They´re sending me an English CHEQUE

oompah18 · Post by **oompah18** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:34 pm

Oh no, can´t believe it, am cashing in a long forgotten savings plan investment thingy...... All fine for me to get my hands on the money, BUT they are sending me a cheque in English pounds! Not even euros, which I asked for, & also they won´t even make the cheque out to one of my parents in UK, who could put it in their account (I wasn´t surprised at that, but still miffed!)
So, anyone know how much of my money the Finnish bank will take in fees for handling a cheque? By the way, no I don´t have a UK bank account so I can´t put it in there! The annoying thing is that as soon as I receive this lump sum, I want to send lots of it back to UK anyway, to close my UK credit card forever, so I am gonna lose loads more money in the exchange rate back again!

Any suggestions, or should I just grin & bear it, my Finnish bank taking a proportion of my desperately needed money?!!

Allie (spending it all in my dreams anyway)
Don´t someone tell me I have to pay tax on it here too, or something.....

**Sponsor:**

mCowboy · Post by **mCowboy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:42 pm

and while in the UK, you thought cheques were the next best thing after sliced bread...

Sampo shows that cashing foreign cheques costs €20 a pop,

non-EU payment to an account is 8.50 on internet bank, 12.00 in person... I think non-EU payments = every other country not using the €.

And yes, you will lose both ways with the exchange rates, only way to avoid it would be by opening a currency account and keep the £ in £ there before cash it in.

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:44 pm

Send it to your parents and they can pay it into your UK account.

karen · Post by **karen** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:54 pm

Can't you endorse it and send it back to your parents? (I think that's what Mook was suggesting.)

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:58 pm

The only thing to save that I can think of is
http://www.citibank.com/ for US and
http://www.citibank.co.uk/
Try calling them locally here in Finland too
https://www.citibank.fi/cffoa/
They deal with no fees as around the world (initial account opening is also free with some promotions)
Then Ask them if you could "keep" the currency in Pounds and make sure that there is NO minimmum balance account to open..

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:59 pm

I am not sure if this applies only to non-resident Indians, but you can try
http://www.icicibank.co.uk/
too

mCowboy · Post by **mCowboy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:03 pm

raamv wrote:The only thing to save that I can think of is
http://www.citibank.com/ for US and
http://www.citibank.co.uk/
Try calling them locally here in Finland too
https://www.citibank.fi/cffoa/
They deal with no fees as around the world (initial account opening is also free with some promotions)
Then Ask them if you could "keep" the currency in Pounds and make sure that there is NO minimmum balance account to open..

well Citibank in Finland doesn't offer really account etc services, only loans and some Mastercard, no traditional bank services as such.

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:10 pm

citibank offers Sterling and foreign currency accounts and you can open an account online
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/bank ... /index.htm
They also offer Euro account.
They made me many offers like these..
Their main competition is icici.

mCowboy · Post by **mCowboy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:15 pm

raamv wrote:citibank offers Sterling and foreign currency accounts and you can open an account online
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/bank ... /index.htm
They also offer Euro account.
They made me many offers like these..
Their main competition is icici.

oh yeah, but not traditional bank services like Nordea and Sampo... if they had the full palette of services, I'd opened an account with them long time ago, since I wouldn't mind having a bank whose services I can use outside the Nordic countries...

karel · Post by **karel** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:40 pm

Myeah... So awhile ago I ordered a subscription to a magazine online. Paid by credit card, and they debit my card twice.
Call about it and they promise they'll refund it to my credit card. 5 weeks later I receive a personal cheque from the Scottish bank for £ 54. I go to Nordea to cash it in and they tell me "No, we don't do those personal cheques. If you insist, we can, but it'll cost you € 90.
So to cash in about € 77 I would have to pay € 90.
Yeah right...

So... I'm not sure who does cash in personal cheques, but if you insist, it'll cost ya.

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:12 pm

Just ask them to grow up and do an IBAN cross-border transfer like any "normal" bank. Gees, even my stuffy French bank that has never heard of email is capable of doing an IBAN (aka SWIFT) transfer.

Or open yourself an account in the UK.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:17 pm

Which not bein present in the UK with a gas bill is kind of... complicated

Mark I. · Post by **Mark I.** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:43 pm

Forget cheques in Finland, no matter what Nordea phone service says.

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:11 am

Mook wrote:Send it to your parents and they can pay it into your UK account.

By the way, no I don´t have a UK bank account so I can´t put it in there!

oompah18 · Post by **oompah18** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 9:20 pm

Thanks for all the replies! Well, I definitely can´t open an account anywhere in UK, & just found out they won´t, understandably pay to a 3rd party, so after I just research the citibank possibility, I will probably just wait for the cheque to arrive & take it to Osuuspankki, (and start dreaming of spending all the dosh right now

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