Bank fees - Page 2

This is really good to know, thanks Pauline.

Hi I have recently changed to cajamar (weferrent) and am delighted, this is my fourth bank in Spain and I could not be more pleased with them . So far.

Not to hijack the post, but was a switch to cajamar easy without Spanish or is it needed?

They don't guarantee an English speaker in every branch as do Sabadell and our Spanish is poor, so I wrote every thing I could think of asking in Google translate and between their agent(no English) we managed very well. As you are in an expat area unlike myself (70kms from Alicante inland) I bet someone will speak english. Take all your direct debit info with ref no,s, passport, Nie, latest bank statement if you already are with a Spanish bank. Deeds or rental contract. Debit cards are free too, but take 2 wks before you collect. We cancelled our old bank same day so to be sure our dd, s were paid on time that month I telephoned or emailed all our companies to confirm changeover. If you need to transfer money to other people (future payments etc) you need to ask that "transferias" are contracted, as not part of initial service. We had to return to collect cards and asked then as it wasn't "contracted". The app has an English language choice but is in Spanish on opening. This is the bank most Spaniards use and originally a bank for more rural areas and definitely less money grabbing. 

Regards 

Pauline 

Thanks so much for this very useful information. There's a branch near me, I'll drop in to arrange an appointment. I'll bring the necessary documents as well. Many thanks for the information. 

Hi Paul

In my opinion having English speakers is what Sabadell count on to keep getting Brits to pay for having an account with them. I have had superb service from Cajamar (pre covid always a handshake) and they do offer a dedicated English telephone service. Apart from saving the €35 per quarter, their debit cards are free too, €30yr each with Sabadell and even the non res certificate is €10 cheaper. I,ve not been in a branch of my UK banks for over 15years as both my last 2 bank accounts haven't got a branch in my town so can't even see a reason for needing a branch as we conduct 5 different UK bank accounts all online. I can't agree with your "rip off Britain" retort as I,ve never been ripped off in Uk compared to the €50,000 rip off by corrupt experiences in Spain over 15yrs. The only things we,ve found overpriced in Uk is council tax but electricity is definitely dearer, water similar and food is dearer in Spain. While you save on your council tax, you, ll be paying big amounts for your private health insurance if you are resident and under pension age. Fuel a little cheaper, our UK car is £30 tax a year and would be €54 in Spain. If you are a drinker and a smoker then I agree Spain is your cheaper option, but as we are neither, we don't save there. I can feed the two of us exceptionally well on under £30 week in Uk as I,m a "yellow ticket" devotee and getting my meat for pennies and ready meals all at 10p each enables us to afford the maintenance of 2 countries homes plus 3 cars and a van all on pensions only. Oh and neither of us have any works pensions and we are both well under the UK tax threshold but would pay tax in Spain. I, ve scoured all the big supermarkets here and never found any better discount than 30% off stickers, not the 10p an item that I miss terribly. At one time Spain would win hands down on fruit and veg prices but now, with Aldi and Lidl in Uk I definitely pay more in Spain, especially our main staples of bread and potatoes. I really think its swings and roundabouts, people don't always include charges caused in Spain that wouldn't be chargeable in Uk (gestor, translators etc and bank charges). If I still paid €200 bank charges plus our IBI of €349 plus our €240 non resident tax plus €40 to the company doing that, I wouldn't be far off my UK council tax. Before you slag off Britain completely remember you may be in a position in your old age to wish you were still a UK resident given the elderly care situation in Spain is almost non existant. 

Regards 

Pauline 

Bank Inter have been amazing with me all through my mortgage process etc and in general now , would highly recom

Interesting but useless information. The nearest branch was Torrevjieja.  Wait for it - PERMANENTLYNCLOSED. As ollubwould say "what a fine old mess you would have got me in"

Thanks for all the info folks 

please close this thread 

Sorry my info is useless to you but as it's a forum pleased at least it proved useful to at least one other person. Also sorry to hear your local branch is closed which obviously I,m not a clairvoyant, but as I only visited the branch to open the account all dealings with our account have been successfully executed online. I was offering info on the only bank I could find which after a lot of research would offer a free non resident account without any conditions. Good luck finding better. 

Regards 

Pauline