10 Feb 2021 3:22 PM:

Hi KarenDyke,

I have a Starling current account as my main account in the UK and a Starling Euro account for DD's in Spain, no issues with setting up for community fees, local town hall taxes or water.  I did have issues with Endesa not accepting a GB IBAN at the start, but got that sorted and then switched supplier to Bulb dot es for cheaper supply, I can send you a link for Bulb if you pm me.

I add up my DD's and divide by 12 and then each month transfer this amount from my Starling current account to my Starling Euro account, you can see the rate before transferring and I used to check it against TransferWise but there was only a few cents difference and the convenience of just transferring with Starling was worth it, doing this monthly tends to smooth out exchange rate fluctuations.  I also transfer a small amount each month for spending money when in Spain, then, via the Starling app, you can choose whether to withdraw money from your Euro or current account when using an ATM in Spain.  Cash withdrawals from an ATM are free with Starling anyway from your current account (as in no charges from Starling) and you get the MasterCard exchange rate on the day.  I tend to use Unicaja ATM's as there is no charge from them either for withdrawing euros using your Starling card.

Liberty Seguros would not accept the GB IBAN, but have said I can pay annually by just transferring the money for the policy, but now I have the IBAN discrimination information from Starling I will challenge them again when the policy is due for renewal.

hope this helps, Starling is a great bank and I have not had any major problems so would highly recommend.  

rumbletum

Thread: Starling Bank Euro Account

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02 Aug 2020 2:35 PM:

After Teresamc successful post I took the plunge and opened a Starling euro account.  So far so good, community fees, water, town hall and electric all contacted via email to ask how to change DD.

Community & Town Hall sent a form to complete and also required a banking certificate which apparently is different to a statement as it shows your account details and name & address.  Contacted Starling who said all of the information is available on a downloaded statement, I only had €100 euro in the account that I had transferred across so there wasn't a long list of transactions, so I printed off and scanned a copy of the statement and sent that where required.  All accepted the statement and confirmed new DD's set up.

I found with Endesa that if you try to change bank details in the app it doesn't recognise the Starling IBAN, however if you log into the main Endesa site it does, so Starling added and associated with the electricity account.  Before Endesa have attempted to take a payment I have changed suppliers to Bulb (Spain) and their sign up page accepted the Starling IBAN straight away.

Getting through to Sabadell to close the account was a bit of a hassle, on hold because all agents were busy but then the call would time out and cut off so I would have to start again, tried several times over a week and eventually got through on Friday.  Asked for either my passport or NIE number, neither were recognised by their system and they cannot find you without this information, they cannot search on your account number or name, eventually realised I had renewed my passport since opening the account so dug out the old one and quoted that number and it was recognised.  As I spoke to the agent they sent a couple of digital signature requests to the Sabadell app to confirm closure and the account was closed a couple of hours after that.

Fingers crosses everything now works as expected, if it doesn't I have the email confirmations from the various entities to quote back at them.

Thanks Terrsamc for giving me the confidence to do this.  Oh and by the way, I don't speak Spanish so everything was done in English or with the help of Google translate.

 

This message was last edited by Rumbletum on 02/08/2020.
Thread: Starling Bank Euro Account

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27 Jun 2020 12:13 PM:

Woo Hoo!  Just the electric to go then. Fingers crossed 🤞

Thread: Starling Bank Euro Account

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06 Jun 2020 10:31 AM:

Brilliant! Thanks Teresa

Thread: Starling Bank Euro Account

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03 Jun 2020 5:36 PM:

Hi Teresamc,

That's really useful information, is your solicitor dealing with closing the Sabadell account or is this something you're doing yourself?  If you're doing it yourself what do you have to do to close the Sabadell account?

It would be very useful if you could update this thread in a months time and let us know if the direct debits etc. went smoothly.

Thanks

rumbletum 

Thread: Starling Bank Euro Account

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