Best bank for charges

All banks are reuqired by Law to offer an account providing basic services for free. You will have to ask around.

Sabadell will NOT offer a non resident a free account!!!! And it is means tested!

They suggested I pay in 700e p/m and extract it 5 days later

.....this would need to be done each & every month......wot a carry on-no thanks!

Please please advise on the best/cheapest bank account in Spain for us UK pensioners with holiday homes....

before we all go bankrupt with current bank charges!! Surely there must be an account that offers free banking with a minimum retainer to be kept in the account (as per Uk accounts)?

Unfortunately I don’t think so, Spanish banks usually charge for their services, one way or another. It’s also within living memory that all UK banks charged, and I guarantee that ‘free’ banking was being subsidized in other ways ie greater overdraft charges, slightly lower interest rates etc. We used to have a small business account and I could never understand why I had to pay for the privilege of paying in cheques!

Have a look here

https://opiniones-sobre.com/bancos-sin-comisiones-y-cuentas-sin-comisiones/

Hi, All,

I have had a holiday home in Spain since 2003 and obviously have had to have a bank account for all the utilities etc.

I currently  have a basic account with Bankia who charge 14 Euros per month for the privilege of them helping me pay bills. I don’t keep a large amount of cash in there and have been looking for something else to minimise the monthly charges.

I now bank with Starling Bank in the UK but they also have a Euro account along side the normal UK bank account. I can confirm that my community charges, electricity, water and the Suma have accepted this account for their payments. There are NO charges with Starling Bank, there is a very small 0.4% transfer fee from UK pounds to Euros, so to transfer 1000 Euros into your euro account would cost £4.

The debit card you get with pound account Starling  Bank is also your Euro account debit card, very clever in my opinion.

Everything is instant with Starling Bank, so far I would recommend, hope this helps others.

I also have a GB & EU Starling accounts but the iban number they sent me starts with GB.....do I need an alternate to avoid charges from Spanish utility companies?

Also did u have to go to the companies in person to transfer for payments????

To be honest, as I am in the UK my solicitors Euroteam in Torrevieja handled the transfers on my behalf ( for a fee). To me it’s money well spent.

My Starling account has obviously the same prefix as yours, but the fact that it’s a Euro account is in my opinion the key to all this. As I mentioned previously, if the Suma are happy, shouldn’t all the utilities accept the transfer to Starling?

I do fully intend to close down my Bankia rip off account this week (and their app is rubbish) and as I do not intend to permanently reside in Spain, I do not see this being a problem in paying my dues in Spain from a fee free account.

Well they did for us 3 weeks ago