Allowing more than one currency for an account

[dfrochtm]

Description of the feature

Allow to use more than one currency per account.

Use cases

Having created the account with its main currency, the idea is to be able to add transactions with another currency.

Rate change would apply for each transaction from the foreign currency to the default.

[whalley]

Not sure of the exact use case for this can you elaborate? What real world accounts actually work like this?

If I make a foreign currency transaction on any of my accounts it gets reflected in my account as a transaction in the base currency with the bank doing the rate change (with perhaps a fee). If you wanted to record the actual original foreign currency value you can use the notes field.

[Dandy64]

I have created an account with the main currency and called it Bank_Main.
In addition, I have 2 "virtual" accounts - Bank_Euro and Bank_Dollar. Actually all the above is the same bank account, but this separation allows me to be flexible in my transactions.
For example, if I need I can transfer 100$ from my Bank_Dollar to the Bank_Main. And I can see this transaction in the report.
If I buy something and pay 100$, it looks like withdrawal from my Bank_Dollar.

[dfrochtm]

@whalley I agree that no real world accounts work like this. But as explained by @Dandy64, today the only solution is to create virtual accounts and then transfer transactions.

At that time only 1 software I have used allow to create transaction with another currency and applies the rate change to the default currency.

e.g : you travel worldwide and spend weeks or months abroad. It becomes more confortable to enter transactions using the local currency that will be automatically converted to your main currency. I agree that bank fees can't be anticipated.

There are some (few) countries where local currencies rate don't change compared to EUR. (See XFP for example).

[whalley]

e.g : you travel worldwide and spend weeks or months abroad. It becomes more confortable to enter transactions using the local currency that will be automatically converted to your main currency. I agree that bank fees can't be anticipated.

The application will of course not know the currency conversion rate that will be applied by the bank so could only use the latest rates known to the application. I guess one option might be to provide an advanced option to allow a currency to be specified when entering the transaction and then do the conversion to account currency.

However given that we have 'workarounds' as @Dandy64 has mentioned, and this being a feature that would be very rarely used I don't see the addition of anything to support this happening in the near term. I could of course be wrong and somebody might pick it up.

[Dandy64]

I even wouldn't call it workarounds :-) The fact is my bank works exactly in such a manner.
When I open a new account it will be open in local currency. If I wanna add US$ into my account, the bank opens a special foreign currency account. But actually, this is the same account with the same number!

So let's say I have 100 units in my local currency and 100 US$ and US$1=3 units in local currency at the moment.
Before I leave my country for the US, I can give instructions to my bank - how I want to pay my expenses when I am abroad.
I can request to use my dollar account, so if I pay let's say $10 they will be taken from my currency account without any conversions. US$100 - US$10 = US$90
But by default, without my instructions, the bank takes money from the local currency account. So $10 will be converted to the local currency (yes, I dunno the exact rate) and it will be taken in local currency.
US$10 * 3.2 (unknown bank's conversion rate now) = 32 units in local currency.
So when I come back I will find that I paid the sum according to the conversion rate for the date of my purchasing.
100 units in local currency - 32 = 68 units.
But in reality, I do not care what the conversion rate was since I have nothing to do with this information and I don't need to enter it into Money Manager EX.

[tactilis]

@Dandy64
I'm interested. Which bank is this and what's the name of the account please?

[Dandy64]

Israeli banks offer two common types of accounts to new residents and foreigners: current accounts and savings accounts.
Current accounts are called over v’shav in Hebrew and are used for bill pay, money transfers and everyday transactions. Savings accounts can have fixed or variable rates. Depending on your account and your interest rates, you may have restricted access to the currency in a savings account.
Foreign currency accounts
If you want to retain some of your money in its current currency but have it in Israel, you can open a foreign currency account. Most Israeli banks will allow you to open savings and current accounts in a foreign currency. You are permitted to purchase shekels using your foreign currency at the current exchange rate. Banks charge a small service fee for every transaction and for purchasing shekels with your foreign currency.
To save receive higher interest rates on your savings, you can lock your account. Locking the account for a set period of time means that your account will earn a rate of interest for a fixed period of time. You will not be able to access the money in your account during this time (unless you want to pay large fees).

[Superpila]

Another possible case is with accounts on cryptocurrencies exchange. Each account handles many currencies that can be purchased, sold, deposited, withdrawn and swapped while remaining within your account.

[tactilis]

Another possible case is with accounts on cryptocurrencies exchange. Each account handles many currencies that can be purchased, sold, deposited, withdrawn and swapped while remaining within your account.

Maybe - but the same situation as described previously would apply: MMEX cannot know what exchange rate will be applied to the foreign currency transaction, so you are always going to have to adjust the transaction manually.

[Superpila]

It's true.
But there is already advanced transfer, adding an optional field "fee" the problem would be easily solved, I suppose.

[github-actions]

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