fee-free bank account

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olliejaeger
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fee-free bank account

Postby olliejaeger » Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:55 am

Morning all, I'm looking for a fee-free bank account without conditions (such as having a monthly salary paid in). Just wondered if anyone knew of a (preferably national) Spanish bank that offers this. Thanks in advance, Ollie
Last edited by olliejaeger on Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

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costakid
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby costakid » Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:04 am

I would be interested to find one also. Sabadell charge for most things.

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Trooperman
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Trooperman » Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:13 am

Unicaja have something called "Plan Zero". Havent looked at it in detail, but I think it requires regular payments in and there is no charge for debit cards......must get around to it soon!
nil illegitimum carborundum

anyroads
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby anyroads » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:12 pm

olliejaeger wrote:Morning all, I'm looking for a fee-free bank account without conditions (such as having a monthly salary paid in). Just wondered if anyone knew of a (preferably national) Spanish bank that offers this. Thanks in advance, Ollie
That is like having "Brexit" without conditions.

As they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Banking is a service like everything else.

anyroads

casita-bonita
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby casita-bonita » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:19 pm

We've had the Sabadell free account for years. Have to pay in 700e per month to qualify. Seems to work as we have never had charges since we signed up. In addition you get cashback on monthly bills paid by DD, 5% I think it is, and a repsol card that also gives 5% off everything bought at Repsol garage.

No complaints with their service so far, but no doubt there are horror stories out there tho'
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Gasman
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Gasman » Tue Jan 29, 2019 2:35 pm

BBVA online account

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costakid
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby costakid » Tue Jan 29, 2019 4:02 pm

casita-bonita wrote:We've had the Sabadell free account for years. Have to pay in 700e per month to qualify. Seems to work as we have never had charges since we signed up. In addition you get cashback on monthly bills paid by DD, 5% I think it is, and a repsol card that also gives 5% off everything bought at Repsol garage.

No complaints with their service so far, but no doubt there are horror stories out there tho'
We do not pay in that much as only used for bills etc. We also pay a non residence fee every year. They take it automatically.

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Manchesteral » Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:41 pm

I have an account with Deutsche bank in Las Palmas, provided in make 3 debit card transactions per month my banking is free, if I do not make these transactions they charge me €27.00 , I also have to pay a non residents "tax" per year to the government !
I don't know of any bank in the world who offers unconditional free banking, and I have accounts in other countries !

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:47 pm

olliejaeger wrote:Morning all, I'm looking for a fee-free bank account without conditions (such as having a monthly salary paid in). Just wondered if anyone knew of a (preferably national) Spanish bank that offers this. Thanks in advance, Ollie
I know u asked for a Spanish bank, but there is no reason to have a Spanish bank account, unless you need to pay in cash or visit a branch.

Ferratum Bank based in Malta for example offers totally free banking and operates EU wide. They are completely agnostic to which country you reside in. The only time you ending up paying anything is if you use an ATM more than 4 times per month (you can withdraw up to 4,000 each month for free).

There are no conditions and no charges and you can pay direct debits etc. just like from a Spanish bank account. I have used them for 2 years and never paid a penny. Other small advantage no messing around with resident/non resident stuff. They are fully regulated and included in deposit protection scheme.

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:03 pm

Manchesteral wrote:I don't know of any bank in the world who offers unconditional free banking, and I have accounts in other countries !
All of the following banks offer unconditional free banking...i.e no monthly charges or minimum deposits. The only charges they
levy for day to day banking are if you use ATM in excess of the free monthly allowance. EUR denominated unless otherwise noted

N26 (Germany)
Gibraltar International Bank (GBP a/c)
Ferratum Malta
Revolut (UK) (GBP and EUR a/c)


The below Irish banks offer a free account provided you do not lodge over 20k per
AIB
PTSB
Ulster bank

There may be more that I am not aware of, but hopefully that might help somebody to stop paying bank charges they don't need to!

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby ericsbcn » Wed Jan 30, 2019 3:41 am

We have the BBVA online account also. It has no fees and no conditions. You don't have to make a certain number or amount of deposits or anything. We've had it for 4 or 5 years now and have never paid any fees. You have to do all the initial set up of the account online, but once you have it, you can still go into a branch if you need to.

They have a pretty good website, where you can do any kind of transaction and you can set it to be all in English.

