Arillas Forum
Welcome to Arillas => Arillas general information => Currency, cash and exchange. => Topic started by: mumsy2 on March 12, 2007, 04:22:31 PM
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Hi,
No, I'm not being nosey!. My interest is in the ways in which people get their - pensions in particular - cash transferred to Corfu. Has anyone found a way to reduce the rate of exchange. i.e maybe getting the pension contract paid in Euros, or something like that. Or maybe using a financial advisor to do it for you. I don't really know. I would welcome other peoples idews - experiences. Thanks Marie
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I'll be watching this thread with interest Marie. It never occurred to
me how these things would be transferred. I hope someone knows.
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Transferring money Pension wise is not something that I have looked into, but there is some information here (http://www.agni.gr/message_boards/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=6&TopicID=17950&SearchPagePosition=1&search=pensions&searchMode=allwords&searchIn=Topic&forum=0&searchSort=dateDESC&ReturnPage=Search)
that you might find useful.
Eileenx
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I had been thinking about this, but haven't done any research on it.
Now there is an ATM in Arillas, I was thinking that I could have the pension paid into a Nationwide Flex account in the UK and use the card to withdraw euros at the local rate with no charges. I think this would save having to have a euro account. What does anyone else think?
Fiona
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One thing my Mum has had trouble with is opening a Greek Bank account, in fact after one year after moving she is still using her English account and yes its costs a fortune taking larger amounts out of the ATM's as the charges scale up respectively.
The mutually beneficial solution we have found is for my Mum to send me her money by cheque, I then put this into an ISA back here in the UK where it can accrue interest, then when I go to visit I can take out the amount my Mum needs. I can either exchange it here using my Thomas Cook rate or take her the English money, which she may change.
For smaller amounts she still does use the cash machines but so far this has worked well. (and me as I get more interest on my ISA)
Its worth noting that even if your bank offers you free cash withdrawals abroad its still dependant on the machine, much like here, which may charge you additional handling and interest rates and of course you have the exchange rate to contend with.
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I don't understand why your mum has had problems opening a bank account Joe. My friend Joyce and I are having a house built in Arillas and we just went in to the bank at Acharavi with our passports last May and opened an account and registered for tax. I'm sure Eileen will have done the same.
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I think anyone who has property in Corfu must have a
bank account there. They must also register with the tax
people. As far as I'm aware, it's quite easy to open an account.
I'm not sure about having pensions paid in from U.K. tho.
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Yes we did the same Joyce. The proceedure was very easy and like yourselves it was before we had an 'address' in Corfu.
Eileenx
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I wonder what the issues are my Mum is encountering, I shall have to call and perhaps someone on here can help. Last time I tried to speak to her she was out a town meeting regarding bringing wireless broadband to Arillas for the whole community, can't wait to hear how that turned out.
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Now to throw a spanner into the works.As Sally and I are planning to stay in Winter and have the summers back in the UK,i wondered if it would be better to open a greek account and set up a monthly transfer,i even wanted to do it now and then our holiday spends would be there when we arrive in May(Sally said NO).But as we have a Nationwide flex account i wondered if i need to bother.
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Harold
I think a monthly transfer will not only incur a charge from your English Bank but also a small charge from your Greek Bank. We tend to transfer as larger sum as possible to avoid these additional expenses.
(We pay a fixed rate regardless of the sum we transfer)
We can also take advantage of the exchange rate this way, as well.
Your Nationwide flex account may be a better option.
I may be wrong so could be another one for Joe here.
Cheers
Negg
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I'll post back when I hear from my Mum. I have to go on some Flight Deck Audits (one is Funchal with is scary landing and everything) now so i'll be away until Tuesday, hopefully will have some useful info by then.
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Harold, If you're looking to transfer large sums of money, take a look
at some of the exchange companies. They change money for no fee,
and you only pay the bank £20 quid to send them the money, no matter
how much it is.
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All Greek to me! hee he
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Thanks for that at the moment its 10 yrs till i retire,so no great rush
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Harold
Maybe,just maybe you could open a deposit account in Corfu now and send over a little sum every 5/6 Months, or when you think you have a good exchange rate. I'm not a financial advisor but that could make a little sense especially the way the cost of living is going up.
