Advice with opening a bank account

It's not free of charge unfortunately, but it is cheaper to transfer HSBC to HSBC than to a different bank.

plus its not as cheap to do so as it used to be four months ago - they have now brought their charges for transfers into line with all other major banks. Its sad to say and strange that you can get a better exchnage rate for sterling in the corner shops in Qawra than your bank offers....

thanks for the replys would you have any suggestions as the cheapest way to do it?x

Unless you plan to transfer large sums of cash (in which case you would probably use the foreign exchange companies such as torFX, travelex, moneycorp, etc) - its sometimes just as easy to use an atm or maybe initially load one of those cash cards with euros (from fairfx or travelex) as these can be used just the same as any other credit/debit card and can even be used to draw cash upto the total on the card without charges.....i gues it woudl be wise to just check with your bank to see what they would charge you for a regular cash exchange service..

that sounds good, I wasn't too sure about the prepaid card as I assumed you would be charged to use it as you would a British debit card.

Thanks for your help