# Banking



## The Stoker (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi everybody, I am due to finish work in the UK on the 29th June 2012. We have made this our date to start the move to Cyprus in earnest ie placing our property on the market and sorting out what to take and what not to take. We still have one major question which is regarding finances. We have worked out that our pensions and annuities will cover our lifestye but as they are made up from various different pots we are concerned about banking arrangements. Are there any disadvantages to leaving our finances in our UK bank accounts or is it advisable to move to a Cypriot bank? Some of our annuities and pensions will not deposit into foriegn banks.

Hope you are all having pleasant festive time.

John.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

The Stoker said:


> Hi everybody, I am due to finish work in the UK on the 29th June 2012. We have made this our date to start the move to Cyprus in earnest ie placing our property on the market and sorting out what to take and what not to take. We still have one major question which is regarding finances. We have worked out that our pensions and annuities will cover our lifestye but as they are made up from various different pots we are concerned about banking arrangements. Are there any disadvantages to leaving our finances in our UK bank accounts or is it advisable to move to a Cypriot bank? Some of our annuities and pensions will not deposit into foriegn banks.
> 
> Hope you are all having pleasant festive time.
> 
> John.


Hi John,

A lot of people leave their pensions etc to go into their UK banks and then transfer large lumps when the exchange rate is good.
We use an exchange company who keeps an eye on the rate and lets us know when the time is right to transfer money. These companies tend to get you a better rate than when transferring direct from a bank in the Uk to one here.

Veronica


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## steveg63 (Sep 5, 2010)

Hi, you could always open an off shore bank account, we have one with Bank of Cyprus UK Ltd, we can use the card in Cyprus without paying stupid fees, the exchange rate is ok we get approx 2cents less if we use the card to draw funds out, better rate if you exchange large sums.

Steve


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## dalevine (Jan 12, 2012)

The Stoker said:


> Hi everybody, I am due to finish work in the UK on the 29th June 2012. We have made this our date to start the move to Cyprus in earnest ie placing our property on the market and sorting out what to take and what not to take. We still have one major question which is regarding finances. We have worked out that our pensions and annuities will cover our lifestye but as they are made up from various different pots we are concerned about banking arrangements. Are there any disadvantages to leaving our finances in our UK bank accounts or is it advisable to move to a Cypriot bank? Some of our annuities and pensions will not deposit into foriegn banks.
> 
> Hope you are all having pleasant festive time.
> 
> John.


Hi John,

I'm new to this forum too so welcome! 

In regards to your query regarding pensions, there are lots of options available to you from when you move abroad that would allow you to consolidate all your pensions into one pot. Take a look into QROPS. There are many benefits other than the obvious convenience to doing this, providing your pensions are still frozen and not annuitised when you move over. For example taking your pension gross rather than net and therefore only having to pay the Cypriot pension income tax of 5%. Also the fact that your pot upon death, 100% can be passed to a spouse / beneficiary as opposed to the 50% passed on in the UK due to the government taking the remainder ( not what we work all that time for!! ) I also would agree with Veronica in leaving the pension income within your UK accounts and transferring over when the exchange rate is good as the banks over here are unstable at the moment with all the Greece / eurozone issues.

If after doing a little research you have any further questions, regarding pensions or any other financial matters, fire away I'm here too help! 

Look forward to welcoming you to the Sunshine Island! 

Dale


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## apleschu (Sep 10, 2010)

Instead of using banks to transfer money, may I suggest that you take a good and hard look at Paypal? I am using PayPal all the time to transfer money between the US and Europe an it is MUCH cheaper ( to the tune of that a single international transaction between the US and Europe costs about $50 when banks are involved and $0 when using PayPal. 

Please do NOT use PayPal as a bank and store money there. While it can be done, it is not advisable for various reasons,but to transfer money from point a to point b it is a very good way.


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2012)

apleschu said:


> Instead of using banks to transfer money, may I suggest that you take a good and hard look at Paypal? I am using PayPal all the time to transfer money between the US and Europe an it is MUCH cheaper ( to the tune of that a single international transaction between the US and Europe costs about $50 when banks are involved and $0 when using PayPal.
> 
> Please do NOT use PayPal as a bank and store money there. While it can be done, it is not advisable for various reasons,but to transfer money from point a to point b it is a very good way.


Just a thought. Is this possible for him? I know that you can have one US and one other bank account connected to Paypal but I doubt you can have 2 european.

