On Feb 25, 11:38 am, Andy Hall wrote:
On 2007-02-25 10:14:36 +0000, said:


If you are obtaining sterling in the north, have you thought about
having that account on
a different bank, not connected to the south one?

They are different.


I've found that for the opposite way around (i.e. obtaining Euros from
an ATM in the Euro zone) depending on
the bank used, the charges can be different, as can the time between
when the ATM transaction is made and it
hitting the account. This seems to be more effective if said bank is
in a third country. If said account is interest bearing or topped up
from an interest bearing account, this does
at least offset some of the cost.



I live in N. Ireland (U.K.) but, for the past few years, earn my
living in southern Ireland. For bank related matters we need two of
everything (*), including bank accounts. And when I exchange Euro for
£, the bank takes at least 2% ... grrr... (*) Except for rugby teams,
gladly

Had you looked at putting major monthly expenditures in Euros?


Yes. Mostly is except for rates, electricity, telecom related. For
those, I typically lob a 1-2K Euro checque into my sterling account
every few months; that costs me 2%.

Some local retailers give a decent exchange rate; e.g. Sainsbury ---
approx. current interbank rate, e.g. currently 65.9p per Euro, where
a bank would give 65p. B&Q, presumably because they are suffering, and
others, give 70p. Petrol is much cheaper in the south. On reflection,
I may not have too much reason to grumble.


I would very much like Mr. Blair to join the Euro, but I doubt that
this suggestion would find much favour in this n.g.

I'd very much like Mr. Blair to join the dole queue along with his finance
minister, although that doesn't seem imminently likely either.


I do a lot of traveling, and prior to the Euro, my record in a month
was transactions
in 11 different currencies. Nowadays it's typically 3 and I never
bother to change
Euros into sterling. As you say, though, there is a 2-3% hit for
the transactions.
It would be more convenient as well for business if the UK were in the
Euro zone -
however, each time I visit Brussels I am reminded as to why this would
be a bad idea.

In other countries that are outside the Euro zone but which have
borders close to it
and a migrant work population (e.g. Switzerland), businesses and stores
close to the
border tend to accept Euros, while those in France and Germany close to
the Swiss border will
accept Swiss francs. This is at slightly worse than the prevailing
rate, but normally
only about 1% from what I've seen.


Yes, see above.

I haven't visited Northern Ireland for a few years now, but is there
not something similar, or are
you too far from the border to make that intersting?



Four miles from the border.

Best regards,

Jon C.