Hi everybody,

Is it possible to open a bank account in Spain while you are not living there yet (so you don’t have NIE)? I have found that it is possible to have a foreigner’s account with Santander (and possibly with some other banks too) but €16 fee per month seems to be a bit of a waste of money (nearly €200 a year).

We are EU nationals, I am not sure whether it would make things a bit easier.

Do you have any experience with this? Is it possible to open a bank account quite quickly (while on a holiday)? What are the fees in general?

Thanks a lot!

Phil

Most Spanish banks have similar charges for non residents accounts.
Have you tried using an online bank like "Wise". Many posters on this forum have closed their Spanish bank accounts (because of high charges) and signed up with Wise.

Steve

The question is is WiSe a bank? It is not regulated by the EU under the same regulations banks. WiSe says on their website.
https://wise.com/help/articles/29326...n-each-country
They do not advertise themselves as a bank.
https://wise.com/us/blog/wise-as-bank-account

Even so, as I stated there are many posters on this (and other) forum that have changed over to Wise and pay all their direct debits to local companies, electricity, water etc through Wise.

Steve

That maybe so.
I wonder if anyone realises the possible risks involved?
In the UK WiSe is also not seen as a bank which it has less safeguards.
https://wise.com/help/articles/2932699/who-is-the-fca
It’s important to know that if your non-bank payment provider goes out of business, your money won’t be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)........

T https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/usi...vice-providers
https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?i...000001EjC6SAAV

I was bringing these facts it to the attention of the OP they are not a bank, they do not call themselves a bank. If anyone is willing to accept the risks that is fine. Whilst recommending of a company there should be something about the risks, if any, involved. It just makes the situation clearer for the OP and then they can make their own judgment.

Thanks for bringing these facts to our attention.

Steve

The NIE is just the number, the green certificate or the TIE is for residency. If you want you can apply for a NIE without having residency and use that to do tax returns, etc...

Non-resident bank accounts from the usual Spanish banks have higher fees than normal bank accounts, that's just the way it is.

Or you could try something like Wise.

It is true that Wise is not a 'bank' in the UK terms and does not have the same financial guarantees. However neither do they issue loans so they do not have that risk exposure.

But it is a very cost effective and efficient currency transfer system, you can hold money in a multi currency account (very useful) and they pay reasonable interest rates, (unlike the UK banks) they will process DDs and there are no account fees. (Yes they charge for currency conversion)

Ultimately you will probably need a Spanish bank account, I assume - you don't say what your plan is, but why open it now and waste fees.

There is a Spanish bank that offers an online account to non-residents and there are absolutely ZERO charges.

Wefferent is from Cajamar (Caja Rural) and is completely free for all residents and non-residents alike!

A non resident neighbour of mine uses N26 for all of his Spanish DDs. You can set it up with a Spanish Iban

My wife has a wefferent account which she is very happy with. I have standard cajamar resident account and so long as you are happy to manage your account online which we both do there is really no difference. I don't pay charges anyway as my state pension is paid into my account. Ii don't think if you are non resident you can open the wefferent account online you have to go to the bank to set it up. We did that for my wife as she was in the process of getting her TIE so non resident initially. They also do a simple wefferent savings account now. Interest isn't great but it's useful to have as very simple and quick to transfer money between savings and current account.

Regarding Wefferent and "Free cash withdrawals at more than 1,200 GCC ATMs" - is that unlimited cash withdrawals or just a certain number per month?

There is no limit on number of cash withdrawals with the Wefferent Account they are free from Cajamar and certain other Atms small charge at others. Caja Rural allows free cash withdrawals at most of its Atms but only somll many per week and in some larger cities such as Málaga there is a small charge. If you go over the free withdrawals at Caja Rural again the small charge applies I think something like 75 cents. I have usually managed to find a Cajamar or Caja Rural When weve travelled apart from remote areas and Fisterra.

Thanks for the reply.

On a related topic for anyone who uses Revolut they now offer a joint account which if you already hold a Revolut account can be set up in a few seconds.