Swimming Pool

Hi,

we bought off plan 3 years ago and are now getting ready to complete, should be early March.  We will be inland in Hondon de las frailes.

We will be using the apartment for holidays only at the moment as my son is still in school, but with the long-term idea of retiring to Spain one day, using this small apartment to get a foot on the Spanish property ladder.

Now I need to pick your brains everyone.  With regard to banks and paying bills etc, are we better to open a bank account with a Spanish bank or an English one?  Do the Spanish banks charge for everything?  We will have a mortgage on the property, so we need some sort of account so that we can hold future payments in there. 

I'm sure there will be lots more questions over the next few weeks, so brace yourselves!!!

Many thanks

Alyson (Blackpool, England)

You must have a Spanish banK account. Cajamar and Bancaja - both have free & online banking. We are with the latter and so far very pleased. Beware of Solbank - lots of charges and inefficient.

"Property Ladder"?  From some of the recent posts I've been reading this morning I would call it the "Property Snake".   Right game, wrong direction.

A Spanish Bank account is very useful.  In fact it's vitually impossible to do without one.  I used Banco Andalucia.  The fee are modest - say 30  euros per annum and provides on-line services so that you can manage the account from the UK.   I did once use Solbank  and as the previous writer reports - they were expensive.  I have to admid i don't understand some of their charges. The words on their statements don't dictionary translate too well.  Mostly it feels like they just dipped their hands in my wallet so the mention of free banking below has got my attention.

Payment of electricity, rates and water by direct debit is for me essential as most of the bills get binned by the Administor of my development.

They seem to clean out the mail boxes every 6 to 8 weeks.  When they do this they seem to clear it all out, even the most recently arrived post as they don't have means of telling which is recent post and which is old post.  My spouse sent a birthday card over to arrive on our holiday.  But it must have arrived just before they did the clean out.  The mail boxes were almost completely empty - no birthday card.  And just try getting the Administrator to change their ways to  something more logical is as frustrating as hell.

If you don't pay by Direct Debit you are in danger of arriving to find your services cut off due to non-payment.

I transfer  5k to 10k Euros at a time to get good rates.  Keep some in a saving account (although the interest earned is hardly worth it these days).  This way you get the best exchange rate using an agent like HIFX or MoneyCorp  - that latter advertises on this site.   You can also try to time your transfers at points where the Pound/Euro rate is better.  It does seem to bounce around.

Then apply for a cash card from your Spanish bank which enables you to withdraw users from the local ATM when you are over in Spain at zero commission.  My ATM does not have English as an option but you soon get to learn which of the confusing options dispense the cash.  You can always ask the bank to help you do your first withdrawl.

Not sure about Spanish Credit cards - I sometimes use my UK Credit Card for Euro large purposes - the rate you get depends who your card is with.   I've used Egg and Coop (which are more reasonable in my view).

Now I've posted this I just know you'll get several more interesting responses that will expand on this points and give you some additional ideas.

Good luck.

PMillsom

This message was last edited by PMillsom on 1/31/2009.

Hi Alyson - welcome to the forum!  Hondon de las Frailes is really beautiful and I hope you will be happy with your apartment there.  There is quite a large UK population (can be a good or bad thing!) and they have a great Feria, I'm told.

As the others have said, you will need a spanish bank account and direct debits for everything.  Before I moved out permanently, I used a currency broker (John at Sterling Exchange) and moved several thousand at a time, trying to hit a good point for the exchange rates each time - not always easy!

Are you coming out to complete or are you giving your lawyer power of attorney?  In Spain, there are often last minute problems at the Notary - it took three attempts for my purchase to go through.  If you are coming out yourselves, make sure you come out for more than just a few days in case it has to be rescheduled.  It is much easier to have a Power of Attorney as they can go back as often as they need to to complete all the paperwork.

Do have a good look around the forum as we have all been through lots of issues and you should find someone to help on just about any topic.

All the best.

Hi All, we opened an account with Solbank. There were very helpfull. Solbank have a link with HSBC, that gives us a discount on many charges, some up to half price. Many UK banks have similar deals, so ask. We have a current account and debit and credit cards. The cash machines are in English and we can control the account via their internet banking facility, also in English. We even have our insurances through them.

Hi everyone,

what a friendly and helpful crowd you are.  Thank you all for your help, I forgot to mention that I needed internet banking so thanks for putting that in.  I am going to keep away from the credit cards over there...I'm a bit of a spender!!

Thank you for the positive feeling about Hondon Claire.  It seems like the place we are looking for with a mix of English people to get me settled in but Spanish enough for me to practice my poor Spanish language skills and enjoy a different culture.  Also thanks for the tip regarding the completion, I hadn't even thought about possible delays.  I am meant to complete in March and am hoping that the solicitor that we have been using will sort stuff out for us.  I have flights booked for my son and I for the 8th of April for an Easter break.  He is 6yrs old, its just the two of us, and he looking forward to it very much.  He loves swimming and genrally running round like a wild child.  He has Down Syndrome so things like speech haven't come so easily to him, but he seems to thrive when we are abroad, he just jabbers away to people.

To open  bank account there, what will I need, obviously a passport, but do I need a reference from my bank here?  Birth certificate? 

Enjoy your evening, its bloomin' freezing here.

Alyson

I think both for completion on the property and the bank account you need the NIE [Spanish National Insyrance number] rather than the passport. I'd have thought your lawyer would have told you this as you must have NIE to buy property in Spain

the developer is meant to be sorting out the NIE number, or do I need to do it myself in Spain?

