Hi all, I posted a couple of questions on here regarding house buying etc.
we have progressed to the ARAS stage with July 31st as a closing date (with solicitor).
RE agent was opening a bank account with Sabatell but we’ve tasked the solicitor with opening it and they are leaning towards BankInter.
we need good online banking as we won’t be resident for a while yet so can anybody give any thumbs up/down for a particular bank?
thanks a million in advance.
A&J.

Without wishing to sound cynical (but being realistic), your solicitor probably favours Bankinter because he takes everyone there because he 'benefits'

All banks are probably much of a muchness - depends how good the local branch is - if you don't get on with them you can always move.

I have been with Sabadell for 25 years - recently had a major problem with them (see if the ATM swallows your card, my thread on this forum)
But have decided to stay with them for now. I would suggest you check out Wise - they offer a lot of useful benefits.

If you are not going to be resident for some time, why bother with a Spanish bank at all???

We coped without for a number of years as things like IBI, electric, water and non res taxes can be paid without issue from a 'foreign' account.
I know people who have been non resident for twenty years and still only use a non spanish bank.

But as pointed out your 'solicitor' will just like the estate agent etc, prod you in the direction that makes it worthwhile for them...

We have Santander but only because we know one of the staff in the branch we have our accounts and I can talk to her if needed.
If you want a spanish bank account open an online one only. Then you can set up DDR etc and then once you decide to do residency (if) it will be simple to turn it to a full account.

Besides the solicitor works for you (or should) tell them you will give them your bank details and get them to setup the utilities both the solicotor and the estate agent are more than capable of this and many do it included in the cost (well our solicitor did)

Sound advice from this member !

As resident I opened an N26 account with additional physical card. Was super easy to do online compared to Santander that kept sending me round in circles for ID verification. N26 has a Spanish banking licence and Spanish IBAN which has been fine for utilities and taxes. They have been pretty good and online support in English.

However, anything administrative that involves a tasa (fee) e.g. visa related, TIE cards, anything DGT has to be paid at an ATM as N26 are not one of the institutions signed up with the AEAT portal.

It seems utterly ridiculous in this day and age that you cannot pay with IBAN or credit/debit card unless one of these institutions. Also had similar with Wise but that had a Belgian IBAN so slightly more understandable.

This week for a DGT related procedure I have to download a form, print it, take to ATM/bank to pay the €9 tasa, make an appointment at nearest DGT office, drive an hour to get there because the AEAT portal only accepts payment from a closed group of banks. If I had one of the specific accounts it could be done entirely online in minutes.

I genuinely think the Spanish systems are normally really well linked with digital certificate etc. but the above … words fail me.

Yes, words would fail me too - surely this goes against the EU concept of total flexibility/ease of use with IBANs.

Signed a contract with a tenant yesterday, and he paid me the deposit and rent up front from his Wise to mine using the new Wise tag ID - so easy and quick.

If a resident, then I would always advocate a Spanish bank or one that has a licence to operate and comes with a correct IBAN.
Personal taxes when resident are easier to pay with a spanish account, the alternative is to find a decent gestor or solicitor who will pay on your behalf and then you pay them.

BUT being non resident does not require a spanish bank account, its easier if you can get one but we never had any issues using UK-issued HSBC and UK Santander cards here for years.
And like I have said, we know a couple who have never opened a spanish account and pay everything from the uk. (now we are lucking in this part of Spain as Alicante has a collection agency called SUMA and our IBI and car tax is paid through them.)

N26 is regulated and licensed in Spain with a Spanish IBAN. The Spanish income tax is taken directly from the account using IBAN as is all other bills including from SUMA. The OP was asking and I’d normally recommend N26 but with this caveat.

It’s just other Tasa can’t be paid even with a credit/debit card because N26 isn’t part of their special group of banks.
Bonkers in the 3rd decade of the 21st Century - they should allow any card.

Full disclosure…

​​​​​​⠀‹source:[/size]
https://support.n26.com/en-es/accoun...spain-with-n26

Often it's not just a simple payment, but the there are fields with certain options to fill in as well, and the bank has to implement a way for the user to fill in the fields and transfer this information to the AEAT along with the money and get a reference number back from the AEAT. Probably N26 don't think it's worth their while to develop the software to do this just for a small percentage of Spanish customers.