New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

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patricia
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby patricia » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:54 am

That is very interesting thanks Steve. Thanks for that. Can I ask if those fees are because you are a not a resident!! They have started charging me 9 euros a month, not sure yet if any other fees except if I use the internet to pay a bill they charge me 5 euros!!
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby steve_w » Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:29 pm

Hi Patricia -

I suspect that CaixaBank is raising its fees for all customers, regardless of residency status. There wasn't anything in the notification letter that mentioned residency.

Steve W

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patricia
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby patricia » Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:44 pm

OK Steve,

I want to change anyway and have been looking at other banks.

Thanks for that information. Fees are horrendous!
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patricia
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby patricia » Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:48 pm

I think though as a Spanish resident and with a Spanish pension paid into my bank account I would have to use a Spanish bank as much as I would love to use Starling.
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby steve_w » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:14 pm

Paragraph 1 of Article 9 of EU Regulation 260/2012 states: "A payer making a credit transfer to a payee holding a payment account located within the Union shall not specify the Member State in which that payment account is to be located, provided that the payment account is reachable in accordance with Article 3."

The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. However all EU rules and regulations still apply to the UK until the end of the transition period, which at the moment is 31 December 2020.

In theory, then, I think that you could ask for your Spanish pension to be paid into a Starling account.

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby patricia » Fri Jan 29, 2021 4:51 pm

Since I last posted about La Caixa.. I actuall made a complaint to their head office and I got my money back for service charge and now I do not pay any service charge at all :thumbup:

Although I am still going to set up a Transferwise bank account. Seems a very sensible thing to do! :D
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby maureenscot » Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:14 pm

I am in the same position as you Patricia. My fees at Caixa have become £22 a month. Just noticed this month that my house insurance has doubled without notification. I cannot communicate as do not speak enough Spanish. So will have to wait until I can get over, whenever that will be. I am really mad. Imagine doing this to people during these financially straitened times

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby patricia » Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:56 pm

maureenscot wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:14 pm I am in the same position as you Patricia. My fees at Caixa have become £22 a month. Just noticed this month that my house insurance has doubled without notification. I cannot communicate as do not speak enough Spanish. So will have to wait until I can get over, whenever that will be. I am really mad. Imagine doing this to people during these financially straitened times
How awful.

They all speak English in La Caixa so why not give them a call!! However...........

I also sent an email to their head office. I will send you their email address of the head office. servicio. "[email protected]" . Email them at this email address. I got a response and now I do not pay any more fees at all and nor should you. Are you a resident!! Not sure if that makes a difference or not. However make a complaint and see what they say. No point talking the branch, the managers do what they want.
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby maureenscot » Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:35 pm

I am not a resident that is why the charges are even higher. I used them for house insurance as it was easier at the time of purchasing my house. Doubled from this month. So I will give the email a shot. Thank you

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby elusive » Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:25 pm

By law they are supposed to give at least 2 months notice if they are going to increase your insurance premiums. Use it against them as it does work.

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby Screagle » Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:03 pm

Hi Patricia

Well done with your complaint to Caixa. I posted last year about our garage owners bank account with them and excessive fee increases.

There are only three owners and our community president told me that Caixa had increased their fees for our account to 30 euros per month (!). As far as I know we only use the account for luz payments, insurance and the odd repair / maintenance bill. I suggested we change bank but now I'm thinking that we should complain to head office as you have done about their fees and get them removed. So out of interest what was the basis of your complaint?

I would argue that as a statutory body we have no choice but to have a bank account and their fees are unjustifiable. The complexity in my case is quite possibly that we are categorised as an empresa and not particulares so perhaps the complaint won't fly but it's got to be worth the president sending an email.

Saludos

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby patricia » Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:55 pm

Screagle wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:03 pm Hi Patricia

Well done with your complaint to Caixa. I posted last year about our garage owners bank account with them and excessive fee increases.

There are only three owners and our community president told me that Caixa had increased their fees for our account to 30 euros per month (!). As far as I know we only use the account for luz payments, insurance and the odd repair / maintenance bill. I suggested we change bank but now I'm thinking that we should complain to head office as you have done about their fees and get them removed. So out of interest what was the basis of your complaint?

I would argue that as a statutory body we have no choice but to have a bank account and their fees are unjustifiable. The complexity in my case is quite possibly that we are categorised as an empresa and not particulares so perhaps the complaint won't fly but it's got to be worth the president sending an email.

Saludos
They have out of interest been taken over by some other bank. But I cannot remember which one.

