Spanish banking rip off

melaniehealey

Having finally sold my apt in Spain, I now needed to get the money back here.
Given that the sale of any property will realise a considerable sum of money, I wanted to maximise the exchan.
I phoned the bank daily to establish the sterling/euro exchange rate. On the 16th Dec. the rate was favourable, even 0.1 makes a difference on a large sum of money. I was advised the previous days exchange rate would be applied to the transfer, which I agreed to. 1 week later, having regularly checked my account here, the money still hadn't arrived. Another phone call to Spain........the money was still in my account as the transfer had not gone through.......nobody had contacted me to advise me. By this time the exchange rate was dire, so elected to leave it until the rate improved.More daily calls daily to check the rate. Fianlly on the 28th Dec. the rate was 1.475. the same as it had been on the 16th. They confirmed that this was the rate I would get.
Once again, I checked my account here daily. On the 6th Jan, there was still no sign of my money, and to my horror, I discovered that the transfer had
not been processed until the 3rd Jan, at an exchange rate that left me £1700
short of my calculations!! To add insult to injury, I then discovered what they had charged me for the privilege..........822 Euros!!!!!!!!!!!That's about £550. I have appealed over the exchange rate, and this is still pending. I will have more funds to transfer in the future. Any suggestions??? other than going over there with a large carrier bag!!! By the way, the money arrived in my account on the 9th Jan. Where did it go for 12 days??