Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

Citibank doesnt charge for international wires to any of their foreign currency or PLN accounts.
You just have to have 5000PLN incoming every month, or 15k lying around(in any currency) at any time.
Its called CitiGold and if you dont fulfill the requirements they charge a monthly fee of 10PLN.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

If you would have read the thread youd know that Citibank has an account that doesnt charge for international transfers.
Otherwise a SEPA for sending EUR within the EU will set you back 5-20PLN flat depending on the bank.
For PLN the service you are using would have to have an account in Poland, otherwise its an international transfer which can be quite expensive.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

BTW: Since i wrote this i started using Bitcoins to transfer and exchange currency and never looked back: weusecoins.com/en/

Polonia / what did he call him? german slur against poles? [8]

The stereotypes Jars mentioned are mainly that Poles are all alcoholics and car thieves.
The only thing that comes to mind is "Polacke", comperable to the "Szwab" used in Poland, although "Polacke" opposed to "Szwab" is only used derogatory.

It also doesnt make any sense to use it as a single word, its always at least "you dumb/lazy/drunk Polacke".

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

I was born in Poland and i do to a certain extent, my partners dont.
Yawn...

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

My experience in Szczecin recently was terrible. First i went to a small Citybank, since i knew most details it was quick and i was treated like a customer.

After that i tried WBKs and Nordeas main branches since they were in the vicinity. In both the service and English was poor and they were not able to accommodate me.

Then followed Alior:


Which was my favorite based on research.

And thats when the odyssey started.
In the first branch nobody spoke English and i was directed to the main branch, where i found a lady speaking decent English, but she had no clue about the account.

She started calling colleagues and after a while she handed me the phone, where a broker hastily made an appointment with me.
When i arrived there, he was aware about the account, but said those can be opened in branches only.
So i went back to the main branch, they still didnt know what i was talking about and after i showed them the account on the Internet, they said its a business account(which is not true btw).

I replied that thats not a problem and if i could finally get some infos about the account. After a few more calls she made another appointment for next week.

That was when i gave up after a whole day wasted returned to the Citibank and the whole thing was over in 20min.


Agreed, never try those at airports, train stations and close to tourist attractions, no matter if you know Polish and how much you should be able to get, they simply wont haggle that far.

Chain kantors are my favorites, since they can order cash from other branches.

Language / Is math in Polish different than in English? [59]


In scientific community yes.

Language / Is math in Polish different than in English? [59]

In science there is 0 difference in math, how could anybody even suggest there should be?
One could argue that a Polish mathematician has a different theory than an English one, but that are just theories.

When we are talking about preschool "math" or Microsoft products thats a different matter and has nothing to do with math as a science.

Life / Drink driving a bike and losing your driving license in Poland [27]

Its an EU directive, of course this is implemented dependand on the country(e.g. the seriousness of the "crime", the polices mood and your approach).

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

Waht did you expect its protoslavic...
@ The peole *******, is Ukraine the new hate target? Im losing count between Germans, Russians, Czechs, Sweds, UKers and of course evrybossy else with a different skin color.

Language / From Turkey, learning Polish - any suggestions? [5]

I learned most when traveling, one is kinda forced to use it.
And for you its not even taht far: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonezk%C3%B6y

It is for sure tainted, but people can explain the grammar to you in Turkish.

Language / Is math in Polish different than in English? [59]

Sorry, i havent read the the thread, but lol.

USA, Canada / Free Polish TV in USA and Canada [150]

What happened to the completely legal streams? People are still to scared to use them?

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]


I dont see the point u are trying to make.
Anyway EU regulations concerning cross border payments(e.g. PE-ACH) have been in place even before the Euro was introduced.


Thats true, the banking mafia works the same everywhere, although its hard to beat Poland when it comes to exchange rates.

And another interesting or rather scary site: spred.pl/waluta/eur

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]


Yeah, i totally forgot about that.
Opening an account, savings account and 2 foreign currency accounts takes 1h+.
They look for information, print dozens of forms out, chat with their colleagues or ask them for help and let you wait all through the process.

