I would be interested to learn if anyone has managed to have their UK State Pension paid into a Swiss GB Pounds account. I have just started to draw my pension and find the UK pension people will only pay in the currency of the country you are living in. This means I will loose money on each payment due to the exchange rate fluctuations. On the 1st payment I have already lost over £6 on 2 weeks payment. The only option I can see is to set up a UK bank account in the UK to have the money paid into, and then pay a personal cheque periodically into my Swiss account.

Here is some information on this

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/international/...ements-in-eea/

Thanks for the reply, have read through the info, but have yet to find out why they will not pay direct into a GB Pounds account, therefore avoiding the exchange rate fluctuatons. OK I will pay the exchange rate commision when I decide to draw a lump from the account, but we can always hope the rate might improve a bit sometime. Have written to UK pensions people, won't hold my breath waiting for a reply.

UK Pensions claim that the bulk buying of Swiss Francs gives the best value for money for us.

I have mine paid into a British account. it isn't much anyway but it means that I never have to exchange money when I go over and can buy things there, which I would never dream of buying at Swiss prices here!

I suppose if I needed it to live on here, I would want it done differently and kick up a fuss about losing so much too.

Because DWP doesn't work on your best hopes of favourable exchange rate fluctuations. It's a pension meant to be spent here and they get better rates than you ever could so they're saving you money. However, you could open a sterling account here for your pension, have it paid into a UK sterling account or open an sterling offshore bank account (Isle of Man etc). You could also request to be sent a sterling cheque every 4 or 13 weeks.

I have a Sterling account here, but the UK Pensions people are telling me they will not pay into it. They are telling me that once it leaves the UK it has to be paid in the currency of the country you are living in, in this case changed into Swiss francs. Why it can't be paid into a Sterling account here is one of the questions I am waiting for them to reply to.

OK, what I don't understand is why you want your pension paid in sterling when you clearly live and spend in Swiss Francs? If this is true then you haven't "lost" anything due to currency fluctuations, since you'd convert anyway.