Best Spanish Bank for UK residents

 Can anyone help - what is the best Spanish bank to use if you live in England but want a Spanish Current Account to make a few payments a year and don't want to incur high bank charges.

Firstly, I'm not claiming this to be the best Bank Account in Spain for Non-Residents in your situation  -  Just something that might be worth looking into ....

Bancaja  are currently offering BOTH current accounts AND Savings accounts in Sterling and in Euros.

The  Sterling savings account is currently paying 3% Interest when funds are tied up for 12 Months, the current account paying very little but you need a current account in order to access the Saving Account.

If and when you want to transfer funds to a Euro account, this needs to be done via a Euro Current Account  ( so you may potentially need to open 3 accounts )

I have just transfered some money across from Sterling to Euros via these accounts at a rate of 1.2050 and a charg of 6 cents.

The online banking service is in English aswell.

Like I say, You may want to call into your nearest branch or check online to see if these accounts are available for Non-Residents

All banks will charge you as you are a non resident, the Cajas tend to be cheaper:

La Caixa

Caixa Catalunya

Bancaja

Unicaja

Cajamar

Cajamadrid

Good luck, Joan

Barclays have a charges free current account, and are likely to have English speaking customer services and staff in most branches; Solbank (part of Sabadell), at least my local branch, seems to cater almost exclusively for foreigners and all the staff are multi-lingual which is rare. It probably depends very much on the branch though and the area it's located. Best is to go into a few when you're in Spain and pick the one you feel most comfortable with. At the end of the day, it's a lesser of the evils anyway - they're all robbing barstewards!

I use Banco Halifax, they have two types of accounts, one you pay a one off charge of 25e and the other no charges as long as you maintain an average balance of 600e over 6 months.

The only thing I had to pay for with this account was for a debit card but as a non resident I've never requested one.  My bi annual non-resident certificate was free but now I believe that everyone has to pay a fee.

Also I opened this account as we have a Halifax account in Uk and in an emergency I could easily transfer over funds if necessary.  Although having the 600 minimum in my account at any time I doubt it would happen.

I used to bank with Solbank but the fees gradually went up and as I always left the same amount of funds in there I decided that this Halifax account would be ideal for me.

I believe you can open this account on-line via head office in Madrid.

I opened mine at my local branch and it was very easy to do, I just took all my bills that I pay by direct debit, they took copies and the change over went smoothly.

 I think you can only speak as you find, we have an account with Bancaja(we also have our spanish mortgage with them too), and have found them to be very good! English website, statements in English, debit card(just get one its 12e each pa!). No charges for fx transfers.

So far I find that Barclays is the best with no fee & they pay 3% cash back for direct debit. They all speak English too in my branch.

 Thanks for the replies.  I looked at the Barclays site and felt that you had to be a Spanish Resident to get the no fee and 3% back offer.  Also  the Halifax website seams to suggest that both accounts have annual charges (i think one is 25 euros and the other 12 euros). 

I've had my Halifax account for 3 years and I've never had to pay a charge.  I renewed my Non Resident certificate last year free of charge but will have to pay next year. 

When I opened the account the only thing I had to pay for was a debit card, 3e.  Maybe this has gone up to 12e or could be the charge for renewing the Non Resident Certificate except that's done bi annually.

Confused now will have to ask when I next go in to pay money into account.

The one that charges 25e offers a phone service where if you get into difficulty and need a translation service they will help you out.  I was tempted but decided to try out the other account as I could always change the account over if I wanted to.

The staff in my branch speak very good English, in fact some of them are English.

Hi Nigela,

I'm Non Res and I get the no fee and cash back deal with Barclays. 

It must differ from branch to brach but the service from my local branch in Mazarron are absolutely superb.  Their on-line banking is very straightforward and they've even assisted with a couple of niggles with Spanish suppliers.  Their UK set-up could learn a lot from the subsidiary...

Regards

Richard

Halifax is definitely not charge free.  Try transferring money to another Spanish account or paying in a cheque.  You get charged.  I ended up closing mine because of this.

The Barclays account is available to non-residents as my parents have one and they are not resident.  But as previously mentioned, it may depend on the branch.

