Spanish bank charges

If you are non resident join Starling internet  bank for free and set up a euro account to pay all your direct debits.You need to tell your water companies e.c.t your Starling Euro iban number but it also good as there app lets you put pounds into your account which you can change into euros to pay your  bills at a very good rate.You also get a card to draw money out at a  speed bank which includes CaixaBank which is meant to be  free but i haven.t tried yet as i have only had my account a couple of months but even if i get changed a couple of euros to get my money out its less than the monthly amount bank of Sabadell

this is why i have gone to Starling wish i done it 12 months since free and a great app for paying bills plus you get the true exchange rate .i was paying 150 euros to pay 4 direct debits not anymore

Hi Richard, could you explain how you were paying 150 Euro to pay 4 direct debits, I just opened an account with Sabadell. !!

As non resident you pay 35 euros a quarter for your account plus a fee to the spanish government of around 30 euros every 2 years

I only had 4 direct debits to pay water.broadband.community charge and electric so that why it is 150 a year to pay 4 direct debits 

That's why I changed to starling bank as it easy to run app and free

We got a notice from BANKINTER to notify us of bank charge of 60€ per YEAR.   

Using a debit card at a different bank costs 1.80€ per transaction.  

Thanks Ray

Yes I changed our bank account to Cajamar last year as a non resident for fee free banking after extensive weeks of searching all the spanish banks and non spanish options like Starling, N26 (now closing Uk accounts) etc. Their online account is called "weferrent" but you do have a dedicated english helpline and you can do face to face in branch transactions but you will pay 7e that month for the in branch use. Non residents must apply in branch but residents can do online applications. Their website is in english and the app can be selected in english. I have,nt paid a cent in fees since March 2019. Free debit cards, atm use allowing cash deposits too, free direct debits, everything you need from your bank with no charges. No demands, no stipulations, no minimum amount monthly deposits, I highly recommend them.

Regards

Pauline.

Have you had any problems with companies insisting on a Spanish bank. I have just bought a property and am hoping to use my Starling account for utilities, etc but have read that some won't accept it. I have opened a Spanish account just in case as my lawyer suggested it would be required.

Thanks

No i did my electric online and the rest by filling in a sepa direct debit sent to me by my water companies ect.i think you might need a Spanish bank account just  to buy a house in Spain but would check with your lawyer if they set up direct debits yet and if these can be set up using your Starling euro account instead  so you can close your Spanish account if you getting charged for it

Thanks. It was the lawyer who suggested I would need a Spanish account but I will push for him to set up DD's using my Euro Starling and see how it goes.