Paying money into Spanish Bank Account

What is the cheapest way of paying money into my Account. I currently bank with La Caxia and take Euros from England to pay in whenever I visit. I know this sound naive but can I pay a Stirling cheque into the bank from my English Account? Are money transfers expensive? I would appreciate any advice.

Hi Glennhamling

We have a Nationwide Flexaccount which is a cheque account,  it is well documented on this forum as a cheap way to withdraw Euro's in Europe as they do not at present make any charges which gives you good exchange rates, another advantage is security as you do not have to carry the cash over to Spain. If you do a search there are many threads on the flexaccount.

Not sure on the sterling cheques, although the charges may be high for smaller amounts.

Perhaps if you post in a more appropriate thread than this, you may get a better response to your questions

Regards

Hi Glen,

Yes as has been said we have had a Nationwide flex account  for 5 year's and draw money out daily if we need it, there is a lot of information on the forum about it.

But we have opened a Barclays account and you can put in sterling cheques and they will convert  it for you at the current rate, but we have not done that yet, they say there is no charge, hope this helps.

Regards  

We have a banco halifax account. we also have a UK halifax account. Both have online banking.There are free transfers from the UK account to the Spanish account, with good exchange rates. We also have a nationwide account and sometimes withraw euros from that and put in the Spanish account.

If you go into a UK halifax they will have the necessary forms to open both accounts and you can then register for online banking with both. Had no problems so far.

The best way to transfer money is with a specialist company such as HiFX or Foreign Currencies Direct (which we use). Basically we have a standing order  from our UK bank in GBP which pays FCD. Once a month they transfer this to our Spanish Bank account (also La caxia) without any charges.

The standing order pays for our Spanish mortgage, but if we are out for a couple of weeks, and want some additional spending money, we simply make an additional payment to FCD who simply add it to our Standing Order amount and transfer the lot to Spain.  Then we use la caxia ATMs in Spain as required.

We always get an extremely good rate (98% of the Commercial rate), vastly better than buying currency at the post office, Thos cook etc.

Foreign Currency Direct plc
www.currencies.co.uk
0800 328 5884 / +44 1494 725353

@PaulandJane,

I also have Halifax and Banco Halifax but I don 't use Halifax transfers anymore as I found the exchange rate to be 3 to 4 cents less that currency brokers. I have a DD set up with Smart Currency Exchange and have found them to be competitive so far.

PaulandJane, I also have Halifax and Banco Halifax but I don 't use Halifax transfers anymore as I found the exchange rate to be 3 to 4 cents less that currency brokers. I have a DD set up with Smart Currency Exchange and have found them to be competitive so far.

 I am with "La Caixa" & use HSBC internet banking 9 pounds fee, up to 2000pound transfer or 15 pounds up to 10,000. Used it 3 times this year and after the first ( checks for money laundering etc; ) it arrives in your Spanish bank account immediately. Last time I drove to bank (10 mins) and it was already their. just remember to tick box that says 'sender to pay all charges' ( the 9 pound fee ). Their are no bank charges this end. Their was hardly any difference in the rate between the HSBC and the money brokers on all 3 occasions I used this method. Just a point to note if you do use it when you put in the Spanish bank details or use the bank finding system it will come up as "La Caixa" in Barcelona,it's the head office. My daughters use this method to transfer money when they come over.

Yes you can pay in englsh cheques but they take 20 days to clear, plus they charge you.

If you go to page 12 on the forums their is another thread  by Crostrad on the 18th January with lots of info.

Not sure why anyone would pay a £9 fee per transfer when all transfers from Currency Brokers are free both at source and to the recipiant...I'm willing to bet that it's not offset by an improved rate either

All the currency brokers I've ever used charged a 25 pound fee,although I 've not used one for a couple of years. Last time I used Hsbc they did it at the wholesale commercial rate and for 9/15 pound to have it arrive and available instantly is worth it to me. Plus if you use a money broker a lot of Spanish banks, "La Caixa" being one of them, charge you for them receiving the money.

I have just been over to Spain and visited my bank (Barclays)  We currently sent money over every month through Currencies Direct but the bank have informed me that I would actually be better posting a cheque to them every month as they would give me a better rate.  We would send the amount over in Sterling and they would convert the amount at no charge and have guaranteed the rate would be better than what we have been getting.

For new customers they are also offering an account which gives you 3% back on on bills you pay by direct debit on.

I have found Barclays in Mazzarron extremely nice and very efficient.

Linda

Yes that is the accont we opened last year 3% cash bank as long as you have 3 direct debits going out, we only opened it in November but we had nearly 3 euros back in December not much I know but better than them taking for services rendered.

But that is interesting to know about the cheques I know thats what they told us but I have not heard anyone doing it as yet.          We went to the Barclays in Quesada very helpful.    

We also have both UK and Spanish Halifax accounts which we used to transfer money over to Spain to cover our Direct debits.

We then opened and started to use our Nationwide Flex account as we found this to give much better exchange rates. If you have a joint Flex account you can both withdraw 300 Euros each per day.

I underdstand that nationwide is replacing the cash card with cash card+ which cannot be used to withdraw cash from ATM abroad.

Does anyone know if there's another bank or building soc in Uk which allows free ATM cash withdrawal in Spain, like the old nationwide flx a/c? Thanks.

Glen;

In short the answer is yes; you can pay sterling cheques of any denomination into your La Caixa account. if you have La Caixa's on line banking system Linea Abierta, cheques paid in are credited to your account immediately, BUT, the funds are not available until the day after they clear. The conversion rate applied is that applicable at the time of deposit.

We routinely do this with Sterling and US Dollar cheques.

Be advised, as already stated by Gus Lopez, cheques take 20 working days to clear, and the funds become available on the 21st day.

A transaction charge of 12 Euros is applied, so its worthwhile paying in a number of Cheques simultaneously. One cheque or ten, the transaction charge of 12 Euros applies.

Just as a matter of interest, Canadian Dollars for some reason take 40 days to clear...

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Hello forhotspot

 * Nothing I can see on their  >> click here >>>  WEBSITE

Pat & Roy (hello) ... have you heard this?

I DID see THIS  so take a look, what do you think??

I haven't time to check this out fully but I did see this on the NATIONWIDE WEBSITE so confusing. See  * above.

 Hi all, as a long time Nationwide customer I hope I can clear this one up!  The new cashcard+ is to replace holders of cashcards cards only, it does not mean Flexaccount debit card holders! I know this because my son has a cashcard which means just that i.e. he can, at present, only get cash from atm's. He has received the info about the new card. The new cashcard+ card will enable him to pay for goods and services from shops etc.

Hope this helps!

Tony.

Much obliged Tony, it does make more sense but I'm going into Nationwide Tuesday to see the manager.

Can't see them upsetting thousands of valued customers.

Hi More and Forhotspot,

We only went into Nationwide on Friday to speak to an advisor and we was discussing the flex account. There was no way they were doing away with it.  But she did mention the cash card which does not effect us as we do not have one.

But what one person tells you could be different to someone else's take on the situation, so perhaps someone else needs to confirm it with their branch. 

I always transfer money before we go away from my savings account to the flex so I can draw on it in Spain or elsewhere, so I would be very surprised if they withdrew that facility as I know I am one of many.

Hope this helps Pat  

Thanks Pat.

This is the site I got from the other forum: http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/card-changes2.htm

I'm going to open a nationwide flex a/c in UK but after reading that info,  I'm not sure there's one for me to be able to withdraw cash from the ATM in Spain. I hope nationwide or other building soc/bank still has that type of a/c but I was told there isn't.