Students - Year abroad

Merlinisold

My son is due to start his uni degree year abroad in September and I wondered which bank account would be best. He'll be studying for 4mths in Portugal & 3mths in France, then working for 4mths in Spain. He's currently with Santander. Does anyone know if you need a Spanish current account if you're working there??

Daliah

As he is still a British resident, and assuming he is over 18, he is still eligible for a Starling Euro account , which would be an ideal account for him

I doubt he would need a Spanish account to work in Spain - a Euro account with an IBAN is all that's needed in the EU. However, he is likely to need a study/work VISA unless he has an EU passport. Without either, he won't be allowed to stay in the EU for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. An EU bank account won't make a difference.

Marchitiello

Hi,

he will need to register for a Spanish Id number in order to work in Spain, and with that he could also open a non citizen/permanent resident bank account if he so wish. 

I would  recommend that he looks at Fineco UK bank as a multi currency account to get paid in Euro. The conversion back to GBP will be better then Wise and Starling (tested over many times).

I believe 1-2-3 Mini e 1-2-3 Student both benefit of the free withdrawal at zero forex fees at Santander Spanish ATM (useful if you need to deposit some emergency funds in his UK account and he could simply withdraw it there), but worth double checking with Santander.

Daliah

Marchitiello said:

I would  recommend that he looks at Fineco UK bank as a multi currency account to get paid in Euro. The conversion back to GBP will be better then Wise and Starling (tested over many times).

Whilst I agree that Fineco give slightly better exchange deals (and I sometimes do use them for this), they wouldn't be my first choice for a Euro account. Apart from many bits of their application and operation still being in Italian, the application process is rather involved and time consuming, and both online banking and app are rather unwieldy. Also their debit card, which costs £2.95 delivery charge, is either EUR or GBP, not both (like it is with Starling).

I didn't mention Wise since Wise are not a bank, i.e. don't have proper deposit protection. From an application and usability point of view, they are as easy as Starling but Starling is, IMO, the overall winner. 

Marchitiello

Daliah said:

Marchitiello said:

I would  recommend that he looks at Fineco UK bank as a multi currency account to get paid in Euro. The conversion back to GBP will be better then Wise and Starling (tested over many times).

Whilst I agree that Fineco give slightly better exchange deals (and I sometimes do use them for this), they wouldn't be my first choice for a Euro account. Apart from many bits of their application and operation still being in Italian, the application process is rather involved and time consuming, and both online banking and app are rather unwieldy. Also their debit card, which costs £2.95 delivery charge, is either EUR or GBP, not both (like it is with Starling).

I didn't mention Wise since Wise are not a bank, i.e. don't have proper deposit protection. From an application and usability point of view, they are as easy as Starling but Starling is, IMO, the overall winner. 

Fineco UK functionality and transaction timeframe it is frustrating but the £2.95 fee for the card would be more then recovered by the difference in exchange rates over a year of exchange transactions (edited, assuming that initial funds for the 7 months studying will be GBP) abroad.

i was an early adopter (I actually opened the very first post about Fineco on MSE) so both cards were free, however I have ever only used the EUR one and the OP’s son would only need the EUR as well as he already has a GBP student account available to transfer the Fineco’s converted EUR to then use in the UK. Again, better option for final conversion and for using the EUR debit card over the various countries he will be in. However, as Spain is one of the countries where ATM have usage fees for non customers, it may be worth to open a local account to avoid this (may be worth checking Portugal for this. Last time I was in France, pre covid, I could still use ATM for free) 

Merlinisold

Daliah said:

As he is still a British resident, and assuming he is over 18, he is still eligible for a Starling Euro account , which would be an ideal account for him

I doubt he would need a Spanish account to work in Spain - a Euro account with an IBAN is all that's needed in the EU. However, he is likely to need a study/work VISA unless he has an EU passport. Without either, he won't be allowed to stay in the EU for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. An EU bank account won't make a difference.

Luckily he can still have an EU passport! 

Daliah

That's super news for him.

kaMelo

Merlinisold said:

Daliah said:

As he is still a British resident, and assuming he is over 18, he is still eligible for a Starling Euro account , which would be an ideal account for him

I doubt he would need a Spanish account to work in Spain - a Euro account with an IBAN is all that's needed in the EU. However, he is likely to need a study/work VISA unless he has an EU passport. Without either, he won't be allowed to stay in the EU for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. An EU bank account won't make a difference.

Luckily he can still have an EU passport! 

Without wishing to appear pedantic there is no such thing as an EU passport.

The 90/180 days rule is not that simple either. It applies cumulatively to all nations (EU and non EU) within the Schengen area.. EU nations outside of Schengen have their own rules and time spent within them do not count cumulatively towards time spent within the Schengen area or other non Schengen area EU nations.  
Given the countries mentioned in the OP are all Schengen this would obviously not apply but, it is possible to travel as a visitor within the EU indefinitely.

