fees

This has happened to us today and don't know what for never paid it before. Hope someone can tell us.

This has been asked several times. Nothing to do with local taxes collected by SUMA for IBI and bins or whatever. As a non resident, the tax authorities have to be informed that your bank account is run by a non resident and not liable to income tax or asset declaration forms except for any earnings in Spain. Normally this should be done every 2 years but often only happens when the tax authorities request the non resident certificate which appears to be happening at the moment.

You can obtain a non resident certificate yourself by making an appointment with the national police station in your area. You pay the tax at a bank on a modelo 790-12 for about 7 euro. Then attend the appointment with the necessary documents to show you are a non resident and a receipt for the tax paid (which is what the 7.31 is for).

You would then need to go back after a few days to collect the certificate and register this with the tax authorities either online if you have a digital certificate or in person at a local tax office (probably in Alicante). You would also need to contact your bank to tell them you have done this so they don't submit the certificate on your behalf. 

This is not particular to one bank as all banks are required to do this and nor is it a new charge as we were paying this as non residents over 20 years ago. We were non residents for 6 years and only had to submit this certificate once in all that time.

You can get around this (next time) by closing your Spanish bank account and opening a non Spanish online account such as Wise or Revolut or whatever. This would mean you would not have a bank account in Spain so wouldn't have to submit the certificate showing the account is run by non residents. You would also have to set up your direct debits to show the new bank account.