Can anybody tell me if there is a way for European accounts to avoid deposit fees. Bank transfers are a massive no no due to other banks wanting a piece of the pie. Do 212 have any plans to remove this card fee for European accounts?
That 0.7% is a kick in the teeth, and especially unfair as it only effects non UK customers.
I’m hoping to look at the competiton and see 212 is still best and class with fees, nevertheless it’s pretty depressing just wasting money simply as don’t live in UK.
What I don’t understand is that our accounts are now back in the EU right? So, why do bank transfers still have to be sent to London affecting us so badly.
Every penny counts with investing, the game is hard enough without silly fees.
I’m with ING and I don’t pay anything to deposit € to the € account I have at T212 (bank transfer). Maybe Revolut, N26 or something similar would avoid the fee for you but it really depends on the bank you’re currently with.
The bank transfer, middle bank, fee for doing a bank transfer was off the scale.
I should add, before the fees came in (Oct 2020) I switched from a euro 212, to dollar account (personal preference)
Now obviously regretting it, I didn’t know they were going to introduce card fees.
But could somehow who lives in Europe please confirm something.
If I were to close my dollar account, and open a euro account, could I then do the bank transfer fee free? (this would be a massive effort in itself,)
I’ve had revolut for a long time. (I have a premium account) when you do a bank transfer with revolut the initial fee is cheaper, much cheaper, but then you get walloped by a “go between bank”
Making it much much worse.
Furthermore, they don’t tell you how much this extra fee will be, until the process has finished and money sent.
(I believe, revolut don’t actually have any fees, or maybe one free a month on that transfer, but it’s the second bank that gets you)
My honest assessment of the current situation.
The 0.7% is the best option of a bad bunch. (just about)
Santander (my bank) offer a dollar account which charges 3$ a month to have the account.
Considering I have no plans too add more over the next 2 months in seems pointless.
I may revise this in the new year as it becomes better value over if putting 400 a month in.
(plus even with this, I’m not 100% no fees involved as why is different to revolut?)
I looked at other banks, only ING 22€ every 6 months (3.60 a month).
I looked at wise app, its not close value wise.
I considered closing this over time, and switching to euro, but with 0.15%, it only takes 5 trades and I’m worse off anyway
I’ve done a bank transfer of 1€ to see what I get,
Santander offered rate is 1.11 (rev 1.146)
So depending who exchanges, no fees but worse off.
I looked at competitors, and the service just isn’t as good.
So do I think this situation is fair on EU customers, NO.
Is it a bit depressing YES.
However
0.7% is the least worst option, for access to the best platform at this moment in time.
It is annoying that payment processing networks have fees as their whole business model and only way to pay for their network, and that we, poor consumers, have to pay for the convenience, isn’t it?
Edit: too bad that your bank doesn’t already offer better.
It is unfair to attribute the bank account fees to T212, in that case nobody has free deposit at all, and then it’s all fair anew?
I understand that if considering to open an extra bank account just for T212, then it is a consideration, and as you concluded, not your cheapest option, but that has nothing to do with T212 being unfair.
Your cheapest option would appear to move your bank account to ING , and reopen your T212 as an euro account, if you don’t do many FX transfers.
Otherwise, your current setup appears to be the cheapest available to you.
Ing in Romania(3rd world country), has much worse conditions than what other 1st world european countrys have.
My account at T212 is in RON(local currency) and the account i have to transfer money for T212 is at Barclays London also a RON account. Guess what, ING only allows RON transfers to another Romanian account not for other country account.
If you try Revolut there will be a middle bank charge that is not known in advance.
So cheepest option is the 0.7% card top-up.
With my French bank account (1st world country tho), I could not do SEPA transfer to another country without calling my banker.
But then the transfer would have no fee.
Maybe you can negotiate with your banker about SEPA RON to RON in a different country?
Already tried negotiating. The answer was their system is not developed for this. I even submitted 3 times an improvment ideea in the last year with no luck so far.
Quite a terrible thing to hear. I thought SEPA had some form of European standard to it, but it looks more like a patchwork of different technologies mixed together tbh.
True enough, it’s not all 212s fault. They are part of the problem, not the problem so to speak. It’s not their issue that dollar accounts also cost money, I get that.
What 212 did do however was make it much harder for everyone with dollar accounts to now deposit without costs or terrible rates unless you live in one particular place. (even if I did hypothetical switch that 0.15 adds up as all my stocks require fx use) before I could access the best rate on the market, now it is with a 0.7% fee., yet if I lived in the UK, I would still be able to do that with a bank transfer, as I live in the EU, nope.
***why couldn’t they for example give all EU customers with dollar accounts 1 card transaction a month/ 2 months free of charges until a solution is found. Now that’s customer facing.
I fully understand 212 are a business, and need to do what is best for it. However right now nothing has changed in the UK, you can still add freely and get the same money you had before.
That is not the case for international customers, they offered something, then changed the game, even though our accounts are now registered in the EU.
I don’t blame 212, but they certainly Haven’t given any thought to what is best for the customer.
At this moment 212 is still best in class,
Really Etoro, revolut and others don’t come close, I actually closed my stocks in those places to come here as what 212 was offering is/was so impressive.
However, eventually someone within the EU will feel the hole they have left behind. And then they do, I’ll be gone (I know who cares, haha) which for me is the point, I’m now here because there is nothing better, they sadly seem to have forgotten brand loyalty is a 2 way thing.
Until then it is what it is, thanks for your input
I already proposed to T212(not accepted) something to bypass this deposit issue until a really free doposit way is developed.
To accept a 1-per-month free card top-up.
To add to the problem, incoming transfer fee is far worse
If the withdrawal for some reason won’t come in one transfer but in multiple the fee will be off the roof.
Flexibility in linking accounts would be nice too. Ex. Like in Degiro where you can unlink and link a new account…
So in case of withdrawal I could link maybe a N26 account
For what it’s worth… Even people in the UK are subject to that charge. They have the option not to use a card, but that’s because of circumstances outside of T212 enabling it. The goal in the future is to allow EU transfers via the truelayer, most likely once everyone is on the EU entity, but they can’t control whether or not your bank will charge for it. To offer free card deposits would mean footing the bill once again.
Brand loyalty also isn’t jumping ship as soon as a better option appears, so you probably used the wrong term there haha.