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby fincalospinos » Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:09 am

Cajamar have an account called Wefferent, whatever that means, and this account is free providing that you do all your banking either online or at ATMs'. If you go into the bank and ask them to carry out a transaction, there is a charge of 5 Euros.
Hardworking resident !!

olliejaeger
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby olliejaeger » Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:30 pm

Thanks everyone for all your answers and advice! I will look into it. I don't think the BBVA online account exists any longer and with regards to non-Spanish accounts, apparently they can't be used for paying your income tax by direct debit to the Spanish tax authorities!

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:42 pm

olliejaeger wrote:with regards to non-Spanish accounts, apparently they can't be used for paying your income tax by direct debit to the Spanish tax authorities!
I have come across this in my business dealings in a non income tax related matter and I wrote to the EU regarding whether this was legal...i.e forcing someone to use a Spanish bank account. As you will read below it is illegal, but I won't be the one to force the Hacienda to do it...I don't want to be in their bad books!

THIS is their reply

EU law provides for the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality or residence (Articles 18 et seq. of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU). It also provides for the free movement of capital (Art. 63 et seq. TFEU).
Accordingly, public bodies cannot discriminate citizens on grounds that they hold a bank account in another EU Member State. That could entail a restriction of the free movement of citizens and a restriction of the free movement of capital, confining all transaction with the administration to the Spanish territory.
It is therefore advisable to lodge a complaint before the European Commission or, alternatively, to contact the SOLVIT network, an online mechanism free of charge:
http://ec.europa.eu/solvit/index_es.htm

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Gasman » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:33 am

We still have our BBVA online account - it may have changed in the last couple of years for access - this is the present web page which seems to indicate that it is only available for NEW customers, though we moved our normal account to the online as old clients at the time ... and that FREE banking is only for the first year, but then you need to use your card three times per month to keep it free.
Cuenta Online Go
https://www.bbva.es/particulares/cuenta ... /index.jsp

olliejaeger
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby olliejaeger » Sat Feb 09, 2019 11:19 am

I totally agree with Paddy Pumpkin that it is ridiculous (but typically Spanish) that the Hacienda won't allow online payments from non-ES accounts (or non-ES cards), even though this obviously unlawful.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I have looked into this a bit more and, so far, found out the following:

BBVA did use to offer a conditionless fee-free online account but, like Gasman said, only do so for the first year now.

The Cajamar Wefferent account seems to be for residents of Spain only. Not sure if anyone can confirm this?

There don't appear to be any permanently conditionless fee-free accounts in Spain at the moment, so I suppose it's a case of finding the one with the most favourable conditions and then possibly switching in the future.

For me personally, being a resident or having to use the debit/credit card so many times a month isn't an option, but Sabadell offer an 'Expansion account' which is free on the condition that you pay in €700 pcm. I don't have a regular Spanish income, but it looks as though you can transfer this in from another Euro account and then back again.

Sabadell were also the only bank that had a bank manager reply to my email on the same day, although there was one thing he said that I'm not sure about:

"The only comission is the tasa no residencia for being no resident, the bank charges you to the pólice department. I think is 47 euros per person each two years. This is the same for all banks in Spain"

When googling the 'tasa no residencia', it just refers to the one off fee you pay when first applying for your N.I.E. number. Have any non-residents come across this being somrthing that's taken from their bank account on a regular basis?

Any light that can be shone on these matters will be truly appreciated!!

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby katy » Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:13 pm

Never had a free bank a/c in Spain. Was even charge €9 pa. for a bank card. I closed my Sabadell one when they charged me 2% of 3900 cheque for depositing it. I got half of it back after complaint. Have 3 bank accounts in UK. Only one has a regular income going in but none charge at all. Also had a American bank account when we had a place in Florida and it was free banking. Have a free one in Gibraltar too.

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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:58 pm

Santander do an online account that appears to be free, via their online subsidiary open bank

https://www.openbank.es/en/current-acco ... apse--2512

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gerryh
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby gerryh » Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:49 pm

I live full time in Spain. Have a bank account with Sabadell and don't pay any fees.
Cheers
Gerry
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Re: fee-free bank account

Postby Red Dragon » Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:40 pm

Hello - does anyone know if Banco Sabadell charge for closing an account with them? I currently pay approx. €35 per quarter to bank with them as non-resident in Spain.


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