Bank Charges

Hi Roberto,

Your bank is till using typewriters???  Never!!!

Really is time to move on you know.  All that tipex - gawd help us!

Cheers

Ellen

Thanks for the suggestion I'll follow it up so that I'm ready to change over once the Suma has been paid.

Is HalifaxES on line?  Do like to keep an eye on what's gone out of account from here.

Think I read somewhere that if you pay the 25e fee it entitled you to a helpline service which someone regularly used to translate for them if they got into difficulty.  They would pass the phone over and it even got used when they were stopped by Traffico.  Sounds like my sort of service as I'm sure if I was stopped my spanish would disappear.

"Is HalifaxES on line?  Do like to keep an eye on what's gone out of account from here."

Yes, we have online facilities as well as being sent records via post. Just cannot transfer from UK to Spain online, you need to ring their European Banking Dept in Halifax, an 0845 number,  to do that or go into local branch.

I fail to see how you can say Banco Halifax ripped you off, Brian. It's hardly their fault if you used certain facilities which they charge a certain fee for, which is stated in their terms & conditions, is it ? As you yourself have just said "They referred me to bank charges stated on site and paperwork which state charges".

Whilst I can see you're annoyed & you feel you've been conned, it's grossly unfair to slag them off for something you should've known before doing your transactions.

Apart from this, you posted in spanish bank accounts that "I have the Banks pack in front of me and charges are laid out." (24 May 2007 4:58 PM) when we were all discussing Banco Halifax then, so you can't say you didn't know, surely.

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

Bankers draft charges are the first thing you see if you look !

Group1:3          0.2% of face value of cheque, min 6€

Morerosado has a fairly rock solid argument there, San Miguel, especially as you were following and posting in the Spanish Bank Accounts thread a couple of months ago, although you don't actually say here when this incident occurred - maybe it was before that time?

It's true , few people (well, few Brits who are used to free banking, anyway) bother to read all the small print, and as you say, few would relate to the 0.2% charge. It sounds insignificant, but on large sums it can quickly become significant. Unfortunately San Miguel, you have learnt the lesson the hard way. Next time you need a bankers draft, ask beforehand to have it issued free of charges - I'm positive they can override the computer, which is one of the stock excuses for not being able to waive the charges. If they still refuse, it's not the right bank for you. However, before withdrawing your money, check how much they charge for closing the account!

Hopefully, though, as you say, your experience will warn others, as this does seem to be a recurring theme.

Everyone BE WARNED! Banking in Spain carries CHARGES. Read the small print, and check with your branch before performing any transactions you are unsure about.

Brian

I'm not saying everyone should read all the terms & conditions (those relevant to yourself would do) but to know you'll be needing a bankers cheque & to not know how to use a calculator to work out 0.2% of a certain amount is, these days, rather strange.

Banco Halifax is the third bank we have used in Spain. The others had charges that Banco Halifax hasn't & we honestly believed, at that time, that all banks charged these till we were advised to use Banco Halifax. We've saved so much.

Warn members, of course, that's why we all sit at our pcs so much chattering away to members we don't know ,but don't slag the bank off, it really was up to you. Their terms & conditions are plain enough. It wasn't up to the bank to point out to you "do you realise there's a xxxx euro charge if you have us give you a bankers cheque for xxxxxxxx €, in all fairness"

Do you know how much other Spanish banks would've charged you ? Perhaps we could find out & compare. 

Here's Cambank's terms & conditions for starters.

Go to http://www.cam.es/  then click on the welcome to get English (at the top) then on fees & commissions (at bottom.)

COMMISSIONS, CONDITIONS AND EXPENSES PAYABLE BY CLIENTS

Services and Transactions carried out in Euros

"Everyone BE WARNED! Banking in Spain carries CHARGES. Read the small print, and check with your branch before performing any transactions you are unsure about."

Why do you keep referring to me as "Moreosado" Brian, nothing sado about me.  

Sorry that you've had such hassles though I never inferred you were stupid however. It's a maze at best.

OK kiddies, time to move on; I think San Miguel has taken enough stick for being stupid, especially as he willingly admits that he was naive. And anyway, I'm sure we've all been equally stupid plenty of times - I know I have! The really stupid ones are those who have yet to find EOS, or, having found it, fail to take the advice of us experts, 'cos we all know best, don't we?!

Interesting Karen, that you use an off-shore bank to transfer money. A few years back I opened an off-shore account (Cater Allen, part of Abbey I think) thinking it would be a good place to stash some cash in Sterling, taking advantage of better interest rates and no tax on the interest. What I didn't know (probably because I failed to read all the small print!) was that it was not possible to transfer funds directly from a Spanish bank to an offshore bank, or vice versa. Instead for some unfathomable reason I discovered, after enquiring as to the reason for the lengthy delay and substantially smaller amount of money arriving in the receiving bank on either occassion, that my money was going via Deutsche Bank in Germany and then Abbey in London, before reaching Jersey or wherever. Each stop along the way incurred charges, for which neither the sending nor the receiving banks would accept responsibility. Naturally I kicked up a storm, including threatening to disrupt the seminars held at hotels on the CDS by the off-shore bank's representative, and got the charges refunded, plus compensation for my time & trouble & phone calls etc. I am a seasoned whinger, you see! I then promptly closed the account.

Roberto, you are a bugger!!!              but what comes next??