What is a good bank to for none residents. - Page 3

You do not get charged for using your wise card in shops or restaurants. I have used several different cash machines with my card and never been charged yet. It will tell you when you go to withdraw euros from a cash machine if it is going to charge you. 

Ken, I have not used ATM yet but paid for restaurant and grocery shopping and have not been charged as my account with Wise is in Euro's. Just paid my Suma as well, since I closed my account with Bankia yesterday. 

Which ATM's please? Thanks Ken

I have used CiaxaBank, Caja Rural and Banco Popular that I can remember but probably used others as well. Never been charged. As I said it will tell you before you withdraw your money so you can cancel the request if it’s going to charge you. 

Get the Banking App on your phone with N26. Easy to set up and you can check your account anytime. If a Direct Debit is not paid due to lack of funds the charge is 3 Euros. You can pay in and set up Direct Debits, transfer money very easily. I have had my account for over a year and had no problems. It is difficult to speak to them but they are good through "Chat" and you can have "Chat" at anytime.

I had an International Banker check that all of the Banking Guarantees were in place before I opened my account. He told me that the owner of Paypal was one of the investors of 10,000,000 Euros.

This may or may not be relevant to this thread but here goes. I was informed by my bank (Bankia) that until I presented myself to a branch to prove my identity my account was frozen. Luckily I had booked a trip to Spain for early October. I duly presented myself to my local bank with passport, driving licence and NIE number. After waiting in line for 30 minutes I was told I had to go to the branch were the account was originally opened. 30 min drive away. When we arrived there there was a notice on the locked front door that if you wanted to see someone you needed an appointment after 11 am. A teller took pity on us and invited us in. We didn’t just need the documentation we had but she wanted to see our tax P60’s and proof as to where our income was coming from. We were grateful that she unblocked our debit card for one transaction to get us money for 5 days. We had the required information e-mailed to us and went back to the bank. Now they didn’t just want to see the documents they wanted copies. We tried to forward them to her account but the bank’s wifi was not up to it. Home again to use our own WiFi. Confirmation that the account was unblocked. Next day tried to withdraw money from our nearest branch ATM, account blocked. Of course it was after 11am so no appointment. Attracted the attention of an employee who took our passports into the airconditioned inside and left us to suffer the heat outside. After about 20/30 minutes “ Your account is unblocked, goodbye”

Service in a Spanish bank means customers are an inconveniece in the staff’s short working day. While we were there there were at least 12 others with the same problem.

Hi Care4, I know how you feel ....it took me 2 months in July-21 from UK before I managed to unblock my account with Bankia in Torrevieja. No response of emails or phones. My account was blocked almost whole of 2021  but I didn't check untill my house insurance emailed me for non-payment. Finally, one lucky day they did response and sent me appx 4 long forms to fill along with a copy of P60 to proove I am UK tax payer and residents with a copy of my passport. All these took 2 months and anger, frustration.  Thanks to members in this forum, first I opened a Wise account with debit card, paid every I'll etc, setup direct debits and when I was in Torrevieja 2 weeks ago I emailed them that I wanted to close the account, they asked me come with passports before 11am. Finally I closed the account and now all is being paid by Wise now free....compare to banks charges of 196 euros a year with Bankia ... 

Sorry to hear about your dilema. Spanish banks are so antiquated how they treat customers. Horrendous customer service. We are now in the process of changing banks to Wise. Direct debits take a bit of sorting out but other than that we are managing well. Thanks for your post.

Shay72 I have also opened a Wize account. I downloaded their app., photographed both sides of the photopages on my passport and sent it to them before taking a selfie and sending that. Verified within 10 minutes. No visiting different branches. No uploading various documents sourced from the UK. No hanging about waiting for an appointment, and definitely no staff making you feel that you are intruding on their leisure time. No banks charging you £28 for debit card to access your money or €14 a month to electronically pay a standing order once every three months.

Care4, great.you will love Wise, specially the debit card you can use at any place in Spain tap or pin ..no charge, control on spending ....., just be careful with withdrawal at ATM , I think some bank in Spain will charge but not used it yet. The best thing is the great exchange rate and transfer from pounds to euro within 5 mins.😄