Alternative options for Spanish Bank Account? - Page 2

My husband decided after 20 years that he’d had enough of Caixa bank.  Gone are the days when you could pop into the bank to enquire about something , an appointment is now required.  My husband wasn’t confident about changing our direct debits for the usual utility bills but it was simple enough and now our Spanish banking is all done successfully through Wise.  In order to cancel our account with Caixa, we had to make an appointment and both of us had to attend and sign documents. 

We did experience a problem with Avatel. I notified them and provided all the new bank details for payment. I couldn’t understand why we have incurred 2 months late payment fees but they say that the account holder with Wise wasn’t me and sent a form which was completed , signed and returned to them last month. Still haven’t taken the payment out of the account so no doubt we’ll be charged a further .€4.95 extra this month.  Nothing in life is simple. 

Hi 

Check your state on your Wise app - I'd almost guarantee that it was Bankinter that charged you, not Wise, although it might be both!

I can't think of any Spanish banks that don't charge unless it's their own card.

Cheers 

Steve 

Stevec2x Yes it was Bankinter who made the charge. However when I changed to Wize they advised that it would be tarrif free to withdraw money from ATM's. This led me to believe that they had an arrangement with cash providers. Clearly this was not the case. Just saying.

Hi All,

We have been banking in Spain since 2004 firstly with Cam Bank who were taken over by Sabadell.

The employees at Cam were brilliant, always pleased to see you and sorted any little problem out without fuss.

Sabadell on the other hand have gone downhill ever since the takeover and its a indoctrinated regime from the top down of being arrogant and unhelpful. This was confirmed to me by Sussana (Spanish) who was our banker at the branch.

Like others say the charges have gone up and up and we currently pay 300 euros a year for the privilidge of having a current account always in credit so that our direct debits can be paid. We also have a substantial amount in bank shares -  waiting for them to recover back to our purchase price (2008) !!! but this makes no difference to our charges.

So this year I've had enough and have sought alterative arrangements.

We are currently opening a Fineco Bank Account (Italian Online) for free banking. No quarterly or Annual Fees. This comes  with 2 free to use Direct Debit cards - No annual fees. The bank will set up all our current Direct Debits / Standing Orders all paid free. 

We have also cancelled our Fiscal Representitive (2 Fees per Annum) saving again 300 euros and have asked Spanish Tax Forms to carry out the same work. -  [email protected].   I visited the Suma Office collected last years Suma Bill sent it to STF's on Friday and the Paperwork was returned to us on Monday Morning - all completed within 1 cent of the previous amount for the previous year. Cost £34.95. The payment is requested after they have provided the forms. So trusting.

So we are going to save 600 euros every year less the £34.95 to Spanish Tax Forms. STF was recommended in previous posts by many others on this website and I am grateful for the posting. I can't recommend them highly enough.

Spanish Banks appear very arrogant towards us non nationals.

Worth looking into.

Brian

sorry to trouble you with dummy question. Do you mean to say that in oredr to purchase a property in Spain I don't need a Spanish bank account and that I can transfer money with Wise from my British bank account directly to current owners/notary (unsure of exact process)? how do I do this? Thanks!

Hi Mari

When we bought our house our legal guy insisted on using our Spanish bank account (which we no longer use).

However  there have been many posts on this forum stating that it is perfectly possible to transfer your money into your legal guys company client account using Wise or similar. A bankers draft from this account can then be used for the purchase, meaning that you don't need your own Spanish bank account.

I expect you'll still need to pay for that bankers draft.

Cheers 

Steve

Thank you so much!! I also read Wise doesn't support bankers draft :) ...conflicting info. I'll see if I can contact Wise directly and ask. Your help is very much appreciated!!

Hi 

I think you misunderstood.

The process would be to use Wise to transfer the money to your legal guys company account, then that company would get a bankers draft from their account, not yours.

I can confirm that Wise do not support bankers drafts - presumably because Wise are not a bank!

Cheers

Steve

Got it now, Steve, many thanks! Enjoy the day!

I was going to ask the same question as Mari about purchasing a house with my Wise account.

I will check with my solicitor on Monday and ask what the process is to sending money using my Wise account.

Thanks Steve for your input on this.