Do we have any financial experts on Fiso ? From April next year I will be able to claim back my German Pension contributions which will be paid on a monthly basis into a bank account. To receive these payments I want to open a savings account with a different bank to the one where I have my current account, and I've had a look on the internet at some of them. I thought that I would use Barclays Bank and opened an e-savings account with them, but when I received my confirmation in the post today it says in the small print that I can only make a payment into the account by transfer from a UK Bank Account, or by transfer from another Barclays Account.

Obviously this is no good to me so I was wondering if anyone knows of a suitable savings account to which the German Government can transfer my pension into. For obvious reasons it would have to be one with an IBAN number. Secondly this is money that I won't necessarily require to have instant access to, as I was hoping to leave it untouched for "rainy day" purposes (it's about £300 per month)

Pa - few things here.

Regarding savings accounts there are a number of different options available. The longer you tie in your money, the better the rates are.

The worst kind of savings accounts are high street savings accounts. They fool their customers into thinking they are saving their money whereas the % are so low it's really not benefiting the customer, just the bank as they have cash they can trade with.

I've detailed some thoughts below - but happy to expand if you have any questions.

Firstly, the Barclays e-savings is a fairly crappy account, only paying 0.10%. Unless you are going to be using the e-savings reward. That's at 1.25% gross. There are still better savings accounts especially if you can do without needing the money

Secondly, with all savings accounts you'll usually have to have these transferred from a UK account. Only current accounts allow foreign (SEPA) transactions. If you decide on the Barclays e-savings account, just open a current account; have the money transferred there and set up a standing order that money from current account moves to savers account the next day.

You might prefer a regular savers account. This is where you have to pay a fixed amount into a savings account each month and can get a decentish rate of return. For instance First Direct are offering 8% if you invest between £25 - £300 every month into a regular savers http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/regular-saver-account;jsessionid=0000sjC25TzdYStdvMa5x46tbwv:11qkqgmtb?clear=true

A word of warning - if you miss a payment, they won't honour the 8%, and whatever value you put in month 1 is the only amount you can put in subsequently (eg can't have £25 month 1 and then £150 month 2, would always have to be £25)

If you don't want your money tied up for a 12 month period, then you might want to think of a 90 day notice account. Companies like Aldermore http://www.aldermore.co.uk/personal/ offer 3.1% for your money as long as you give 90 days notice to get it back. With this particular account from Aldermore, they do allow you unlimited withdrawals and deposits but you need to keep a min of £1000 in there.

You also want to think about tax. Do you know if your pension has already been taxed in Germany? If so, you want to make sure you don't get taxed on it in the UK.

The First Direct one looks interesting stuboy. If I got my Pension transferred into my Bank of Scotland Current account I could then arrange a standing order to transfer a specific ammount each month to First Direct. The only slight problem is that my pension will be paid in Euros and this could fluctuate, not that it would matter that much.

I wonder if any high street banks operate "Euro Accounts" that allows you to transfer Euros into it and keep it in Euros, and when you make a withdrawal you would be paid in Euros. ?

I'm not sure if my Pension is subject to German tax or not, but I'm going over to Hamburg in April and I can make enquiries about it while I'm there.

There are tow ways to convert your money:

Scenario 1: Your German bank converts the money and then wires it to your UK bank account. Your German bank will charge an FX fee for the conversion. This is usually a %.

Scenario 2: You set up a multi currency account with your UK bank account. Your German bank will then transfer the Euros directly into your UK bank. Again, you'll need to speak with your German bank to see if they charge a fee for this. This will usually be a fixed fee - but there is an initiative called SEPA which is about transferring money amongst EU countries and eliminates or reduces these costs.

Then from your UK bank account they can convert the Euros back to GBP. However, they too will charge you an FX % for doing so. Also, check with your UK bank that they don't have a monthly fee for having a multi currency account.

As GM states, Euro is starting to lose its value a little so the amount will fluctuate.

A 3rd scenario is using an FX company who should be able to offer more competitive rates. They are using real-time money markets. The German bank transfers your funds to them, they convert for you and transfer to UK bank account. Companies like oanda.com are able to do this and can be a cheaper alternative.

Banks do NOT like admitting to how much they charge on FX - they usually promote how they don't charge any fixed fee for transfers, whilst offering you a terrible exchange rate. So be prepared to make them 'fess up to what they real costs are.

I don't think that the money won't be coming from a Bank stuboy, I think that it will be coming straight straight from the Pensions Office.

I've sorted out my British Citizenship Certification by the way, the Job Centre did it for me. I never realised before that all Job Centre Staff are Civil Servants. The Manager was flabbergasted on seeing probably the biggest word he's ever come across,
"Staatsangehoerigkeitsbescheinigung", meaning "Certification of Nationality" (why write 3 words when you can use one big one)