Free banking

Try 

www.wise.com 

Steve 

Hi 

Lots of people on this forum use Wise.com - me included. N26 https://n26.com/en-es/bank-account is also popular.

Cheers 

Steve 

Imagine is good, its part of la Caixa so you the free cashpoints from them and can pay your bills via direct debit 

Imagine, thats the name of the online bank, its part of the La Caixa group. I hate La Caixa and all Spanish banks but tbf on this they have got it right, just do it all online up and running and 100% free. 

I know nothing about Revolut

Yes, you can set up your utility direct debits with Wise.

Steve 

Yes, although it seems to depend on which companies you are using. 

To explain, Wise euro accounts have a Belgian IBAN. EU law (I believe) says that these IBANs have to be respected across the EU, but some companies don't accept them until you nag them!

As a specific example, the Hidraqua website insists on a Spanish IBAN - but when I messaged them they accepted my Wise Belgian IBAN, no problem. My suspicion is that they had to accept non-Spanish IBANs on their payment systems to comply with the law, but forgot about the website (or didn't want to pay to change it).

By comparison, it was a simple matter to change my DD to Iberdrola Clientes.

Cheers 

Steve 

As SteveC2x has stated, Hidraqua may be a difficult one to set up, I wasn’t able to do it online as the Belgian IBAN number was not being accepted. I ended up phoning them, spoke to a very helpfult English speaking advisor, who set it up over the phone without any problems 

I’ve contacted my La Caixa branch about this Imagin account…….guess what…….only available to Spanish residents as you need a DNI. As a non-resident it’s not available to me!! Usual con merchants….still have to pay €35 a quarter.