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I knew it was expensive to have a bank account in Spain but I think ours is taking the p----. They are charging us 24 Euros per quarter - that is over £80 per year at a rough estimate . Is this normal ? Should we negotiate with the bank manager or should we put our money elsewhere? But where? I am sure I saw in Barclays in Sebanillas advertising no charges but I expect there are some hiden clauses.
I would be grateful if someone could confirm if this is normal without asking for private information . I have absolutely no faults with the bank except for the excessive charges and their service is great it is just that I was so angry last night when I received our statement .
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Hi Tamsin
What bank are you with, what is the 24€ per quarter for ? You'll be paying maintenance charges, plus for a debit card(s) if you opted for these, plus there'll be a charge (every two years actually) per person named on the a/c for your non resident declaration often up to 20€ each per two years. If you have a mortgage with the bank I guess there'll be something added for that.
Ask them for a breakdown or look on your statement & tell us what it says.
We're using Banco Halifax Hispania. Only pay 3€ per debit card per year. Nothing else !!
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Santander say queremos ser tu banco - we want to be your bank. Well, thousands of Abbey, A&L and B&B customers aren't getting much choice in the matter, but for others, they're offering an incentive. 0% commission on their accounts! ( http://www.queremossertubanco.com/ )
Surely the rest should follow suit?
On the other hand, as competition reduces in the sector, perhaps it's only a matter of time before UK bank customers have to start getting used to paying scandalous charges for maintaining their accounts, such as we're used to here in Spain???
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"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please"
Mark Twain
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Those charges sound similar to Solbank. We switched from the to BanCaja - no charges and instant access interest account. No contest. Interestingly Solbank offered to remit all charges when told we were closing the account. Too late!
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Solbank quoted me €9.50 per quarter for their current account maintenance charge last week. Not sure if they charge additionally for each transaction or not.
My BBVA current account charges €4.75 per quarter, plus 0.45 cents per transaction. It can mount up very quickly.
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"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please"
Mark Twain
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I was charged 6 euros yesterday by solbank for transfering 1000 euros from our savings into our current account.
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Maureen & Dennis
Coto Real
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Hi Tamsin,
This sounds like the Solbank prestige account; the charge for this is €24 per quarter. This is an all inclusive fee and they feel it offers better value for money! For those people who had an existing account with Solbank, they were automatically changed over to the prestige account (!) and charged the €24! They then had to contact their branch to revert back to a normal account, if they did not want a prestige account!
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Regards
Sharon
sharon@tmasspain.com
www.themortgageservicegroup.com
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It is Sol Bank but it is not inclusive as they charge us for every transaction on top . Well that bank is going to lose a customer.
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Hi Tamsin, well that should not be the case, especially as you are paying a premium for it!! The website has this list of benefits:
Prestige Care Account
Services
Free financial services associated with the Prestige Care Account:
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
lifetime debit card (first card) lifetime Visa Prestige credit card (first card) unlimited domestic transfers to any Spanish bank unlimited paid in cheques (domestic) inward international transfers from the EU with no limit on the amount (in both Euro and Pounds Sterling) outward international transfers to EU (in Euros) up to € 50,000 Cash withdrawals via the Solbank and SabadellAtlántico branch network (unlimited) and at Servired Cash Points (up to 12 per quarter) when using the card associated to your Prestige Care Account Access to Solbank Online
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Regards
Sharon
sharon@tmasspain.com
www.themortgageservicegroup.com
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Can't remember the full fees for Barclays as my Wife is staff. We have an account that should be €20 per 1/4, although there is one that is cheaper. I find using cheques and debt card to be the cheapest way of making payments, all bank transfers carried out on the internet seem to incur a charge. You can open your account in the UK at any of the branches with the pack that they will send you from Madrid.
Personally, I would look at the Halifax as there don't appear to be any charges.Once we have some of our minor over payments sorted, we will be changing.
Mark
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I told someone about Halifax on 1st October & Bobaol posted this, Mark.
Should I therefore bother telling people about HALIFAX ES, I wonder. (Click blue link for website).
Yes, why not. It's the one we use & we're happy with it. ALL we pay, & that's our choice to have debit cards, is an annual charge of 3€ per card, as long as we keep a balance of 600€ in our (basic) current a/c. That includes free maintenance, free declaration of non-residency, free dd's, free transfers between our UK & ES a/c. Check other things but we don't use the "other things" so it suits us. We opened our ES a/c from the UK too very easily, see OPENING A/C Scroll to ....
If you prefer to open an account before coming to Spain, contact our e-banking Service on + 34 902 310 100 or the European Operations Dep. in the UK 0845 600 3603, where you will be informed of the steps to follow.
