spainrico

As regular forum posters will know I am a big advocate of using Wise for currency exchange/transfers etc.

As I have had another dispute with Sabadell I am thinking of switching over completely to Wise

I am a full-time resident in Spain and need to pay the usual direct debits and twice a year AEAT - my question is to any full-time residents here

Are you using Wise only for all of your banking needs or are there any exclusions/problems with ditching a 'high street' bank and trying to use Wise for everything?

1sexsmith

There was someone here recently saying that they had to have a Spanish bank to pay their tax and Wise wouldn't work. I am sure other people have pointed out problems when it comes to government direct debits.

missile

All your eggs in one basket? You might like to have more than one bank, I have accounts with Starling and Chase.

spainrico

thanks 1sexsmith - I thought I had seen that somewhere - anyone paying tax man via Wise?

thanks missile - didn't say I was putting all the eggs in one basket - never a good idea, just thinking of dumping Sabadell and subbing in Wise but wanted to know if there are any limitations with them (apart from paying the tax man)

Barriej

I have been thinking of doing the same, but because Wise is not yet a bank I cant have my private pension from the Uk paid to them. Nor can I pay my Spanish tax either.
The IBAN being a Belgium one is the issue as the number is a different length so no official site will accept them in Spain,

Although if you have a gestor or solicitor they can pay on your behalf (I believe) and you could then just transfer the money to them from wise...
I have to do this for the non res tax for my son as he has no bank presence here nor the digital cert to allow the tax office to debit me for the tax.

spainrico

Yes it's true not all private pension providers will pay Wise - I have one that does and one that won't accept Wise which given that the UK government will pay into Wise I find ridiculous.

I mentioned it to Wise and they said they were prepared to talk to any pension provider to see what their problem is.

I had not considered the IBAN length before - I thought IBANs were acceptable to all and thought that was the point of it?

Listen Very Carefully

Living in France,I just use Wise as a conduit for my pensions before moving them on to my French bank account.I only keep a couple of hundred pounds sterling in the multi currency account if I know that I am going to the UK as a fall back.

Barriej

When you look at Spanish only forms the IBAN has to be 24 digits the Wise one is only 16 (Belgium IBAN) because you leave blanks the computer cant understand.

Happens all over the world with different stuff.
Ive just spent 30mins on the phone to Brittany Ferries because their system doesn't allow Spanish car reg numbers to be put on a booking (UK, Irish and French yes) strange when they run routes to and from Spain...

Pension wise, mine is with Transact and they will ONLY pay to a Uk bank.. No other option, so Im having to keep the Uk account open....just for this...

bobd22

Revolut gives you a 24 digit IBAN with your euro account. I have just opened a basic free account with them for transferring money to Spain. Just tried it seems to work ok. They also give you a sort code and account number for sterling account.

BristolUK

If it's "just what the computer wants" won't leading zeros do the trick? Or at the end?
Just to fill the space, like.

Many moons ago I remember working at the DWP (then DSS) and the bank numbers for one or two different financial institutions didn't work because the spaces didn't match. The tech department set something up that involved 2 or 3 numbers being added - not zeros and not the same ones for the different ones involved - to the first boxes.

That solved it.

DLC

I honestly wouldn't trust Wise with my life savings or even just use it as a current account to pay direct debits as they're not really a bank.

If you're willing to move to an Internet-only bank as Wise is, there are no shortage of Spanish banks, either Internet-only banks or normal banks offering an Internet account.

astera

Getting a Spanish IBAN is quite easy by using N26 instead of Wise. As long as you set up your N26 account in Spain using local details (and NIE) then you will be allocated a Spanish IBAN.

But overall it's still not as "fully local" as regular Spanish accounts so no official stuff will work (wages/taxes/etc.), so for that you would need a separate (local) account. But you can set up local direct debits on N26 to pay for stuff like utility bills, car insurance, medical insurance, etc.

Are you certain Wise is not insured in any way? If so that is a major drawback though if push came to shove I think they would sooner be "taken over and saved" than allowed to go bust.

On a side note, N26 is an actual bank and states the following on their site: "N26 is a member of the German Deposit Guarantee Fund. The fund guarantees deposits up to 100,000 euros per account holder and entity."

I believe Revolut is also insured as they have a banking license in one of the Baltic states (Lithuania if I recall correctly?).

bobd22

I have only just opened an account with Revolut I did a trial exchange and transfer and was impressed with ease of use to transfer funds from UK bank into Revolut account , exchange and transfer, the transfer was very quick and rate was good. The account protection does in fact differ the UK account isn't covered under FSCS as with banks but is under "safeguarding " rules which I think is the same with Wise? The money held in the Euro account with Revolut is protected under the bank protection rules up to 100000 euros. So safer if holding money of any amount in the euro account than sterling account. The euro account is in Madrid with full Spanish IBAN and BIC, UK account is London with sort code and account number. I only want the account for transfers and mainly because I always used Currencyfair and liked that I could set a future rate and wait for it to meet that rate build up an amount and then make one transfer for 3 euros. However they recently stopped allowing that , now you have to deposit funds automatically exchange and transfer out immediately. Also their exchange rate is slightly lower than either Wise or Revolut. That's why I thought I would try Revolut.

stevesainty

How our EU entity, Wise Europe SA, safeguards customer funds | Wise Help Centre
How do I use my EUR account details? | Wise Help Centre
Wise operates under Belgium law and conforms to all its financial instruments, and as WISE do not lend money, nor invest much and only in relatively safe institutions, they are not very vulnerable. An IBAN can be many different lengths and should be accepted by all other institutions, WISE can help if they don´t.

calman014

I concur. Talk to WISE customer services, they are very good and can probably help with this.
In my experience there is normally a trick for adjusting the IBAN, and the bank or financial institution can help you with this.

Regarding the UK, you can have a proper UK account with sort code etc, so it should not be a problem at all.