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Bank charges

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 12:16am
34 replies1296 views10 members subscribed
Evon75

Posts: 37

15 helpful points

Joined: 15 Nov 2018

Good evening all.  We are currently with Bankia,and from 1st of Feb  their charges go up 14e per month.unless we put one of our pensions in each month and we take out their credit card which has to be used twice a month, or take out their insurance. We have residency which makes no difference it seems,.what are your thoughts on this and do other banks have the same policy. Think of changing. Thanks

Kenbo

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:44am

Kenbo

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Posts: 999

799 helpful points

Location: La Florida

Joined: 6 Dec 2017

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:44am

I am non res but bank with Bankia.

The new charges just to pay direct debits to utilities, suma and community fees are outrageous.

I was over last week and started the process off of closing the account.

Visited, Curenergia.es, Hidraqua and Suma to give them new dd details, it takes around 15 mins to do the paperwork at each.

I was hoping that they would all be set up so that I could close the account before I came back to the uk, no chance, we are on the 9th working day now.

Only Curenergia.es/Iberdrola did it within 5 working days, Hidraqua have emailed wanting more paperwork signed, heard nothing from Suma as yet, I am not too worried about urb fees as I could pay that twice yearly over the phone.

So unfortunately I am stuck with the Bankia account until all the new stuff is set up and I go back over in June to close it.

I have used Transferwise for years to send money to my Spanish bank account, they now support direct debits and will cost nothing, this is where I am moving to.

Movingon

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:15am

Movingon

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Location: Albatera

Joined: 7 Feb 2018

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:15am

Recently there seems to have been a move by banks requiring a product to be subscribed to to maintain free banking.

We're with Caixa and have our pensions paid in every month and benefitted from free banking as a result. The only thing we incurred charges for were a couple of outgoing international transfers but those were one offs. 

We were called in about 3 months back and 'encouraged' to open a savings A/C with a monthly deposit which we did. 

It was no hardship though as most months we run a healthy balance which just sat there doing nothing useful so it was a reasonable thing to do anyway, the money is available with 24 hours notice.

You probably won't like this (you did ask for thoughts! ) but frankly IMO if you're using an A/C as a personal convenience to transfer relatively piffling amounts to pay utility bills etc. as and when then I don't think you can really blame banks for taking a harder line and especially if it helps them keep it freer - if not totally free - for the rest of us! 

Kenbo

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:59am

Kenbo

Very helpful member

Posts: 999

799 helpful points

Location: La Florida

Joined: 6 Dec 2017

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:59am

That's fair enough.

We will all view it differently depending upon our personal circumstances and adapt to it as such.

Evon75

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 7:58pm

Evon75

Original Poster

Posts: 37

15 helpful points

Joined: 15 Nov 2018

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 7:58pm

Thanks all for your feedback,it probably doesn't matter where I go,so will look into putting one of my pensions in

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Evon75

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:20pm

Evon75

Original Poster

Posts: 37

15 helpful points

Joined: 15 Nov 2018

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:20pm

Thanks all for your feedback,it probably doesn't matter where I go,so will look into putting one of my pensions in

paulsav

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:55am

paulsav

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Posts: 1366

1009 helpful points

Location: Villena

Joined: 4 Dec 2015

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:55am

Evon75 wrote on Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:20pm:

Thanks all for your feedback,it probably doesn't matter where I go,so will look into putting one of my pensions in

Hi, I,ve written many replies on this subject and I,m not going to go into it at length, but we transferred from Sabadell to Cajamar bank last March as non residents with huge Sabadell fees and now pay no fees at all. Please do yourself a big favour go onto website and join their bank. Their online account "weferrent" cant be opened by a non resident online, who would need to open in branch, but a resident with green nie(residencia) apparantly can. Its an online account, no rules, no stipulations, and only cost is a fee if you do a face to face transaction of 7€ that month. We dont need any face to face transactions so suits us. Havent been in my Uk branch for over 10years so online with direct debits, atm use(also allows paying in money via atm) suits us perfectly. I recommend them wholeheartedly. I wish someone had recommended them to me before I had paid over 2000€ in fees over 10years with Sabadell and it took weeks of researching all Spanish bank accounts to find them. 

Regards

Pauline.

mark2017

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 2:28pm

Posts: 19

11 helpful points

Location: Algorfa

Joined: 14 Jun 2017

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 2:28pm

Hi all

We also are fed up with Sabadell and the fees, just wondering has any one come across the non resident banking charge with Sabadell of 60 Euros per name on the account as we have a joint account we have just been debited 120 euros and paid this when the account was opened two years ago.

paulsav

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 3:53pm

paulsav

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Posts: 1366

1009 helpful points

Location: Villena

Joined: 4 Dec 2015

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 3:53pm

Its probably your non residency certificate which the banks in Spain have to notify the hacienda about. We havent been charged anything since March when we opened our account with Cajamar and dont know what if anything Cajamar,s fee for that is. Change banks.

Regards

Pauline.

Evon75

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 5:27pm

Evon75

Original Poster

Posts: 37

15 helpful points

Joined: 15 Nov 2018

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 5:27pm

Hi Pauline. .  Thanks so much for that info,I don't always look at this forum, but for sure will be from now on. We are residents since last yea so will pop into our local branch of do on line, and there is no stipulation of having to put x amount of money in each month?. Will let you know how we get on.

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