strinder84

Hello all,

I am recently arrived in Spain and last week I opened a bank account last week with La Caixa, today I received my card and I'm unsure of what happens next. will I receive my PIN number in due course?

Many thanks for your help.
Steve

Rosemary

I do not know whether all the banks work in the same way but when I received my card I went to my local branch and they provided me with the PIN number.

Rosemary

Domino

you have me confused, I opened an account with my local La Caixa after problems in trying to convince BBVA that the manager with the longest and shapeliest legs in Andalucia if not Spain should take my money.

Local La Caixa have a staff of 4 and 2 speak English. Opened account and received my card, and all the logins for the online account at the branch. All PIN's were issued at the time with all the documentation and card.
In fact for reasons not needed here I failed to logon online quick enough and the original PIN's lapsed (they expect you to change them to something more personal and memorable) and one of the English speakers approached me in the street as he was leaving and I was going to a local cafe and he said I should do something about it.

Suggest you go back to your original La Caixa and get all the documentation checked over and discuss any confusion you may have.

If it is a pensionista account with UK OAP monies coming in every month then the account will be free of charges.

hth

megmet

I've banked with La Caixa for six years, they sent mine through the post with instructions to change the pin to something more memorable.
A word of warning about them, they do like to push things onto you so don't let them pressure you.
If you're offered House and Contents Insurance you're better off going somewhere else. I've just cancelled ours with them today, I can get much better cover and for half the price elsewhere.
As banks here go they are probably not much worse than others, but with my experiences of them over six years....I wouldn't trust them to show me across the road.

strinder84

Thanks everyone,

I'll give it a few days to see if anything comes through.

The reason I asked is because I just walked into the bank (speaking no Spanish (I'm a learner!)) and began the process of setting up the account through broken phrases and gestures! I don't know the procedure so thanks for your comments.

Steve

olivefarmer

Steve

The website is available in English when you do your online banking as are the ATM's of course. The online security(in my opinion) is pretty poor compared to UK banks. Eight digit acct number and a password. However it works.....

Lacaixa also do a product where you pay so much a month e.g. 452 euros and then all bills as they come in are paid by La Caixa. Once a year they correct the account for over /under payments. There is a small charge for the service of course but it is quite a useful facility if you like to know how much to budget for each month for regular stuff ( e.g. IBI, electric, phone, Internet, annual car insurance) I call it Pago Unico but that may not be its real name! A word of warning. The company's details need to be set up first before the demand arrives at the bank. Then first choice payment is from Pago Unico, if no details exist then it just goes out of your bank account.

strinder84

Very handy information,

Thanks a lot!

amideislas

Ahh, yes login is quite simple, but I think their TAN system for transactions is ingenious (and simple - which I like even more).

When you sign up for online banking You get a card with a lot of numbers on it. I understand there are over 5000 combinations of TAN cards.

Anyway, when you make an online transaction, it asks you for say, number 52 on your TAN card. You can't enter it with the keyboard. You can only enter it by clicking the numbers on the screen. The numbers are in a random order that's different every time you make a transaction.

Pretty tough to suss that one out with traditional spyware. You'd have to have the card in your possession.

chrissyking35

hi every one. just been reading about la caxia on this thread. steve can you let me know how you get the online banking in English. I can only get so far then it all goes back into Spanish...any advice would be great

IamStu

You can search Linea abierta in english. This should take you to the page.
Otherwise, there´s an option "cambiar idioma" on the Spanish page.

chrissyking35

hi stu, thank you for your reply. I will try that.

MrsMac59

We opened an account with Caja Murcia and all we got on the day was a bank book. We were told that Caja Murcia is an old fashioned Savings Bank. Would we expect to be able to do online banking with an account at this bank, or be sent a card and PIN? No-one said and we were a bit too pressed for time to be bothered about it last visit.

Domino

I regularly take money from my account at the ATM and after 2 uses telling it I wanted the idiomas in English it now remembers it and consistantly comes up in English on each subsequent use.

The same applies to the online where it reverts to English on logon.

For this I find La Caixa the most helpful, where they have about 30 different languages available on their system. The only problem I find is that their emails are full of pdf's which don't translate to English.

hth

megmet

Be very careful when dealing with La Caixa as they don't always work in your best interest.
They called me in to discuss the best options for my money, I have some in their investments but have a quite large amount in my ordinary account.
The man I saw there who actually speaks perfect English advised that I change it to one that was "better for me", I very FOOLISHLY trusted his word and changed.
In my old account I paid maintenance charges but received interest and a free Debit card, on checking my statement on the new account I now find my maintenance charges are quite a bit more, there is no interest at all and I've been charged 26€ for my once free Debit card. The only thing this account offers is points towards free gifts which I'm not at all interested in.
I shall be calling into the bank on Monday and as I'm so annoyed it won't be pretty!
I'm actually in two minds as to whether I remain with them or move all my money elsewhere to a bank that can be trusted a little more than them, it's not the first time they have lead me down the garden path and it's cost me money.
In my opinion this bank works only for their own profit, regardless of how much the loss to the customer may be.

Domino

Meg, it sounds like you have not got the right account - IIRC you are entitled to a Pensioner's account which is totally charges free.
But is there really any bank that doesn't work only for their own profit ?
over the years I know some may say I have been lax and only had accounts with 6 banks, 2 of which are subsidiaries or "bought but not yet fully integrated" status.
but I have never ever met a bank that offers me something where my benefit is truely greater than theirs.
and as to pension funds - don't get me started.................