Charges for Transferring money from the UK to Spain - General property discussion in Santa Pola - Santa Pola forum - Costa Blanca forum in the Alicante province of Spain
Expat Services
Car Key Solutions
Costa Blanca Building Specialists
ASSSA Insurance
Jennifer Cunningham Insurances SL
Airport Service Taxi Mil Palmeras  Torre de la Horadada
Thy Will Be Done
interior building work
Gentlevan Removals
Gran Alacant Insurances
Espana Dream Properties
AA Free English TV
James Spanish School
Blacktower Financial Management

Join the Santa Pola forum

Join the Santa Pola forumMy name's Alex and this is my website all about Santa Pola in Spain. Register now for free to talk about General property discussion in Santa Pola and much more!

Charges for Transferring money from the UK to Spain

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 11:33am
20 replies629 views11 members subscribed
Marci3

Posts: 12

Location: Santa Pola

Joined: 21 May 2022

Hi All, 

Due to complete on a property purchase on the 13th of June. We have a bank set up in Santa Pola (La Caixa). 

Have been informed by our lawyer we need a cheque bancario ( bankers draft) how much is the charge for this? Also does the bank charge for money being transferred into the account? We have sold a property from the UK  and looking to send those funds to the Caixa Bank to purchase this Spanish property is there paperwork or any charges for any of this? 

If anyone could give me a breakdown of what is required would be much appreciated . Spanish  is non existing  on my part and I would like the information  before going for an appointment.

Thanks

tonyed

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 11:54am

Posts: 4

2 helpful points

Location: Villamartin

Joined: 22 May 2022

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 11:54am

This is a personal opinion but as the banks cripple you on the exchange rate , I would seriously look into opening a jp Morgan chase account from the UK then transferring your funds to it at the official exchange rate of 1.18 euro to pounds , then transferring from the debit card to your Spanish account would save you a small fortune 

Marci3

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 12:11pm

Marci3

Original Poster

Posts: 12

Location: Santa Pola

Joined: 21 May 2022

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 12:11pm

tonyed wrote on Sat May 28, 2022 11:54am:

This is a personal opinion but as the banks cripple you on the exchange rate , I would seriously look into opening a jp Morgan chase account from the UK then transferring your funds to it at the official exchange rate of 1.18 euro to pounds , then transferring from the debit card to your Spanish ...

...account would save you a small fortune 

Thanks, 

We are already set up with worldwide currencies that will transfer the pounds into Euros. Was wondering if La Caixa charge for receiving these funds into the account. Just to note I am a UK tax payer and still work in the UK. 

Thanks

Kimmy11

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:14pm

Kimmy11

Legendary helpful member

Posts: 6869

12554 helpful points

Joined: 8 Aug 2017

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:14pm

Marci3 wrote on Sat May 28, 2022 12:11pm:

Thanks, 

We are already set up with worldwide currencies that will transfer the pounds into Euros. Was wondering if La Caixa charge for receiving these funds into the account. Just to note I am a UK tax payer and still work in the UK. 

Thanks

Hi Marci3,

If you transfer your funds from a bank with a UK IBAN (international bank account number), your Spanish bank will charge you for receiving them.  I would recommend opening a Wise Euro and Sterling account:

www.wise.com

This allows you to pay your Sterling funds into Wise, which are then converted to Euros at one of the best rates you can get, and then transferred on to your Spanish bank.  As Wise has a European IBAN (Belgian), your receiving bank in Spain should not charge you.

You'll need to check with La Caixa what they charge for a Banker's Draft.  When we bought 6 years ago, Sabadell charged a flat fee of €100, but more recently the banks have changed their charging structure to a % of the purchase funds.  I've seen reports of people being charged as much as €900, so definitely something to check in advance.  You'll also need to order your Banker's Draft in advance and check how far in advance you can collect it, prior to completion at the Notary.  We wanted to collect ours the day before completion, but our bank wouldn't let us have it until the morning of completion, so we had to delay the meeting at the notary, to give us time to get from our bank in Almoradí to the notary's office in Elche.

I assume you know that, typically, banking in Spain is not free and is especially expensive for non-resident holiday home owners?  Have you checked what La Caixa charges?  As Spanish residents, we pay €60 per year with Sabadell, whereas non-residents pay €160 per year for their accounts.  If your property is going to be a holiday home, rather than permanent, having a Wise Euro account is a very useful way of ditching an expensive Spanish bank account, as you can set up direct debits for utilities, etc., which you cannot do from a UK bank.  Once everything is set up and you've made your first payments via your Wise account, you can close your Caixa bank account.

Kind regards,

Kim

Marci3

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:37pm

Marci3

Original Poster

Posts: 12

Location: Santa Pola

Joined: 21 May 2022

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:37pm

Kimmy11 wrote on Sat May 28, 2022 1:14pm:

Hi Marci3,

If you transfer your funds from a bank with a UK IBAN (international bank account number), your Spanish bank will charge you for receiving them.  I would recommend opening a Wise Euro and Sterling account:

www.wise.com

This allows you to pay your Sterling funds into Wise, which are then converted to Euros at one of the best rates you can get, and then transferred on to your Spanish bank.  As Wise has a European IBAN (Belgian), your receiving bank in Spain should not charge you.

You'll need to check with La Caixa what they charge for a Banker's Draft.  When we bought 6 years ago, Sabadell charged a flat fee of €100, but more recently the banks have changed their charging structure to a % of the purchase funds.  I've seen reports of people being charged as much as €900, so definitely something to check in advance.  You'll also need to order your Banker's Draft in advance and check how far in advance you can collect it, prior to completion at the Notary.  We wanted to collect ours the day before completion, but our bank wouldn't let us have it until the morning of completion, so we had to delay the meeting at the notary, to give us time to get from our bank in Almoradí to the notary's office in Elche.

