Spanish Bank Accounts

k8vin

Hi,

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on opening a Spanish Bank account, either in spain, or with a UK bank, I have just bought a property in Spain, and plan to live there maybe 6 months of the year, so i am looking for a UK bank account and a Spanish account possibly with the same company, I will need to transfer GBP to Euro and vice versa, but I have no idea where to start, any advice will be greatly received.

Thanks

Kevin

JCB2020

The Abbey / Santander combination would seem the most obvous!

krisskross

Halifax have Spanish branches and I am told no charges for transferring between UK/ Spanish as long as you keep a certain balance.

KTF

I would open up a Nationwide account and use their cashcard whilst in spain. They give you the interbank rate and no charges for withdrawing overseas so you wont lose out on currency fluctuations or charges from converting from one currency to another.

krisskross

KTF wrote: »

I would open up a Nationwide account and use their cashcard whilst in spain. They give you the interbank rate and no charges for withdrawing overseas so you wont lose out on currency fluctuations or charges from converting from one currency to another.

This is fine for holidays but he will need a Spanish account for his direct debits. Only safe way to pay the utility bills . Spanish companies cut off your supply very quickly. Itwould be dreadful to arrive for a few days holiday and find you have no water or electricity supply.

Inactive

JCB2020 wrote: »

The Abbey / Santander combination would seem the most obvous!

I have a property in Spain, trust me... do not use Santander, biggest mistake I ever made.


Because Abbey belongs to Santander, they do not directly link with Abbey.

All Spanish Banks are fairly useless, but none is quite as bad as Santander.

gt94sss2

k8vin wrote: »

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on opening a Spanish Bank account, either in spain, or with a UK bank, I have just bought a property in Spain, and plan to live there maybe 6 months of the year, so i am looking for a UK bank account and a Spanish account possibly with the same company, I will need to transfer GBP to Euro and vice versa, but I have no idea where to start, any advice will be greatly received

HSBC (which has a special arrangement for its customers with Solbank)
Halifax

Regards
Sunil

seven-day-weekend

We just transfer money every so often from our Co-OP Bank in the UK to our Caja Granada in Spain, the Co-op charge us £8, CG charge us nothing, all the Direct Debits for things like Utility Bills come out of the CG.

To open a Spanish Bank Account you will need an NIE (fiscal) number which you get from certain police stations , or a residency certificate, and proof of address.

nico26

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We just transfer money every so often from our Co-OP Bank in the UK to our Caja Granada in Spain, the Co-op charge us £8, CG charge us nothing, all the Direct Debits for things like Utility Bills come out of the CG.

To open a Spanish Bank Account you will need an NIE (fiscal) number which you get from certain police stations , or a residency certificate, and proof of address.

Please make sure you get your NIE from a police station for opening an account. A lot of problems with bank accounts getting closed down because they have not had the correct NIE from a police station. They will not inform you either just freeze the account and it is a mess to sort out.

I bank with BBVA which has loads of branches. As said before halifax is opening branches but they are few and far between.Depending on the area you are going to stay. I just usually transfer a couple of times a year or just take some with me and bank it when I get there. Apply for online banking as well just to keep an eye on it because if you run short they will not be long in cutting off water electicity etc. Also make sure if it is a resale all former bills like water etc have been paid. Enjoy your new home.

benjus

We initially used Barclays in Spain (which is quite handy as you can open the account from a Barclays branch in the UK), then switched to CAM because the charges are lower (Spanish banking isn't free in general). Both seemed to offer decent service. If you don't speak Spanish, it's not difficult to find a Spanish bank with English speaking staff if you are in a popular expat/tourist area. We used to top up the Spanish account while in Spain by withdrawing cash from our Nationwide FlexAccount and paying it into the Spanish account.

k8vin

Thanks for the info, its of great help.

K8vin