The basis of my complaint was that as a senior person over 65, having a pension paid directly into the bank account and with various standing orders going out and using a debit/credit card, then I qualified for free banking and that was what the head office have found and so refunded me my money and now, as stated above, I do not pay any charges. I did of course threaten to leave their bank for another, but at least I have been saved the hassle of that. However as stated I do intend to open a transferwise account.

I think that 30 euros a month is a hell of a lot!!

Good luck with that and let us know how you get on. :thumbup:
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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby Screagle » Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:29 pm

Patricia, thanks for sharing - you had them bang to rights. By the way Caixabank will be merging by absorption with Bankia subject to regulatory clearance with plans to integrate operations by year end.

I think I'll have a chat with the president over the next couple of weeks as the town is going into Nivel 4 (Grado 2) from Wednesday onwards. Hopefully he'll have some more time on his hands!

Saludos

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby steve_w » Fri Feb 12, 2021 4:38 pm

In September of last year, having successfully transferred the direct debits for all of our regular bills in Spain to Starling Bank, I told CaixaBank that we wanted to close our account with them.

They replied that to close the account we would both have to attend our branch in person. There was absolutely no way, they said, that the account could be closed remotely.

We haven't been able to visit Spain since then, so the the account has remained open but with zero balance. I told the manager that we would go to the branch as soon as we could, and that I did not expect to incur any maintenance fees or other charges while the account was dormant.

At the end of January, CaixaBank sent us a letter telling us that, with effect from 1st April, the account will be changing to something called a 'HolaBank Servicuenta'. The fee for that account is €35 a quarter, which, I suppose, is a little more reasonable than the €60 a quarter that they were going to charge us from October last year. However, we still want to close the account altogether.

Interestingly, the letter says: "We remind you that, if you wish to avoid the application of the new conditions, the law gives you the right to notify us of your opposition and request the termination of your contract before the date scheduled for its entry into force, without incurring any costs." It then goes on to say: "You can enforce your rights in the CaixaBankNow environment, through the 'Hello (your name)' icon (on the upper right part of the screen) / Personal Settings / Contracts / Cancelling services or abandoning contracted products or at your usual branch."

So, I think I'll give that a try. They'll probably say that we still have to go to the branch to sign something.

In the meantime, the direct debits with Starling Bank have been failing since 1st January. This is because, although UK banks are still participating in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) after Brexit, organisations collecting payments now have to include the payer's UK address in the direct debit initiation data that they send to their bank. Most Spanish utility companies and ayuntamientos seem not to have been aware of this change, and their payments systems aren't capable of capturing and recording that information.

Oh well ...

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby Ana de Chipiona » Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:23 pm

Hi Steve - how are you getting on now with your dd and Starling Bank? We are going to close our Caixa account and we have already set up a Starling bank account.

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:03 pm

I would be careful using a UK bank to do this....they can now charge for the DD payment service (though not all will) and I think there is no limit on how much they can charge per payment.

There are two banks in Spain that offer totally free day to day banking and they can't charge for DD and intra EU SEPA payments. OPENBANK and N26. Openbank is only for Spanish residents. N26 won't take UK residents but with a bit of fiddling you could open a Spanish N26 with Spanish IBAN .....not sure if it still works but it did at this time last year when I opened mine.

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby Ana de Chipiona » Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:13 pm

Thanks Mr PP for the information. I think we will close our Caixa bank account anyway and wait for the utilities to contact us for payment. We only needed the Caixa account when we first bought our house and now they want to put up the charges we have decided to say adios.

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby costakid » Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:49 pm

Ana de Chipiona wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:13 pm Thanks Mr PP for the information. I think we will close our Caixa bank account anyway and wait for the utilities to contact us for payment.
While you are waiting for the bills to arrive you will have been cut off. You cant rely on the Spanish post when its something as important as paying bills. Stick to direct debit.

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby ashtondav » Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:08 pm

Endesa and my water company email my invoices. Surely you could then make the transfer from Revolut or whoever to the relevant account. Or even overpay so the you could be sure you were always in credit.

Or do all spanish organizations force you to have a DD in place?

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Re: New CaixaBank fees ... time to change banks?

Postby jhonie99 » Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:30 pm

We're renting away from home at moment so know a little about paying bills, lol

We refuse to change elec and water company contracts into our name.

With elec companies you'll have a few months to spare before they cut the elec - laws were introduced which delay matters for quite some time. State of Alarm is a dream also with regard this.

The landlord terminated the domilicaciones for the utilities. We could have denounced if we wished etc.
I won't specify which elec companies but...........we generally wait for the first "red" letter to arrive and then just pay online via card. (you won't get the option to pay, with the first standard bill).
The water can be paid online immediately.

so, no big deal about direct debits, etc. they're happy to get their money!!


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