Banking in Poland - foreign currency?

Good morning all.

I was wondering if anyone here had any advice on banking in Poland. I will be paid my earnings in GBP but all main bills will have to be paid in PLN. Do you have any tips on how to avoid major losses every month. I know that the FX rate will always affect my income but I would like to cut down the losses to a minimum. The bank we are currently using in the UK always gives a far worse FX rate and therefore I would like to ask my customer to pay directly into a Polish account.

Thanks
Jars

Hay Jars

Why can't they just pay it into your UK bank account and you just withdraw it over here? Another thing could be using Western union online to send you the money and then you don't really loose out or maybe Paypal? Maybe find out how far they will go to help you. Hope this helps

@Jacus: Because we will be living in Poland and all bills (rent etc) will have to be paid from a Polish bank account. Thank you... will explore Western union. Paypal gives bad FX rates too.

Thanks
Jars

It wont be major and the FX rates can swing the other way, in your favour.

Keep the currency in GBP and exchange when the rate is favorable.

I am not sure if people understand. I cannot wait to exchange when the rate is favourable... I need the money in Polish Zloty as it is our main income every month and we have to pay our rent and bills with it.

As example: We paid 1231 PLN to a hotel with our debit card in June and got the FX rate of 4.314 from our bank but the actual rate was 4.4378 which makes 8 Pounds difference plus a 3 Pounds foreign usage charge.

That's 10 Pounds loss. And this is a small-ish amount of money. If we sum that up to a bigger amount (which my salary will hopefully be! :-)!) we are talking quite a bit of loss EVERY month!

yeah and if you request your UK employer to pay GBP into a Polish bank and exchange via the banks you'll lose even more.

Hmmm... I suppose I am stuck then. I might give the Walutomat.pl a shot with smaller amounts. This FX rate business sucks!

Not at all. Just open a GPB account with a major bank in Poland (I'd recommend Citibank, because I know that this trick works with them) and get paid into that. Then arrange to meet the man from your local kantor office in the bank, at the cashier's desk. As long as you're changing at least a few grand at a time, and the bank is close to his office, he'll probably do that. Then you get a rate which is very close to the mid-rate (for example, my kantor of choice is offering 4.98 and 5.02 on the GBP). However, the bank won't like the fact that they have to mess about counting foreign money out and then immediately counting Polish money in again (as well as getting more foreign currency sent to the branch), so they may well offer you a better rate than the kantor is offering. In fact, if you can time it right (i.e. just before they close) and want to take out a large amount (i.e. tens of thousands of pounds), they may well simply not have that much foreign currency there and will then offer you a rate above the NBP rate. I saved a couple of grand once with that method.

Thank you Harry! Brilliant. I will definitely do the Polish bank account run in GBP. Thank you for your recommendation. I might consider Citibank. Have you heard of mileniumbank? They seem to do a great deal on an internet bank account without hefty charges.

Yes I have heard of them, think I even have an account with them. The thing which I like about Citibank is that the entire website is in English and so is all the telephone banking, both the automated part and the live people.

Ok, brilliant. Will consider them but I suppose in order to open an account I have to have my Polish address. Won't have that until nearer the time when we sign the letting agreement. :-)

Thank you for your help!
Appreciated.
Jars

if you also have a Paypal account
you can send/exchange your cash with min loss
you will have to send it as a gift..

@RT3d: I have tried Paypal before and they often give really bad FX rates. But thank you for your suggestion.

Hey i basically already said that on your other thread - BEFORE Harry, he most probably copied it.

https://polishforums.com/law/poland-social-money-exchange-services-57263/#msg1235581