Uksp

Hello,
I have purchased a holiday home in Spain and need to pay maintenance charges and utilities monthly approx 250 euros. I read on the forum that BBVA offers a free account, is thus fit non residents and are there hidden charges such as transfer fees? How do I put the euros in each month, ie use s transfer company then transfer to bank and direct debit out?

Bad Leg

Check out a Borderless account with Transferwise. easy and cheap.

Eric S

We have the BBVA online account and we are non-resident. However, I think they have changed the way you sign up for the account since we did it and it may not work for non-residents anymore. You can only do it online and you have to submit some documentation via messenger that they send to your home. I'm not sure if they will send a messenger to an address outside Spain.

Feel free to give it a try, though, and let us know if you get it to work.

I can verify, though, that the account is really no fee. We have not paid any fees in the four years that we have had the account. We are very happy with it. The website works really well and is available in English.

Good luck.
- Eric S.

Eric S

Do you have the Transferwise borderless account? I researched it a little bit and it seemed to me to be somewhat limited. It looks like they make it easy for you to receive payments and transfers from anywhere in the EU. But I think the only way to make payments is with the supplied debit card. I'm not sure you can set it up for direct debits for your electric bill, for example.

- Eric S.

lic

Sabadell bank have an expansion account. It is free as long as you pay €700 per month.
I note you state your bills are about €250 per month.
To get round this open a Revolut card account. It's basically a card where you load it with £, convert them to €, then send the € to your sabadell account. It takes about 1-2 days. Once the money hits your account, simply load the € back to your Revolut card, once credited re-send the money back to sabadell, and repeat if necessary.
The transferes are free of charge. As long as you meet the funding requirements for Sabadell there are no fees.
The exchange rates for Revolut are very good in my experience. I think the Revolut card costs £5 which is a one time payment.
Using this method saves me well over €125 per year.

Bad Leg

I haven't used it for direct debits but I thought that this could be done. I now have Transferwise debit card which is useful when I'm in the UK. They have an office in London so give them a call.

spainrico

Just checked out Transfer Wise quoted 100€ more (I mean I receive more) than my usual company. Are many people using it?

Eric S

Do you mean using it for currency transfer? Yes, I've used it for currency transfer many times. I found that they give a better rate than the other currency transfer companies that I have tried in the past: Currencies Direct, TorFX, OFX.

- Eric S.

spainrico

Thanks, Eric

yes, I will try them for currency transfer next time.

Loafing Along

Yes use it regulary , excellent rate , and has got progressively easier and more efficient over the years. Transfers sometimes take only 4 hours.

spainrico

Wow 4 hours! better than queueing time in my local branch (joke!)

Loafing Along

What's a local branch

spainrico

Bank....

Loafing Along

Goodness have not visited one of those in years

tonisdad

Email from BBVA today:

Regarding your request, we would like to inform you that if you want to open an account as a resident or non-resident depend on the place you are going to pay your taxes.

If you are going to pay your taxes in Spain, you should open the account as a resident.
If not, if you are going to pay your taxes abroad, you should open the account as a non-resident.

If you want to open an account as resident, you will have to provide the following information:

- NIE number emitted by the Spanish Ministry of Interior.
- Document of identification of the origin country valid or passport valid.
- Justification revenue currently perceived.

If you want to open the account as a non-resident, you will have to provide the following information in any of our BBVA offices:

- Document of identification of the origin country valid or passport valid.
- Non-resident Affidavit in Spain (depending the model that the bank will provide you).

Also, we inform you that the only account that can be applied through the Web is our No fees BBVA Online Account.
If you want to apply for it, you must have NIF (Spanish identification document) or NIE number (Residence permit) and also a Spanish mobile.
Nevertheless, if you have a Passport identification document, you won’t able to request for the online account.

When you apply for this type of account, you will have also a debit card free.

Also, you can include a co-holder of this account during the process and the co-holder will have also a debit card.
If you don’t include during the process the co-holder, you will able to do it? once the account was activated and you will have 90 days for doing it in any of our branches (not through the Web). The new co holder won’t have any card. He will have to request for it.

Hope that helps.