I've never heard of a developer doing it. either way have you filled out an application with photos, etc - this is needed to get the NIE - you have to be physically there either in spain  or at spanish embassy in the uk

Hi Alyson

You say  'I am meant to complete in March and am hoping that the solicitor that we have been using will sort stuff out for us',  ' I have flights booked for my son and I for the 8th of April' & 'the developer is meant to be sorting out the NIE number'. (I've condensed it but you said it).

Your developer won't organise your NIE &, unless your lawyer has your POA, he can't complete for you.

You need your NIE to complete on your property. It often takes at least a week (or two) to obtain, unless you pay someone to do it & it can, I hear, be done in a day. (Costly to have it done like that). That should've been sorted months ago really.

You need a Spanish bank to transfer funds to for paying your developer. (How have you been paying stage payments ?) You have to pay by direct debit for water & electricity supplies plus community fees.

Has your property got its LFO ? (Certificate of Habitation) If not, do NOT complete as you'll be living there illegally, you will be on builders water & electricity & it's a dangerous situation in most cases.

Don't want to put a damper on your excitement (& YES, we are all helpful here, just want to ensure you're aware of pitfalls) but seeing as you're within maybe 5-6 weeks of completing you need to get onto your lawyer to ask who's doing what or you may find you get to Spain April & have to book into a hotel as you'll not have completed.

We just want to help you, we are at your disposal, Alyson.

Hi Alyson, as I said in an earlier post, many banks in the UK have links with Spanish banks, HSBC as I have and of course Abbey who are Spanish owned. I used Solbank, they have an office in London, I opened the account before I left home, and deposited money in it. You will have to have a NIE number, and although I had heard that you could apply at the Spanish Embassy when I contacted them they said this was no longer possible as it is a 'police' function. I bought my apartment through an estate agent. She made an appointment at the local police station for me, (there was a months waiting time), completed the forms and acted as interpreter, you then have to go back a week later and collect the forms.

This was the most frustrating part of the process, as I found the police the most difficult people to deal with, especially if you did not have an appointment, if they were too busy they would turn people away. Because we had a local 'friend' we were treated with respect. We didn't need to pay any more to the estate agent, but I would have, just for peace of mind.

Another tip we took many colour copies of our passport with us, everyone seemd to want a copy.

Hi Alyson - bet you didn't expect so many replies! 

I think that the previous advice is right and you really need to talk to your lawyer - they know you can't complete without your NIE and should have done that for you the day you signed your contract to purchase.  I went out for one day initially, saw the house, went to the bank and opened an account, went to the police station for my NIE, and then to the lawyer and the Notary to sign the Power of Attorney.  About a week later I got my NIE via the lawyer.  It was a hectic day but it can be done - it was the only thing my agent did right!! - and I obviously paid for the service.  It might be that as you are so close to completion, the only way to get your NIE is for the lawyer to take you personally to the police station and do it with you.

Rickiebear is right - you will need lots of copies of your Passport - they refuse to take copies in any of the public offices here and it can be difficult finding a shop to do them for you.  Also, remember to bring your EHIC cards in case any of you need medical treatment while you are here - you would have to go private without this. 

Be prepared for a really frustrating start to your ownership in Spain - the systems are infuriatingly slow and perverse at times - just hold onto the reasons why you have bought in the first place and know that you will get through all the red tape!

All the best and do keep us posted!

Hi alysonwenham,

we were with the bank the agent recommended(bankinter) but as soon as we

completed we opened an acccount with Banco Halifax, this is connected to

halifax in england., we do not get any charges on our account as long as

we leave a balance of 600 euros in the account, they pay all our direct

debits and when we require funds in the account we just do a transfer from

our account in england (no charge), also we are on internet banking with

them, they provide debit cards which we can use in about 9 differnet banks

(they give you a list of these)and we are not charged anything. I forgot to say

the only charge we have had is 3 euros PER YEAR for our debit cards.

We, too, use Banco Halifax  http://www.halifax.es/ as they do not charge for declarations of residence ( this is a necessity if you're non-resident). They don't charge as long as we keep 600€ (generally) in our ordinary current a/c (although, for 25€ annually, you can open the Extra a/c & then you don't need to keep that balance & you have access to various help). As Gypsy says it's 3€ annually (per debit card) & you just use a Servired ATM (I have details) & no charges for direct debits. Free transfers between Banco Halifax & Halifax UK (now online).

OPEN ACCOUNT HERE You can open from the UK, I can advise further.

Hi

I had thought about Halifax as I looked at their mortgage packages and they were insisting that I opened a bank account with them as part of the mortgage offer.  But as we will not be living in Spain, there will be times when there is less that E600 in the account, so I am unsure about the Halifax at the moment.  I bank with Lloyds in the UK and their charges on theEuro account were quite high, so I won't be going there.

Alyson

Hi Alyson

You will certainly need to keep a fair bit in any a/c you open (so it might as well be Banco Halifax). You need to pay community charges, I assume you'll be on a community), electricity & water charges (water is every three months, electricity is every two months) it's amazing how much you get through. If 600€ is too much for you to leave in the a/c just pay the 25€ for the Extra a/c & you get lots of help with other services elsewhere with that. You will save the 25€ by not paying for services most other banks charge for anyway. 

I'm finding this thread very interesting.

More, can you tell me if I can open a Spanish Bank account with the Halifax even if I don't have an address there yet.  Probably a silly question, excuse my naivity!!

Lorraine

Yes - - you normally need NIE though they will accept passport usually

Hi Lorraine, certainly I will explain how to open an a/c from the UK for Halifax Hispania. Let me find all details for you. It's posted on the forum somewhere but I also have info saved on my desktop (somewhere  anyway).

WHEREABOUTS ARE YOU NEEDING IT IN SPAIN THOUGH??

Hi Lorraine

call 0845 600 3603 and they will send you the pack, I've just got mine but have decided not to go with the Halifax.

Alyson