I bank with Barclays (was Oliva but now Gandia although I do everything on line anyway) and I have their Nomina (salaryaccount) which is the same as the Sabadell one. You have to transfer in €900 a month and have 3 utility direct debits, and it's all free, and they pay you 3% of the direct debits. I went from paying Lloyds €25 a year, to being paid €60 a year.
I have to be honest and say, I real don't see how the business model works, but hey, who cares. I just keep my euros with Ing on deposit and transfer each month.

The details of their account is on their website

I forgot that you were from around here :-)

My problem is I only transfer funds in on an as and when basis to maintain a balance of around 1500 euros., so I doubt whether I can get a "free" account.

That's exactly what I do (see previous posts) and we get free banking via the expansion account (plus money back etc.)

I think it may be down to who you speak to.

ING Direct are offering a commission-free account with free cards and no requirement for a monthly deposit. The only condition is that you start it off with €1000 from a different bank and keep the balance at over €2000.

It is all done online as I don't think they have any branches (?), but you can use any ATM on the 4B network (Santander, Banco Popular etc). to withdraw cash.

Looks too good to be true?

http://www.ingdirect.es/cuenta-sin-nomina-ing/

Same here, we're not resident in Spain, still only visiting every couple of months for a week or so so not possible to transfer large lumps of cash every month.

Well .... why dont you transfer small sums then?

... or larger amounts every few months?

As far as I know you don't have to keep a minimum balance, you just have to transfer the money in. I do have use for the money as we live here, so it's no problem.

However, we have a halifax reward account in the Uk, which we get £5 if we transfer in £. 1,0000 a month. Sometimes I leave it there, other times I transfer it out the next day. Some people transfer it out the same day. As far as I can see it's the same principle. That's why I mentioned I keep funds on deposit at Ing. Sometimes I use that, sometimes I transfer in from Currencyfair, other times I transfer from Currencyfair to Ing, and then to Barclays from there.

Sorry, but €900 a month is not possible. So why bother with smaller amounts if they're looking for €900 per month?

Some say 900 and some say 700. As I stated previously, I have had the account for over a year and have had very few deposits of far less than that. I will probably transfer a large sum shortly.

But the real point is that they can be flexible!

I was never asked for a figure, and some months I havent transferred anything with no comment from them. I suspect of you were to make one transfer and then only sporadically, they wouldnt notice

Can anyone advise what Cajamar - Caja Rural are like? There's one in the village where I'm going and it would appear to be the most convenient...

All I know about both of them is that their ATMs don't accept many Credit/Debit cards from abroad - Caja Rural is the only bank I know of that doesn't accept a La Caixa card.

Hi Everyone, slightly off topic I know, but could anyone explain the fees I have been charged below. Had the account 10 years and not had these before! Emailed the bank, but no response. Going over in a few weeks and will ask then, but heads up would be good!
Bank with Banco De valencia

27/11/12 General Directorate of Police fee 6.82
29/11/12 Non-resident Accreditation Commission 10.91
21/1/13 General Directorate of Police fee 6.82

Thanks in advance