banking in Benidorm

Unless you have residencia they all charge around 30€ a quarter, with residencia you can change your account to no fees as long as you deposit 700€ a month.

Unless you are Residencia just pay everything including utilities via U K credit cards that do not charge exchange rate charges i.e. Halifax Clarity or similar, i have had my villa for 15 years and never had a Spanish bank account just pay everything via Halifax Clarity

Thanks that’s great I have Halifax clarity account do I need to go to bank to ask them the account number for all my direct debits as I haven’t got a clue wot they are ie suma,electric,bins  many thanks Carl 

No you cannot do direct debits from u k what you need to do is register with various utilities to receive your facturas online, then pay online using your Halifax card i have been doing this for years with no problems

This is very interesting but how do you draw cash without incurring fees?

You can draw cash out on Clarity card without any fees or exchange fees just make sure you pay off whatever you draw out within 24 hours to stop any interest charges, because as it is a credit card they charge interest straight away on cash withdrawals, when i draw cash out i get whatever the business rate is at that time, but i also have a U K Santander bank account which allows me to draw cash out in Spain without any charges on my debit card, 

Hi thanks for all your help 

I have a First Direct account in the U.K. so will see if there is any way I can do the same. Ironically I had a Santander account but switched. May be worth switching back!

Yes your santander account allows you to draw out cash in Spain without any charges providing you withdraw from a cash machine at a Spanish Santander bank and you get whatever the business rate is at that time without any charges