PAYING Spanish UTILITIES via your WISE Account.

I’m paying mine with Wise no problem.

Hello       

Dozens of people on here are paying D.Ds through Wise , obviously, depending where they live, this will be different utility companies in the Costa Blanca. 

If you are having difficulties with one particular company, you should say who they are, so anyone using that company,   & Wise can reply.

Cheers

Elinspain

Yes most people are now.

But some utilities may be aukward to do.

I would like if some member can show the official EU rules which states Spanish utilities must accept the WISE Direct debit set up.

Regards Jan 

https://finance.ec.europa.eu/consumer-finance-and-payments/payment-services/payment-services/iban-discrimination_en

Thank you Tony for your help 🙏 👍

Best regards Jan 

Hi Jan

Is it Hidraqua that you're having problems with?

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve 

A Spanish property agent said some Spanish utilities won't set up D Debits taken from "Wise" Euro accounts.

Of course I know lots of people have already managed to set up their DD for their Spanish utilities using their own personal Wise account without involving a Spanish Bank.

And that's what I prefer.

Maybe the property agents get some sort of commission for channeling customer's to Spanish Banks ? ..so maybe that's why they say DD must be via a Spanish Bank ?

I was just searching for some sort of EU ruling which I could maybe quote to a utility company who refused to accept to set up a DD for my Spanish Utility, using  my Wise euro account.

I think the previous poster has thankfully supplied a link for me.

Regards Jan.

Hi Jan

I think with some agents it's possibly just a combination of inertia and lack of knowledge, like when they say you must have a Spanish bank account to buy a house.

The reason I mentioned Hidraqua is that when you log in to their website it allows you to change the Iban but insists on a Spanish one. I had to message them and a few days later the Iban quoted on the website had changed to the Belgian one. I think other people have gone to their nearest office, with the same result.

I suspect that if you come across a utility that refuse to accept the Belgian Iban you will find yourself banging your head at a brick wall, because it will cost them a fortune to change their computer systems!

You could of course change your utility to a different supplier.

Good luck!

Steve

The problem is rooted in the IBAN system itself. Depending what country the IBAN can be anything from 16 (Belguim-WISE), 20 (Lithuania-REVOLUT), 22 (UK and Ireland) 24 (Spain) and up to 34 alphanumeric characters for some countries.

Problems happen when spanish utilities etc expect 24 alphanumeric characters  and have their forms set up only to accept 24.

Usually a phone call or call in personally to office can remedy this

This is how Spain gets away with it, by saying that they do not refuse other IBAN numbers because there is a way around it (difficult as it may be)