[Deleted User]

Daliah said:

As he is still a British resident, and assuming he is over 18, he is still eligible for a Starling Euro account , which would be an ideal account for him

I doubt he would need a Spanish account to work in Spain - a Euro account with an IBAN is all that's needed in the EU. However, he is likely to need a study/work VISA unless he has an EU passport. Without either, he won't be allowed to stay in the EU for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. An EU bank account won't make a difference.

I would not agree with this.

• The Starling Euro account still only offers a UK IBAN (and with England outside the EEA) has known issues particularly with Spanish Banks. Wise (and Fineco) both offer real EEA Euro IBANs.
• With Starling's debit card, Merchants in the Eurozone will still define it as UK GBP card and will try DCC (to GBP) regularly from even when linked to their Euro account.

All in all, inferior to a 'real' Euro account. 

Daliah

Deleted_User said:

Daliah said:

As he is still a British resident, and assuming he is over 18, he is still eligible for a Starling Euro account , which would be an ideal account for him

I doubt he would need a Spanish account to work in Spain - a Euro account with an IBAN is all that's needed in the EU. However, he is likely to need a study/work VISA unless he has an EU passport. Without either, he won't be allowed to stay in the EU for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. An EU bank account won't make a difference.

I would not agree with this.

• The Starling Euro account still only offers a UK IBAN (and with England outside the EEA) has known issues particularly with Spanish Banks. Wise (and Fineco) both offer real EEA Euro IBANs.
• With Starling's debit card, Merchants in the Eurozone will still define it as UK GBP card and will try DCC (to GBP) regularly from even when linked to their Euro account.

All in all, inferior to a 'real' Euro account. 

I have been using a Starling Euro account for years. I also have a “real” Euro account. I never found any advantage in using my “real” one - to the contrary, until recently the real one didn’t actually have a proper debit card, and the one they isdue now is not as functional as the Starling debit card. Nor does my “real” one give me the supet exchange rate I get with Starling. In addition, it’s straight forward for a UK resident to open a Starling account right away, whilst it is next to impossible to open a “real” Euro account until you are actually resident in Euroland.

So I totally disagree that the Starling Euro account is all in all inferior to a “real” Euro account

Marchitiello

Daliah said:

Deleted_User said:

Daliah said:

As he is still a British resident, and assuming he is over 18, he is still eligible for a Starling Euro account , which would be an ideal account for him

I doubt he would need a Spanish account to work in Spain - a Euro account with an IBAN is all that's needed in the EU. However, he is likely to need a study/work VISA unless he has an EU passport. Without either, he won't be allowed to stay in the EU for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. An EU bank account won't make a difference.

I would not agree with this.

• The Starling Euro account still only offers a UK IBAN (and with England outside the EEA) has known issues particularly with Spanish Banks. Wise (and Fineco) both offer real EEA Euro IBANs.
• With Starling's debit card, Merchants in the Eurozone will still define it as UK GBP card and will try DCC (to GBP) regularly from even when linked to their Euro account.

All in all, inferior to a 'real' Euro account. 

I have been using a Starling Euro account for years. I also have a “real” Euro account. I never found any advantage in using my “real” one - to the contrary, until recently the real one didn’t actually have a proper debit card, and the one they isdue now is not as functional as the Starling debit card. Nor does my “real” one give me the supet exchange rate I get with Starling. In addition, it’s straight forward for a UK resident to open a Starling account right away, whilst it is next to impossible to open a “real” Euro account until you are actually resident in Euroland.

So I totally disagree that the Starling Euro account is all in all inferior to a “real” Euro account

Your example is quite specific to the one Euro account experience and not relevant to the argument that were posed by Oberoth. The fact that you until recently did not have a proper debit card on your “proper Euro account” does not means that all Euro accounts won’t give you a proper Debit card (Fineco by the way does, a Eur card that is not seen as UK issued). I would add that many online merchant in Spain also have an issue with Uk issued cards in general (BiN number) when used to buy goods to be delivered to a Spanish address.

The UK iban issue again is a real fact and does not get less relevant because you did not experienced it.

so based on this and the fact that the OP’s son will spend 4 months in Spain (where as I mentioned there is the additional complicating of ATM operators charging a fee), I would again suggest to the OP the following:

- confirm with Santander that son’s 1-2-3 mini or student account Debit Card can be used without fees at Santander Spanish ATM (like a Select Debit Card can)

- open a multi currency Fineco account and ask only for the EUR debit card.

- Once on site, try to open an international student, non resident, non permanent resident account. Most EU bank still offers them, just checks that there are no monthly fees. This may be particularly relevant in Spain because of the ATM operator fee, maybe less in Portugal and France, although an account with the likes of Societè Generale  can be always useful.