How easy is it to close a Spanish bank account

I bank at this branch, during the pandemic when we couldn't get to Spain I emailed them about closing the account.

Despite it being illegal to travel at that point they didn't want to know, either close it in the branch in person or do it by power of attorney.

They are particularly unhelpful at this branch, I informed them that I knew of someone at Cabo Roig branch who had been allowed to close his remotely, they just ignored that email.

As for Transferwise ( Wise ) I have had an account with them from their very early days and just before the pandemic I moved all my direct debits over to them, works perfectly and I would highly recommend them.

So, open an account online or via their app, you can then select an account in many different currencies but in your case Euro, this will generate an IBAN number, it will have a prefix BE as their account is based in Belgium and therefore widely accepted across the EU, give this to your service providers and then when you are happy that the direct debits are working then close your Caixa account.

https://wise.com/

Ken.

I did this recently as since La Caixa took over Bankia and became CaixaBank they started charging me 60€ out of the blue every 3 months for service/maintenance and their customer service is terrible! To close the account you have to give them notice by contacting your branch manager and sign some paperwork. Just make sure you advise all your utility companies and any other payments you've set up of the change of account. 

Dear Kenbo, thank you so much for your advice and experience. You are absolutely right about this branch, worst customer service. I have opened a Wise Account (Formerly Travelwise). They cannot transfer over the Direct Debits, I'll have to cancel and re arrange with wise.

Is this what you did?

In your experience is Wise good and is it really free.

Dear Espanglo,

Thank you so very much for your advice and experience. Did you sign up to a new bank, my main concern is the Direct Debits, I've no confidence in any Spanish bank to transfer over the Direct Debits.

What did you do in this regard.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Well I only had water and electric bills coming out of this account and both companies have English speaking customer service so was easier to do myself as wouldn't trust CaixaBank at all.

Iam now with Wise which is a lot better!

Hi Ash

I was in Spain in January 2020 just before the pandemic, I visited each utility and gave them the IBAN number to the Wise account.

Iberdrola office is on the small roundabout just below the AP7 roundabout at La Zenia, just up the road from your bank.

Suma and Hydraqua offices are in adjacent buildings where Playa Flamenca Town Hall is just by the N332.

Community fees I sent an email to the administrator with the new details.

Maybe today this would be more difficult as you could need an appointment.

However, plenty of people on this forum have done it all from the UK.

If you have online accounts with the utilities have a look around in it, in some cases you can change your bank details.

Failing that drop them an email, Hydraqua seems to be the one that is a bit more difficult.

I wouldn't actually cancel any direct debits, just give the new IBAN.

As for Wise, there are no running charges and no charges to pay your dd's, you will incur very small charges for shuffling money around but nowhere near Caixa bank charges. Wise also have an excellent support number based in the UK.

Just a heads up, when you have set up the dd's with Wise, for the first time they won't show in your Wise account until they are almost due, I was concerned something had gone wrong but all was ok.

So to sum up, yes it's a bit of faffing around but it is so worth it to rid yourself of the Spanish bank.

Save yourself some money and start asap and if you have any questions along the way ask them on here, someone usually knows the answer.

Ken.

Thanks,

Ken, you've been a great help.

I'm going to get on with it ASAP 

Kindest regards

Ashraf

Just doing this now, Ole, Water and Elect confirmed within 2 days, just make sure you transfer all your direct debits to WISE before closing bank account.

To help the OP would you mind saying how you contacted each Company ?

Ken