I would be careful with the Cajas.  These are the banks that have got into major problems due to bad property related loans, which they are still hiding on their balance sheets.  I know you are covered by bank deposit guarantees in Spain (up to 100,000 euros), similar to the UK, but how long would you have to wait to get your money back if there was a run on one of the Cajas or one got into trouble?  Saying that, there are some good cajas out there.  You need to make sure you avoid the basket cases.

Nigella said the account would be used for making a couple of payments a year.  I took it that they were to pay bills via direct debits if this is not the case the information giving so far may not be correct.

Spain does not have free banking and there are a number of things that have to be paid for.

When I was with Solbank I exchanged £100 and I think I was charged 8e to do so.  Haven't any other experience of what other charges are but I was given a list when I opened the Halifax account.  I don't transfer money from the UK as I go over 4/5 times a year and load up account then.

Perhaps if OP expands on why they want the account we may be able to help further.

Spanish banking fees are negotiable, IF you have a healthy balance or savings. Although the exchange rate is crap at the moment, anyone with UK savings deposits due to mature may want to consider their options. Barclays and Halifax in the UK are currently offering a whopping 2% for 1 year deposits. Solbank have just given me 3.5% for 18 months, penalty free withdrawals, and monthly interest.

If you have a significant deposit with them, most Spanish banks will waive all charges on related current accounts. 

 Hi Nigela,

the majority of users on here are right, as to say that bank to bank do differ in what they offer in terms of banking here in spain, and spain does not offer free banking for non-residents.  

From my experience, with Santander, You have to pay annual fee for having the account, a fee for having a ATM card.

I would like to ask has anyone come across recently  on their statements "settlement contract"...????   i wondered what this was and went to ask at the local branch....  it turns out that each time you use your card in a shop to pay for groceries etc..  they charge 50 cents and at the end of the month every 50c gets added up and taken off your balance.  So if you use your card alot then this will soon add up.  Has anyone else come across this ?????     Please let me know as i was unaware of this and the bank do not tell you and it was not stated in the T&C at outset on opening the account.

Also if you at any time become a resident you still have to pay their charges, unless you meet certain citeria, ie - having wages paid in or hold savings with them or shares etcc...  (this is santander), i dont know about other banks but i am shocked that in spain the banks charge so much.

hopes this helps and would appreciate anyone who can answer my query. 

Many Thanks

You're right about the charges - shocking. And the most annoying is when you take cash from an ATM which tells you clearly there will no charge for this transaction, yet find your bank deducts 50 cents each time; when questioned, the feeble excuse is that you are not charged for using the ATM - but you ARE charged for every "movement" on your account -so in other words, there IS a charge for using an ATM for withdrawinbg cash (maybe not for just a balance enquiry, but it's a thin line)

 I did go on line to Barclays and tried to open an account but it wouldnt except my details - the only Nationalty it would except eas Spanish and it would only accept Spanish addresses.  I will try and contact them if not I will probably go with Halifax.

Cornish-geri

From my experience, with Santander, You have to pay annual fee for having the account, a fee for having a ATM card.

If you pay your nomina, pension or a regular amount (600+ euros) per month there are no charges or commissions with Santander account.  Well, that's the theory anyway.  I have an account with them and pay in 600 euros per month but still get charged every so often.  I have to call my branch and they refund the charges back.

More info here.

I am also with banco halifax, first with the account where you need

to leave 600 euros in to avoid any charges.

this year I changed to the account where there is

a yearly fee 0f 25 euros.

first account was as a non resident, my current

account is as a resident.

the only charge I have ever had off either account is

3 euros each a year on the non resident account.

Here's the charges/commissions for the Halifax account, which is definitely not commission free:

http://www.halifax.es/halifaxing/pdf/Commission_Rates.pdf

The halifax is good if you have a uk halifax account as the international transfer between uk ans spain halifax accounts is free.

a small transfer on the bizz rate exchange will be at 0.04e less than the bizz rate, I have on a large amount got 0.02e less.

I use the saving account that you pay 25e a year, but you do get charged for transfers, but my other account at banco popular charges, and so do all the other banks I looked at?