Question
I worked in Norway for a few years in the 90s and am now receiving a small Norwegian state pension monthly.
When this was due to start I opened a NOK account with my bank to receive the payments but they arrived in sterling and nobody could tell me who was doing the conversion; my bank said it arrived in sterling and the Norwegians said it left in NOK. As the money was being converted twice I diverted the payments into a normal account but I am concerned over the erosion of all the charges.
Is it possible to open an account with a Norwegian bank, as a non resident, and do a transfer say once a year? Or what is the best way to handle a small foreign pension? The Norwegian pension authorities have no problem with this. There must be a lot of oil workers who will soon be having the same problem.Answer
The simple answer is, I’m afraid, there doesn’t seem to be a practical solution.
Norwegian banks only offer accounts to residents with a Norwegian social security number, so this doesn’t seem an option.
Some UK banks such as Barclays and the Co-Operative offer foreign currency bank accounts that allow you to hold a Norwegian Krone (NOK) account (which it seems you already have), but charges can be prohibitive and interest probably zilch. It seems common to charge £6 every time money is received from overseas unless the amount is less than £100, even though it remains in the same currency. The Co-Op also charges a £40 annual account fee while Barclays charges £7 per quarter if the average balance drops below an equivalent US$2,000.
I suspect such charges could leave you no better off than the current arrangement of receiving the sum in your sterling account.
Nevertheless, someone is obviously converting the Krone to sterling somewhere along the line. I'd try asking again to see where this is occurring. You could ask your bank for the details of the bank sending the payment and double check it's not being converted to sterling by that bank before the money leaves Norway.
If anyone knows of a better solution, please tell us below.
I worked in Norway for a few years in the 90s and am now receiving a small Norwegian state pension monthly.
When this was due to start I opened a NOK account with my bank to receive the payments but they arrived in sterling and nobody could tell me who was doing the conversion; my bank said it arrived in sterling and the Norwegians said it left in NOK. As the money was being converted twice I diverted the payments into a normal account but I am concerned over the erosion of all the charges.
Is it possible to open an account with a Norwegian bank, as a non resident, and do a transfer say once a year? Or what is the best way to handle a small foreign pension? The Norwegian pension authorities have no problem with this. There must be a lot of oil workers who will soon be having the same problem.Answer
The simple answer is, I’m afraid, there doesn’t seem to be a practical solution.
Norwegian banks only offer accounts to residents with a Norwegian social security number, so this doesn’t seem an option.
Some UK banks such as Barclays and the Co-Operative offer foreign currency bank accounts that allow you to hold a Norwegian Krone (NOK) account (which it seems you already have), but charges can be prohibitive and interest probably zilch. It seems common to charge £6 every time money is received from overseas unless the amount is less than £100, even though it remains in the same currency. The Co-Op also charges a £40 annual account fee while Barclays charges £7 per quarter if the average balance drops below an equivalent US$2,000.
I suspect such charges could leave you no better off than the current arrangement of receiving the sum in your sterling account.
Nevertheless, someone is obviously converting the Krone to sterling somewhere along the line. I'd try asking again to see where this is occurring. You could ask your bank for the details of the bank sending the payment and double check it's not being converted to sterling by that bank before the money leaves Norway.
If anyone knows of a better solution, please tell us below.
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