Banks
 

Hello all another question :confused:

This time banks, looking for one for my direct debits and where i can transfer mony from my business account in the UK.

Any to avoid etc ? Lets here your stories so i can get an idea of what's what.

Many thanks

John

Re: Banks
 

if you have a UK Halifax account you can transfer free of charge to banco halifax in spain.

Re: Banks
 

Intersting my mother has i havent. Maybe she can do it or maybe i can change banks.

Cheers.

Re: Banks
 

Hi,anyone know if its possible to simply open an account with Barclays over in Spain and then just do internet banking as I currently do in the UK to avoid charges on money transfers or do i just take a very large money belt over when I have sold up here in UK?
I have yet to pop in to my local bank to ask question in there but should do next week.

Jeffers

Re: Banks
 

Barclays in the UK were not very well informed when I went in - that is they didn't have any info on branches in Spain just went on about off-shore accounts. However, we opened a Barclays account here when we moved to Spain. If I remember correctly you can transfer up to €50000 without charge but best for you to check.

Re: Banks
 

Barclays UK and Barclays Spain do not have a connection as far as we have been told, other than you can take out upto 300 € daily from the Spanish ATM from your Barclays UK acct without charges.

Halifax UK & Halifax Espana do work together, but you still can't do transfers yourself via the internet between the two countries. The person at the bank does it for you and there is no charge (takes approx 3 working days), but I'm not sure if their conversion rate is the best.

Bringing large cash amounts from the UK is not advisable. It is always best to be able to show a transaction primarily for legal reasons (ie proof of where the money came from and where it is going). I also think that I read somewhere that it is illegal to bring in more than €3,000 cash within the EU. I don't know if anyone can verify this, but I'm sure I read it somewhere.

Re: Banks
 

You can legally bring as much money in as you like but if you want to pay it into a bank or use it for any "legal" purpose such as buying a house you will have to say where it came from.

If you pay over 6000 into your bank you will have to fill in a form showing where it came from and this goes to the Bank of Spain.

It is all part of the anti money-laundering rules that apply in most countries.

Re: Banks
 

Thanks folks,
the main reason for asking is once I sell up I will need to transfer funds over to Spain in order to use it to purchase a house.It is all above board and clean money. I believe many many people have done this over the years and just wanted to know the best way of doing it without paying ridiculous bank charges.
My wife works for La Caixa and she is looking into things at her end but the more information we can get the better.

cheers

Jeffers

Re: Banks
 

Thanks for the clarification Fred.

Re: Banks
 

Banca March is very good as you can have a sterling account in their London Branch and transfer to a sterling account in spain and then as and when you need it you can transfer to a euro account, their exchange rates are pretty good as well.

Re: Banks
 

Yes, but you have to keep 500 GBP in the account at all times, so in affect it is dead money.

Re: Banks
 

I was told the same as MnM - Barclays here have no connection with UK

I have a Spanish Barclays account and do internet banking with no problems (well so far) although their charges do leave a lot to be desired so its worth shopping around