Even a single withdraw never takes less than 10min.
I am having a really hard time to understand how they can efficiently operate like that.
Even in Germany, which is a service desert compared to other western countries, 90% of the things are done in the background.

Anyway im planning to visit a few banks and am prepared to waste a whole day for that.
Here is another seemingly nice alternative i found: fx.aliorbank.pl

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

Thx for the input! Thats what i call an insightful and professional response.


I only visit Poland a few times a month and am rather looking for a savings account, so that shouldnt be a problem for me.

I will definitely pay them a visit this week.

Found this: e-platnosci.23.pl/przelewy_zagraniczne.htm

Its from 2007, but its astonishingly accurate.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]


I like the in your face approach against the banking cartel. ;)


Sounds interesting! I read up on it and it sounds almost to good to be true for Poland.
Did you go for Citigold and does cash held in foreign currency accounts counts towards the required balance?
Walking in with an EU passport will do?

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

Yeah, i wasnt precise enough.
"European Parliament mandated that a bank charge the same amount for international euro transfers within the European Economic Area as it charges for domestic credit transfers in euros"

Which in simple terms means, that its free of charge in all countries where the Euro is the national currency and national transfers are free of charge.

Anyway back on topic, could you guys post what it costs in your bank to receive SEPAs to an Euro account and international wires to a Dollar/Pound account?

@npk Was the GBP 15 - 20 a flat fee and which bank was that?

Let me start:
Nordea:
SEPA: 10PLN flat
Int wire: 20PLN flat
Same for outgoing(with special fees for urgency).

Australia / Quick money transfer to australia? [6]


This is revolutionary!
Care to provide a link?

Australia / Quick money transfer to australia? [6]

Monitor is obviously here to give out the worst advice possible.
All of the services you mentioned are cheaper than PP.
I would use Bitcoins for that, you buy them with a 0.5% provision here, send them to the recipient almost in real time and he cashes out in his local currency for a 0.5% fee.

If you have a little more time use Poland transfer or with still more time online kantory.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]


I am aware of online kantory and am using them when i can. I was just wondering if maybe a bank has accepted that they are ripping off their customers like nowhere else in Europe...

Concerning SEPA:
"European Parliament mandated that a bank charge the same amount for international euro transfers within the European Economic Area as it charges for domestic credit transfers in euros"

Polish banks of course dont feel obliged to follow that directive.


You mean those kantor services?

aliorbank.pl/en/about_us/exchange_rates/current_exchange_rates

9%+ spread. I feel like crying when i read this.

Compare to Germany or any other bank in Europe: db-markets.com/#fx_rates/spots

For crying out loud did all the expats leave Poland or you guys simply dont care?

Law / Best on-line forex service for GBP -> PLN exchange? [10]

google.com/search?q=online+kantor
They have all pretty much the same rates, but watch out for hidden costs.

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]


Nah, he is xenophobe in general. ;)

Travel / BIGGEST MOSQUE IN POLAND! - Gdansk [42]


Understandable for fanatics, but Atheists have never started a crusade like every religion.
Not that i would count myself as an atheist, i simply try to avoid wasting time on nonsense.

Life / Streaming online Polish TV [85]

Dude, dont fall for this "offer", most of the channels are free to watch over your comp.

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]


Well, than you have to look at geography, too.
For instance close to the German border i meat more people speaking German than on the Russian border.
BTW I repeatedly said that its changing, but atm in countries that are not so well developed as Poland Russian will get you further, maybe not on the ice cream counter but in business certainly.

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]


Depends on the country


Oh not again, what i meant is that with Polish you get further than with English in most of these countries.

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]

Well, from my experiance i have to disagree.
I visited those countries in the 90ties and still do my round trips today.
Russian will certainly get you further than English, but Slavic helps too.

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]

I know what you meant, i was pointing out that Russian is still spoken by the majority of the former Warsaw Pact countries as a second language.

Thats changing though, but it is still a lingua franca