sibsie

Barclays in Spain isn't part of Barclays. I know that doesn't make sense but they just have the right to use the Barclays Logo and are not part of the bank itself.

lynnxa

well that explains a lot....................

jdr

That must make it a legal counterfeit
Nearly as bad as the looky looky men....

sibsie

I miss the looky looky men. Nowhere here to buy your rip off sunglasses and bags and I love a good haggle over dinner.

jdr

I could always ship some over....

Nige

Spanish banking rules and practices are quite seperate from the UK. All Spanish banks will come under the regualtions set by Madrid and not the Governor of the Bank of England. So any bank operating in Spain must be a Spanish legally registered one. For example, HALIFAX in UK does have a Spanish counterpart with head office in Madrid but it is a Spanish bank affiliated to Halfax UK. Halifax Spain has its own web site http://www.halifax.es/ for further knowledge.


It is NOT true that Banco Santander Central Hispano has bought ABBEY NATIONAL as reported above. they have made an offer which was accepted by Abbey board, however the deal has not yet been accepted by shareholders. At the moment it looks reasonably likely that the take over of Abbey will go through in a few weeks time.

Choosing a bank in Spain depends very much on local requirements and the shape and face of the branch. For some people, being able to access their account on line is important. Spanish banks are improving their internet access and for example BBVA now has English internet pages as well as Spanish dialects. I have found BBVA to be improving all the time and never experienced any problem. There are several other Spanish banks that perform well.

opening an account as a UK resident is very easy and can normally be accomplished within a week or so. A single piece of paper declaring your NON resident status is signed. This enables a Non resident account to be opened, which can later be converted into a resident account when this is finalised.

Nett

I don't know if we were just lucky! but we just walked into Bank of Andalusia Roquetes De Mar,there was an English speaking manager there, we told them that we wanted to open an account as we were looking to purchase a house in Spain and we would need it to transfer funds...
They required our home address, work details in England 50 euros to put in account to open it and 15 minutes later we had a bank account.

britsinspain

You will need your passport, UK and Spanish address if you do not have your NIE or Residents card. Most Spanish banks will open an account with 0 euros, and will generally only provide you with an ATM machine, you can apply for a debit card but some banks wish to see a history first.

kathml

As you will get charged for everything don't think you will have an account with a zero balance for long

britsinspain

so true!!!