spanish bank charges

Hi,

I transferred money in November to our Spanish Bank account - Bankinter.

They did not take any commission.

I do however, pay a yearly account charge of €22.50 and every 2 years there is an amount taken for administration tax for non residents.

I would question this 3% charge with your bank.

Sometimes, if you complain, you get a refund, just like the UK banks.

Give it a go!

I think most banks charge a fee to receive a transfer but 3% sounds a bit extortionate to me.  I would certainly talk to them about it.

Hi,

We use Moneycorp.  They charge a flat transfer fee of £15 I think and you dont get any charges in Spain because it goes via ?Madrid.  You get a slightly higher Euro rate than a bank, depending on how much you are transferring.

There are probably much better ways of doing this but we have found them to be very good.

Karen

Question the 3%, that does not sound correct, ask to see the contract you have made when the account was first set up and let them prove to you it has a 3% fee for putting money in your account.

 I use Currencies Direct they charge £15 on minimum £2500 to £4999 and £5000 upwards no fee. I think the rate for £5000 + is better as well. I was getting 1.47 ish when the interbank rate was 1.48 ish and the turist rate was 1.43 ish. This was on Dec. 14th this year.

We used Currencies Direct as well & found them to be excellent - as manilvajl said no fee for transfers over £5000 & a better rate of interest (& service) than from our UK bank

We currently use Cajamurcia (changing to the Halifax shortly) - thank god they didn't charge 3% when we sent a shed load of money over to buy our house - would have had a heart attack! Doesn't sound right at all but have found spanish banks do charge for every little thing, hence going to the Halifax.

Formentora Costa while 3% is extortion it is not without precedence I have a friend who got stung for 4% by a branch of CAM Bank last year when he transferred 300,000 to Spain. Got stung on the exchange rate by his bank in the Channel Islands as well. He now uses a currency broker on recommendation and saves a fortune.

I THINK (not sure on this one so you need to confirm) it has been made illegal to incure landing charges subject to certain constraints. I had a Branch Director of CAM Bank tell me this a couple of months back but it was in passing and something was lost in the translation - I think it relates to amounts either in excess of 6000€ or less than 6000€ so a great deal depends on how much you transferred. Sorry to sound vague and I will see if I can get some clarification for you.

Rgds 

Hi.Just transferred 152000 Euros via Currencies Direct to Cambank.Spoke to bank who told me a % of 0.2would be charged. However if i instructed C.D to transfer in 4lots of under 50000 there wuold be no charge.This charge is only applied on amounts of 50000 & over .C.D agreed to do this with written instructions.Hope this is useful as it is not hearsay ,but i did it today

Best wishes Haydn & Judy (leaving on Jan2 to await completion wheneveron Los Olivos Huerta Nueva)

Hi Haydn well done you have asked the question first before doing the deal. So many people do first and ask afterwards when they find some discrepancy when it is hard to do anything about it. At the end of the day you cannot undo the transaction. I still need to find out whether this 6000€ ruling is illegal or not but hopefully your advice will reinforce the recommendation to ask first.

Rgds

I'm reading this thread because I've just logged onto my account with unicaja which I set up in December with 50 euros.

To my great shock I found that I have a balance of only 14 euros despite never actually touching it. I got a 30 euro initial fee and 6 euro initial fee. It appears that this is quite normal and I am amazed! OK, I must be a bit green but surely the bank should have explain these charges. In another few months I would have been overdrawn! Do you all pay these charges or is there a bank which doesn't charge you for lending them your money?

Also, what is the best way of depositing house buying sized sums and who has had good and bad experiences of particular companies?

Regards

Whilst the Halifax looks to be a good account, don't forget you need to open it with a 600€.

Mark

Hi

When we were buying our property we transferred the large amounts using Moneycorp. We have Halifax accounts in the UK and Spain but find that the exchange rate isn't as good as with Moneycorp. It'll cost you nothing to check them out.

Regards

Irene