Do understand present position but my UK bank and where I have been a customer for over 45 years pointed me towards their colleagues in Javea and Calpe no response. I need to open an account ahead of moving.

Any suggestions please. Lloyds at least the so called Lloyds in Calpe have indeed responded but just wondered if anyone has positive recommendations as to banks in the area. Do not want to borrow just to organise monthly transfers of £ to euros.

I will give my bank a call in the morning and make a noise but they I suppose have no control over Spain?

Here I suppose I can continue without cost to use our euro debit card from France but presume that if I write a euros cheque on our French bank account there will both be a delay and a cost.

Many thanks

I bank with Lloyds TSB in the UK but their branches are very few and far between, so I opened an account with La Caixa. This was to take advantage of their No Commission for pensioners account, which means all incoming and outgoing payments inc standing orders are free of charge. (also the euros paid in by DWP is an excellent rate of exchange)

Would suggest you go for one of the larger (more stable) Spanish banks as a means to the end you wish to achieve - the paying of local bills and spending money. The BH says NOT Santander, they are useless.

surely using a debit card will mean some sort of charge ??

hth

Thanks for that. We have Santander by default in the UK as a secondary bank in that they took over Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley. Not impressed in the UK.

Main bank one of the high steet clearers. As to more stable Spanish Banks? All we need is monthly transfers from the UK spending money and paying bills and this to take over the role currently with our French bank for France!

thanks for the response

We have banked with Santander (Spain) since we moved here 10 years ago. They have always been helpful and we have never had a problem of any sort - so don´t let Santander UK put you off.

Santander Spain is supposedly much better than Santander UK. We used BBVA in Spain, very helpful staff there and easy to deal with, also unlikley to have the problems many of the Spanish banks have had.

deutsche bank have good coverage around the costa blanca, worth a visit IMO.

before coming to Granada the BH went to the Santander International office in the Strand and filled in all the forms to open an account, they were sending them to an agreed bank in the heart of Granada to await her arrival 2 weeks later.
When we got there they claimed they knew nothing, and got her to go thru all the processes of opening an account again. Then mysteriously someone found the forms the following month and wanted to know from her why she hadnt opened the account with those forms.
they have been a pain ever since, the largest branch in the city, not far from the Alhambra, in the tourist centre and main shopping area - and no one will speak a word of English. BH found someone after about 18m and he said he didnt offer as the rest of the staff would put all the foreigners his way, meaning he couldnt do his job.

BBVA have a branch in the village, I fell in love with the long legs of the branch manager, but they refused to open an account for me and sent me to Granada, 30km away. I have already reported here the fiasco that was, needless to say I would never recommend them

Thats why i am with La Caixa, they say on the window "English Spoken Here", and out of 4 staff 2 can speak good English, which is useful when trying to open an account. They have about 28 different languages on their ATM's and website. And free pensionista accounts.

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