01 Oct 2008 7:20 PM
bobaol
Finca
I'm in Leicestershire and El Galan, moving to Guardamar in a couple of years
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This post belongs to the following thread: BANKINTER
Bankinter are like the other banks in Spain and charge for virtually everything including cheque cashing, provision of debit card etc. Only good thing is they have completed the formalities for a non-resident account and I have had no problems with freezing accounts as others have reported. They pay my standing orders on time etc and don't charge when I transfer money over from UK like some other banks do.
Halifax, More? What Halifax? As they are going to close their UK branches and are being subsumed by Lloyds TSB, not sure if it would be a good idea to open an account with them at the moment. I also had my Halifax card refused for a couple of days in Spain (unable to contact branch on the ATM) but rectified itself after 2 days when Lloyds TSB said it was taking them over. Not sure if they are taking over Halifax international and also not sure of the rules in Spain governing foreign banks going to the wall and whether your money would be guaranteed to any level like the UK and Irish banks are doing. Have heard rumours (only rumours, mind) of CAM and Bankcaja being affected by the current problems. Hopefully, Spain won't be as bad as UK |
This message was last edited by morerosado on 10/3/2008.
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As far as I can gather from what I have heard, Halifax and LloydsTSB are being run independently for the near future, that is if the buy out continues!! In years to come, there will be a downsizing and merger of the businesses, just as Woolwich has now disappeared from the High Street after being asorbed by Barclays. That said, you can still get a Woolwich mortgage, that side of the company has been kept open.
Mark
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LloydsTSB & HBOS are not "merging" - LloydsTSB is buying HBOS.
The integration of the 2 Businesses will commence as soon as the legal side is completed & this is expected to take much of 2009 to sort out. Inevitably there will be some areas where staff reductions will be required but at the moment it is anticipated that there will not be compulsory redundancies.
There are a variety of well known brands under the HBOS umbrella (the biggest being Halifax) & that will be the issue going forward - which brands remain & which don't. This is much the same as when LTSB took over Cheltenham & Gloucester. If the brand is a good one & well established then it is likely to remain as it would not make good business sense to remove it.
Noreen
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www.alandaluscarhire.com
www.vera-apartment.com
www.verathalassa.es
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LloydsTSB & HBOS are not "merging" - LloydsTSB is buying HBOS.
You say potatoe, I say potato  . Just a slip of the keys, I knew what I meant really  .
I know you work for Lloyds Noreen, is the purchase a done deal now? Much talk of Lloyds pulling out because of the recent drop in HBOS share price.
Mark
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Mark
There is a big difference between a merger & a purchase, not least the way that the new hierachy develops. Anyone who has worked for Lloyds or TSB prior to the merger will always ask someone they have not met before - "are you green or blue heritage" & even now one of them gets a bigger curl of the lip than the other but I couldn't possibly divulge which one!
The deal still has to go through but with the rally of HBOS (& LTSB shares) this week, the original deal is now not looking as horrible as it was on Monday.
HBOS shares closed at £2.00 today against the LTSB offer of £2.20 per share whereas earlier in the week, HBOS was around the £1.50 mark. This meant that there was loads of speculation about a revised bid being required & in the absence of any firm negotiations, the LTSB share price slid to £2.17 at one point.
We are being given regular updates from Eric Daniels our CEO & there is no reason to think that it won't go ahead. Lots of reshuffling of people going on at the moment.
I just wish they would hurry up with my brown envelope so that I can move to Spain permanently - after 30 years service, it is the least they could do!
Noreen
This message was last edited by nfm2862 on 10/3/2008.
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www.alandaluscarhire.com
www.vera-apartment.com
www.verathalassa.es
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Has anyone tried Caja Madrid? We have a single current account with them and the only charges are €4.50 per quarter if our balance falls below €1,500. There is no transaction charge and none for transfers in from abroad up to something like €10,000. If we send a larger amount, all we have to do is telephone the branch person we deal with and any fees will be cancelled. It's also great that you can access the account online.
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Does Caja Madrid have an English site & have they got many branches in Alicante? Thanks.
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The Caja Madrid main site is in Spanish, however once you have signed up for their online service and login you can choose an English version of the web page which makes it very easy to look at your account etc. Obviously to get access you have to open an account with Caja Madrid.
They have several branches in Alicante. You can access a full list at www.CajaMadrid.es by clicking on the link "Oficinas & Cajeros" at the top of the web page , then select the province in the drop down box and then click on "buscar" to bring up the list.
If you do open the account with them, talk to their English speaking member of staff to negotiate the deal I referred to.
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Thanks for your reply. I don't think I bother as it's difficult to navigate their site.
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