Best way to pay Spanish mortgage

Oliva_Nova

Hi,

We have a mortgage with a Spanish bank for our holiday home in Spain. We do not pay a fixed amount every month. We just make sure there is enough in the Spanish bank account to meet monthly outgoings, including the mortgage. We always send a UK cheque by post to our Spanish bank. When it arrives, it is sent by our Spanish bank to their HQ in Madrid who then send it back to our UK bank for verification and confirmation. Our UK bank then okays the cheque to Madrid who subsequently notifies our Spanish bank that the cheque is okay. This, of course, can take weeks. Is there a quicker, cost effective alternative which allows us to make irregular payments - say every two, three or four months - and provides a better exchange rate?

maninthestreet

Wire transfer? How much are the bank charges for your current arrangement of shuffling cheques back and fore between the Uk and Spain?

Riog

If you open a online account with Smile you can use their Tipanet
service - transfer any amount to your Spanish bank (4/5 days) for
£8 per transaction.

n17yids

I have a property in Spain and use Halifax in UK & Spain, free transfers between accounts!

Oliva_Nova

Thanks for all your replies. The only thing we pay for is for the stamp as we post the cheque to Spain. I wondered if there were any currency companies who could offer a better exchange rate that would offset the cost of using them?