( Not sure if you'd have to complete a yearly Tax return with them every year though. - about e50 to say all your money has come from England and hasn't been earned "Under the table". )
Regards
Negg
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Hi
Thank you all for your help. There seem to be a lot of options. If I hear of anything else from elsewhere I will let you know. I think we will just up-sticks and go, leave the house with the estate agents and keep our fingers crossed. Had some bad news today though. We didn't want to leave until our son got another job after being made redundant. He got a job in London last July as a Senior Web developer. A great job and he loved it, Today the company said they were folding and he is made redundant again. Got another 7 months lease on a basement flat in Richmond as well you can imagine how much that costs!. Still I think we will still carry on with our plans. I don't know! 67 and still being a parent, it never stops!
Thanks again, Marie
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Oh im really sorry to hear that, i hope he finds another job really quickly!
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Ooops, after speaking to my Mum today it appears I got my wires crossed a little. When moving to Greece she had no problem at all getting a Greek Bank account (you need one to tax your car for starters) and has had once since she moved out there, the problem she had was with her pension and getting it payed into her account.
If it was payed into her English account it cost her fees to get at it, up to £7 a time so she asked if it could be payed directly into her Greek account, unfortunately she was told that there was no electronic method setup between UK pensions and Greek Bank accounts therefore it could only be paid into an English account, however there is the option to be paid be cheque. My mum now gets her pension by sterling cheque and this is paid directly into her Greek account, its very fast, she has had no problems and is saving about twenty pounds a month doing it this way.
Hope this information helps
Joe
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Thanks Joe,
That is a very interesting option. Does your Mum find it advantageous to have you living in the UK?
Our son will still be here. Like you he will keep popping over.
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It has helped with me being in the UK, I still pick up some of her mail, keep her in potato cakes and help with the Bank Account. It also came in very useful when she had to renew her Driving licence, to keep her UK one she needed a UK address and fortunately could use mine, otherwise she would have had to apply for a Greek licence and taken a Greek test, not something she would have looked forward to.
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Maybe I could help out there my husband loves potato cakes, I make them sometimes when I feel in the mood. I'm more likely to be in the mood when I'm not here.
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She's always been a 'Warburtons' fanatic, but homemade ones do sound nice!
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we too have gone to nationwide for all the reasons stated, our megre pension is paid into halifax then paid into nationwide, as we are only planning to rent for quite a while it just seemed to be a easy way but do we need to get a greek will, we think not as we will not be property owners. why is life so complicated?
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We've just opened a Nationwide for the same reasons. You will need to find out though if you're required to complete a yearly tax return when staying on the Island long term.
All these rules & regs are like a bowl of spaghetti to me.
Negg
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Hi Eve
As regards the Greek will, it is something that has been concerning us. We heard that Greek law passes everything on to the children, but have not had this confirmed. Also we want to take out power of attorney for each other. Imagine being left alone, and not quite up to scratch in a foreign country. I would be happy knowing that if such an occasion arose, my children would be there to take over. Again, I don't know whether the Greeks would recognise a British Power of attorney, or even a British Will. You are right, life is complicated. I received some answers to this on the forum for Greek Law, if you haven't already looked there. Marie
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thanks, Joe & mumsy, firstly what are potato cakes? secondly, Joe we were wondering about our driving licence, now we know. thirdly, I have a friend who maybe able to advise about the will thing she is ill at moment so giving her time to get better, I did pose the question some weeks ago and she said she would try to find out. Main thing is to have an up to date British one, sometimes tomorrow never comes. Will keep you posted if I get an update.
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Potato cakes are food of the gods, well perhaps overselling a little but click on this link (http://www.warburtons.co.uk/our_products/snacks/bakery_snacks.html) and scroll to bottom and you can see a picture.
They are small pancake sized amounts of light fluffy potato baked in an oven so they go crispy, mmmm. Perfect with beans and cheese, but you can also go 'posh' and make a Steak Rossini consisting of a tower of Potato cake, Pate and Fillet.....time for lunch :)
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Thanks, now I know, they do sound scrummy, might look out for a recipe.
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They really should be Warburtons though, all the others never seem to be as good.