Santander 123 Zero Charges

Not accessed my account for six months.

Was Banco Popular and now is Santander 123 Zero account.

In the last 6 months the bank has been debiting the account with 12 Euros with description contract liquidation.

Anyone else had this charge.  Seems step for a monthly account fee.

I am not in Spain and have no plans to be there for some months.

I think all the banks started charging for accounts earlier this year.

We are with Bankia and they told us they would not charge any fees if we had a pension over 200 euro a month paid in or a certain balance.

Then, earlier this year, the Spanish government said banks must offer a basic bank account with a minimum fee. This was to stop some of the rip off charges banks were making. Because of this they started charging all those free accounts and we are now getting charged 6 euro a month for something that was free.

Not sure if all banks have done this, of course, but from what I've read elsewhere people are now getting charged despite paying a regular income into the bank.

On further searching I find that they have a new offering for non-Spanish residents called

the Mundo account - this is 10 Euros a month but is packaged with a debit charge for use at Euro ATMs.

Seems like I should transfer that and get myself I debit card.

Last time I had a debit card they charged something like 20Euro - the card expired after 12 months and then I had to queue at the bank to collect a new one.  using it four trips a year was costing 5Euros a transaction.

Spainish banks are the pits.

I had a "run in" with Bankia this year over charges and seems they had not taken into account a house insurance policy I had with them. I filled in a complaints form and eventually got a refund. Meanwhile I have moved all utilities (Electric, Water, Community Fees)  across to Transferwise just in case they start again. The debit card is free and works in Euro or GBP. They give you a EUro based bank account based in Belgium. It took me 3 months to move all bills over the Sepa account number given to me, but they must now accept any Euro based account regardless of country of account. 

Saludos

Transferwise looks very promising.  thank you.

I will investigate further.  Almost too good to be true.

Seems very much worth the hassle transfer over all the direct debits.