Foreign & Offshore Banking

Where to keep your money abroad

Foreign & Offshore Banking

Transferring money to the Czech Republic always involves expenses, either in the form of direct charges or costs through bad exchange rates. The EU-Standard-Transfer usually proves to be the best option.

The EU-Standard-Transfer allows you to transfer money between accounts held in an EU state. Only charges for national bank transactions are applied. The amount to be transferred cannot exceed 50,000 €. The currency used in the transaction is the Euro, and Czech banks are likely to use a rather bad exchange rate for the transfer. Nevertheless, this is still one of the cheapest options if you want to transfer money to the Czech Republic.

For the transfer you need the international bank account number, IBAN, and the SWIFT code of the beneficiary's bank. Your bank in the Czech Republic can provide you with this information.

If you want to transfer money from a non-EU bank account to a Czech account it is not recommended to do so directly. Czech banks charge a commission on foreign bank transfers of around 1% of the total sum. Again, their exchange rates for transactions are also not the best. The entire transaction takes very long so if you need money quickly it is better to use a foreign exchange centre.

Foreign exchange centres in the Czech Republic

Foreign exchange centres can be found in every large city. Make sure that you use an official exchange centre, such as Aktiv Change, since there are also many dubious ones. Although these centres do not charge fixed fees it is better to transfer larger amounts, around 50,000 CZK, to get the best exchange rates.

Further reading

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