Otherwise a very good idea


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## apleschu (Sep 10, 2010)

You can have only one bank account per PayPal account, and you have to declare in the beginning where your account is located. But that but does not prevent you from having multiple email accounts, and open multiple PayPal account, or he can his account the UK, and his wife can have her account somewhere else. 

There are always ways to work this.


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2012)

apleschu said:


> You can have only one bank account per PayPal account, and you have to declare in the beginning where your account is located. But that but does not prevent you from having multiple email accounts, and open multiple PayPal account, or he can his account the UK, and his wife can have her account somewhere else.
> 
> There are always ways to work this.


But that means that every transaction between this accounts cost money, atleast in Europe. And its not cheap at all


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## apleschu (Sep 10, 2010)

If you use "personal" and "money owed" the transaction is free. That's the way I send money to my son all the time.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2012)

By reading very deep in Paypals rules I found the place where it say what you state.
But only for transactions inside a country. Paypal have something they call border crossing fees also on personal money.

Here is a link to the AGB in english. As I read it it cost minimum 1.8%

Look under 8.1 a and b

https://cms.paypal.com/de/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_US#8. Fees

there is also a fixed fee of 0.2 GBP.

Only time when a crossborder transaction is free is when you have euro or Swedish Krona as currency in both accounts


Or it is something that I misunderstand?


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## apleschu (Sep 10, 2010)

I can only say what I do. The last couple of times I sent money to my son I used the way I pointed out earlier in this thread and of the $200 I sent him, he got $200.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2012)

And you sent him from where to where?


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## apleschu (Sep 10, 2010)

From the US to Austria


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## Nilla (Jul 28, 2011)

In Europe you can hold multiple accounts, one personal and one business, the registration process is the the same. I think you can send up to 1000 Euro and after that you'll need to provide documentation to confirm your account.

https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/m...&countrycode=US&cmd=_help&serverInstance=9006

I have an e-commerce business and I have two, one where I receive customer payments and send payments for services (for which PayPal charges a percentage, that's how they make their money), holding more than that might be in breach of the user agreement but that's not saying that it's not possible.

I make US Dollars so when exchange rates are good I exchange to Euros and send it to my personal account (using the option of "sending money friends or family" which is free of charge whereas "sending money for services or goods" is not, if you started sending loads of payments every month to various accounts trying to circumvent this fee your account would get frozen but if you just want to pay yourself or a couple of people it's fine). This is instant, then withdrawing to your bank account takes 2-4 business days and is also free of charge. 

This is way easier and faster than dealing with international bank transfers, gets better rates and it's cheaper. And your PayPal account is not limited to one currency, you can just add currency options and use the currency converter to convert between any currencies you like you just need to withdraw funds to your bank account in the same currency it's set to.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2012)

As I have had Paypal for many years I am aware of how it works but it still looks to me that the rules is different in different countries.

As I read your comment you send between 2 accounts in the same country. If so its free, that is said in the AGB from Paypal. This is also true when you send money crossborder if the currency is Euro or SEK. All others cost money. And I think this thread was about sending money from UK to Cyprus.


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## Nilla (Jul 28, 2011)

Vegaanders said:


> As I have had Paypal for many years I am aware of how it works but it still looks to me that the rules is different in different countries.


Sorry I wasn't trying to lecture you in any way if that's how it came across, you're right the rules differ in different countries.



Vegaanders said:


> As I read your comment you send between 2 accounts in the same country. If so its free, that is said in the AGB from Paypal. This is also true when you send money crossborder if the currency is Euro or SEK. All others cost money. And I think this thread was about sending money from UK to Cyprus.


I send money between the UK and Cyprus using two PayPal accounts, so it would be on the topic of transferring money between these countries. But right you are it is not free they charge a percentage I just had a look at my account and what they charge depends on how much goes through your account, the account type, how long you've had it etc. It's rocket science just like tax


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2012)

Nilla said:


> Sorry I wasn't trying to lecture you in any way if that's how it came across, you're right the rules differ in different countries.
> 
> 
> 
> I send money between the UK and Cyprus using two PayPal accounts, so it would be on the topic of transferring money between these countries. But right you are it is not free they charge a percentage I just had a look at my account and what they charge depends on how much goes through your account, the account type, how long you've had it etc. It's rocket science just like tax


They should charge 1.8% PLUS 0.2 GBP for each transaction if you have your paypal account in the UK in GBP and the Cyprus one in Euro.


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