. When you eventually make a transfer would you post details of the rate you get - just to check it against the interbank rate on the day. Thanks.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Rema said:


> Yes, Barclays has posed an interesting situation. Happy you are getting things sorted though.
> I'm intrigued to know about the Sterling to Euro transfer charge of €5 and 'full rate' at the bank of Cyprus. Sounds exceptional what they are telling you, usually banks build their commission into the rate they offer. When you eventually make a transfer would you post details of the rate you get - just to check it against the interbank rate on the day. Thanks.


We did a transfer this morning. We got the full rate of 1.41. That was the rate at the time because we checked. It went up later in the day to 1.42.


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

Veronica said:


> We did a transfer this morning. We got the full rate of 1.41. That was the rate at the time because we checked. It went up later in the day to 1.42.


I'm impressed!


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