Spanish bank or UK Bank - who do you trust?

[El Cid]

He was warned by us and others not to have a large balance, but he ignored it!

Sid

[Pamela1]

A friend owns a house on an urbanisation. The local council is trying to get the owners to pay large sums of money because there was a problem between the original developer and the council. The whole issue is under legal consideration and has not been resolved to date. That did not stop the council arbitrarily taking €35000 directly out of his bank account without any notice.

I'm not sure a UK bank would allow this.

Sid

I doubt any UK bank would allow that Sid.

[flora espana]

I keep most of my money in the UK. I opened a Santander account when I first came here but I closed it because of the charges I had to pay if I didn't make regular payments into the account. I prefer to be in control of when I transfer money. I now have an N26 account which is totally free apart from an initial 10 euros for a debit card, but online only. It is a German bank, but it gives you a Spanish IBAN, so you can pay your bills. I believe BBVA do a free account. If you have UK address I think the Starling bank have a good option where you can have a sterling and a euro account and transfer money between them with no charge.

[peteroldracer]

Don't forget that any group of assets worth over €50,000 held outside Spain must be declared on Form 720 - assuming you are tax resident here. I have no idea what charges are made for such assets but it may be worth you checking that it does not come to more than the bank charges?

[bbobandannie]

Hi, sorry I have just come across this and have experienced most of what is being mentioned on this post so thought I would add my two pence worth. We have a UK account and a Spanish Sabadell Account and transfer cash in monthly - we were advised by our accountants not to have too much in the Spanish account as the Spanish can indeed take money either directly from your account or embargo your accounts until such time you pay whatever they deem you owe. A friend did get her account embargoed with no notice - she went to the shops and the bank card was refused - checked at the bank and they told her that the account was embargoed and there was nothing they could do until she had sorted it out with the taxman. We very nearly got a bank embargo because the tax man decided that we owed him some money (which we didn't) but as we didn't have an address where the postman would deliver, we were never informed by letter, instead were expected to know as we should have checked the BOE for bad debtors. At the time I didn't know much about the BOE and since I have tried several times but it is a horrendous site and like finding a needle in a haystack. I found the outstanding bill when we got ourselves the digital certificate, which has been a godsend. We logged on and lo and behold there was a 500 euro bill already at the embargo stage and if we hadn't made contact, our bank account would have been closed to us until we paid. Another thing to note, that if you don't argue with the bill with the tax man within 6 months, you will lose any court case. We fought ours for two years, lost two appeals, eventually changing accountants who advised not to bother fighting any more and to just settle the bill. Frustrating as we didn't owe it but no one would listen to our reasons. Lesson learnt, now we have an APDO which the tax man has as our address and I watch the Tax Account like a hawk just in case he finds something else! We don't pay any bank charges to Sabadell as we input at least 800 euros a month into the account but another way of avoiding the bank charges is to have health insurance, car insurance, car loan etc through Sabadell, everyday bank direct debits such as electricity and water bills don't count. If you check your T&C's for your account, it will list it on the fees pages - some accounts charge regardless if you are not resident, so if you are resident then you need to go into your Branch and present your TIE to them and they will sort the rest. Finally, transferring money from a UK bank directly to a Spanish bank will normally result in bank charges because of the UK now being outside the European Union, it used to be free to transfer within Europe but unfortunately the Spanish banks have jumped on the chance to charge and do so. We use an online currency transfer company, most now have accounts in Europe (Currency Fair and Transferwise definitely do), you transfer your cash into their UK account, they transfer cash from their European account to your bank - no bank charges. The Currency Transfer Company do take something (Curreny Fair take 3 euro regardless of the amount you transfer) not sure about Transferwise but I guess probably something similar, but 3 euros v 35 euros is a big difference. Incidentally, I used to get our Government Pension paid directly from the UK Gov as it is generally a better rate (not always but generally) and received no charges from the bank - I don't know about the State Pension but possibly that is the same? I hope my little essay has made some sense!!

[Wicksey]

We were told if we paid 700€ into the Sabadell then there would be no fees but this seems to have changed for us as we pay fees of 80€ a year now. When we questioned it they said that a pension should be paid directly into the account rather than us just transferring money. We are pretty fed up with them as they have shut the Torrox branch and now are shutting the Torrox ATM and moving it to the other end of El Morche. Going to Nerja is a pain and we rarely go there, but that is our nearest branch now if we do need to go to collect a new card etc. We've looked at changing accounts but they all seem to be as bad as each other. We don't often take out cash or need to visit the branch, so are just carrying on with them for now. I know they are supposed to move all your DDs etc when you move banks, but I have my details set up as payment in a number of other websites and at the moment just cannot be bothered with the hassle.

Yes, Wise (formerly Transferwise) are very cheap to use. They charge just a few euros to exchange pounds to euros, then sending it to my Spanish account is free. I prefer to be in charge of when money is transferred here so don't want money sent automatically from the UK. As it is, I am not yet getting state pension, which I think is what they seem to want paid into the bank here.

[Lyric]

As it is, I am not yet getting state pension, which I think is what they seem to want paid into the bank here.

Seem to be quite happy with a private pension too, which is what I have paid direct.

Didn't know about the El Morche move, do you know where ?

[Wicksey]

I spotted a letter when I went online dated 9 June so we may get one in the post. I think it will be somewhere near the Hotel Costamar from memory. It said that until it is up and running the nearest ATM will be in Nerja. Not sure how any local businesses that used them are faring, as I guess they would still have cash to pay in.

I just like to have control over when I exchange money plus my private pension wouldn't be enough if they want a minimum amount each month.

[spanish_lad]

We get paid by transfer, so all our wage is in two spanish accounts every month. I guess its different for us, because we are employed, not pensioners.

My dads pension gets paid to his Cajasur account each month, and he had the "lump sum" in there too. Hes never had an issue with embargoes or anything.

Embargos can be a problem, especially if you havent planned for it, or were waiting to get paid before paying it etc.

I´ve just been "caught out" by Alhaurin el grande town hall for 80 euros - i can only assume that its a car tax bill that for some reason wasnt paid when it was issued - i´ve nothing else domiciled and theres nothing on the bop. strange.