Best non resident bank

Been mentioned and recommended many times but Wise gets the thumbs up. Belgian IBAN and you can pay all your direct debits through it. 

I fully agree that Wise would be your best option. I have a small UK pension paid into Wise every month who then convert it to euros and transfer it to my Spanish bank account free of charge.

Steve 

Thanks for the info as yet I don't  have a Spanish account as I still live in Belgium at the moment. Any suggestions on the best Spanish bank?

My pension company would not pay into a foreign account hence my Wise account. 

Nobody seems happy with any Spanish bank because of the very high non resident bank  account charges which will eat away at your pension. I can only recommend Sabadell. 

Steve 

I've no familiarity with Belgian banking or the associated costs - but in terms of paying direct debits etc for Spanish services (IBI, Electric, Gas, Water etc), then there's no reason to not continue using your current Belgian bank?

With Wise, you get a Belgian IBAN so can also set that up to pay direct debits for Spain but monies are not subject to the ECB guarantee of 100k Euros. (They do have other safeguarding in place).

If the plan is to become resident in Spain then you will have a number of (fee free) options available to you in Spain when that happens. In the interim, I'd see no reason to change your current set-up.

Just my opinion.

Hi

I use Wise to receive my personal pension and convert to euros - and can see no reason to use a Spanish bank at all! When I need to use an ATM I religiously use a Cashzone machine because they don't charge for withdrawals.

Also, Wise pay interest on money held.

Cheers

Steve

I recommend Sabadell bank.

Been with them for over 20 years, no problems. When I have had a problem, buying shoes on the internet, which was a scam, they have sorted it out for me with no hassle.

Cheers, J

You could try BBVA if you really want a Spanish account my partner has been with A Banca  for years and all the banks are currently being sort of sued as it were for a sort of ppi type rip off they should of lowered interest rates some years ago on loans etc but didn't so now it's all kicked off 😁 BBVA online account is all free opened one for me and my partner but i dont think ill use mine as i have revolut wise and HSBC global money 👍 they are encouraging people to open this account online although guy in the branch said he would help swap direct debits over....the cash machine in ABanca doesn't charge to use with foreign cards but Spanish ones it does...there's only santander and ABanca in our village but Santander is charging for using GB cards 👍

I've noticed people are recommending Wise and I think another one is Revolut. These banks are fine unless you want to make a large purchase such as a property because Spanish authorities now insist the money must come from a Spanish clearing bank, also your solicitor on the morning of the purchase has to go to your bank and obtain a bank draft, you cannot do this with Wise as they have no branches.

All the horror stories you hear about the banks and their charges is because a number of people keep the bare minimum amount of money in them just to pay bills and the banks are a business and at the end of the day they have to make money, they are not a charity. I use Sabadell, I'm not resident but I also invest in a savings scheme and I pay no bank charges at all.