I assume you know that, typically, banking in Spain is not free and is especially expensive for non-resident holiday home owners?  Have you checked what La Caixa charges?  As Spanish residents, we pay €60 per year with Sabadell, whereas non-residents pay €160 per year for their accounts.  If your property is going to be a holiday home, rather than permanent, having a Wise Euro account is a very useful way of ditching an expensive Spanish bank account, as you can set up direct debits for utilities, etc., which you cannot do from a UK bank.  Once everything is set up and you've made your first payments via your Wise account, you can close your Caixa bank account.

Kind regards,

Kim

Thanks Kim, 

Do you know what the standard amount you are able to transfer to Spanish banks? I'm looking to transfer the full amount for the property? 

Regards

Marc

Advertisement - posts continue below

GrahamLynn

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:46pm

GrahamLynn

Legendary helpful member

Posts: 2500

2357 helpful points

Location: El Raso

Joined: 9 Jul 2017

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 1:46pm

Banks usually have an upper limit on how much you can deposit into your account without incurring charges. The way around that is to do multiple transfers from your currency exchange account into your Spanish bank account. The account manager at our currency exchange company, found out what the limit was with our bank and then split the payment into four transactions, so entering our Spanish bank separately. Resulting in no fees. Even though we were transferring euros to our Spanish account, the charge for transferring as a lump sum was a scary amount of money.

Our solicitor also went with us when we initially opened our Spanish account, advised how much money would be going into the account  for the house purchase and negotiated a fixed fee for the bankers draft. Even so I think it was a few hundred euros.

It’s no wonder why cash is still the preferred method of payment in Spain, the banks are far too greedy.

Lynn

Marci3

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 3:04pm

Marci3

Original Poster

Posts: 12

Location: Santa Pola

Joined: 21 May 2022

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 3:04pm

Thanks, 

Does anyone know off the top of their heads how much the fee is with caixa for receiving funds? 

Regards

GrahamLynn

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 9:09pm

GrahamLynn

Legendary helpful member

Posts: 2500

2357 helpful points

Location: El Raso

Joined: 9 Jul 2017

Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 9:09pm

Each bank can have half a dozen or more different types of accounts and each account will have different charges. - I’m sure they do it on purpose.

Do a quick check on the banks page and it should have the charges there.

The one below is just a frightening example

https://www.caixabank.es/deployedfiles/particulares/Estaticos/pdf/HolaBank/20210419_HolaBank_ing.pdf

Lynn

Gem

Posted: Sun May 29, 2022 10:03am

Gem

Posts: 88

44 helpful points

Location: Gran Alacant

Joined: 3 Feb 2016

Posted: Sun May 29, 2022 10:03am

When we sold our house, we received a cheque from the buyers bank which was a different bank to ours, our bank then wanted to charge us 600 euros for the transfer !! Pure robbery ! We changed our bank.

Manus

Posted: Sun May 29, 2022 10:46am

Posts: 49

44 helpful points

Location: Benijofar

Joined: 4 Nov 2020

Posted: Sun May 29, 2022 10:46am

Marci3 wrote on Sat May 28, 2022 11:33am:

Hi All, 

Due to complete on a property purchase on the 13th of June. We have a bank set up in Santa Pola (La Caixa). 

Have been informed by our lawyer we need a cheque bancario ( bankers draft) how much is the charge for this? Also does the bank charge for money being transferred into the account? We have sold a property from the UK  and looking to send those funds to the Caixa Bank to purchase this Spanish property is there paperwork or any charges for any of this? 

If anyone could give me a breakdown of what is required would be much appreciated . Spanish  is non existing  on my part and I would like the information  before going for an appointment.

Thanks

Hola Marci3,

I moved to Spain last year and when I purchased my Benijofar property the process as follows:

  1. I opened an account with Currencies Direct (CD) where I convinced myself I got a satisfactory exchange rate etc.
  2. Transferred funds from Barclays into CD at a rate of £50K daily which is maximum allowed - unless you personally visited your Barclays branch to sort etc (but I was already in Spain!)
  3. Opened a "non-residents" Sabadell account (and I cannot speak highly enough about my account manager at Rojales branch - but I do pay 40 Euros per quarter in fees)
  4. Once all the Barclays' transfers complete, I then transferred the full amount from CD to Sabadell - no additional fees from either end.
  5. On day of completion, Sabadell charged me 100 euros for the draft but on the basis I accepted it's own House Insurance product - at least for the first year. I am now entering my second year in my property and changed to "Liberty" house insurance (via Alfonso at Gran Alacant Insurance - top guy!) - about 100 euros cheaper than the renewal quote from Sabadell insurance  

Hope this helps and good luck with everything.

Manus

Sign up for free or login to reply to this topic

Want to reply to this topic? Login or register for free to post your message:

Find more General property discussion topics from a particular area:


Register for free!

Login to your account

Expat Services
Car Key Solutions
Costa Blanca Building Specialists
ASSSA Insurance
Jennifer Cunningham Insurances SL
Airport Service Taxi Mil Palmeras  Torre de la Horadada
Thy Will Be Done
interior building work
Gentlevan Removals
Gran Alacant Insurances
Espana Dream Properties
AA Free English TV
James Spanish School
Blacktower Financial Management
Advertise your business here
Advertise your property
Help with my computer