Non resident bank account

Hi Denise,

Many of us use Wise for currency transfers at the best rates.  Non-residents, in particular, also use their Wise account to pay utility bills on their holiday homes, as Wise has a Belgian IBAN.  You set up a direct debit with each of your Spanish utility companies, giving the account details of your Wise Euro account; then you transfer Sterling to your Wise Euro account as and when needed to cover your bills.  If you wish, you can also have a Wise debit card, for drawing cash when you're in Spain, but make sure you know which ATMs to use and the monthly withdrawal limit.

There's lots of information on Wise's website - this link should be helpful in the first instance:

https://wise.com/help/articles/2827505/how-do-i-use-my-eur-account-details

and hopefully other non-resident members will share their personal experiences of using Wise with you.

Kind regards,

Kim

I currently have a Sabadell/Solbank account which costs me €160 per year.  Would a wise debit card  save me money.  How much is withdrawing say €500 at a time cost me. How easy is it to set up utility bills by DD

You need proof of Wise euro account and your utility bill.

Electric easy call into office, community fees advise admin get Sepa form   suma done through lawyer, water was a problem make appointment first then go to office

Hi Bosque

Re utility bills - my initial advice is to get online access to your utility providers. In general you will need your NIE and contract number to hand in order to register. Once you have access, look for your account details and change the IBAN to your new Wise one. Some companies won't accept a non-Spanish IBAN (which is illegal but they do it anyway) - eg Hidraqua, to whom I had to send a message which they enacted after a few days.

Re ATM charges - Wise allow you £200 per month without charge. After that, it's 50c and 1.75% of the excess amount. So I pay for everything with the card and save cash for tips. Note that there will probably be an extra charge from the ATM itself - Spanish banks charge at every opportunity!

It's hard to beat Wise for value and simplicity.

Cheers

Steve

You can open a WISE account to pay all your direct debits, including payments to SUMA, fee free.

If you are non resident I would recommend that you open a UK Santander account. Qualifying accounts can withdraw cash, fee free, at any mainland Spainish Santander ATM using your UK Santander debit card. However, you must remember to press the "do not convert" or "Euros" button to ensure that you get the visa rate of exchange, which is far better than the tourist rate.

Sabadell's 160 euro annual fee for non residents is ridiculous, especially when they also charge you for an extra debit card.