Barwick

Hi all .
We are looking at buying a Spanish holiday home in the next twelve months or so .
We need to open a Spanish bank and the obvious one is Santander .
I would hope to do all banking requirements online so I'm wondering if we opened an account in the uk with Santander will this count in Spain ?
Or will we be better opening an account from the Spanish mainland in which case any recommendations ?
thanks for reading .
regards john

petew

Santander U.K. is not a Spanish bank. I think you will need to open an account with a bank in Spain.

Porth

We have two bank accounts one being Sabadell the other Deutsche bank. We use the latter more than the former.

Barwick

O.k , That'll do. , thanks .
So next one is can I set up a Spanish bank from the uk and then do internet banking ?
or do I have to wait till the next time I go to Spain and do it over there ?
ta john

Porth

We did the setting up from France and where we lived. However the intricacies of internet banking we believe was better left until our arrival and we understood the system. However we propagated the account with euros ahead of our arrival. It all worked well from there.

The reason we are against Sabadell is simply in Javea they took over another bank and the queues to get service sometimes go out through the door. DB is much more civilised.

In Javea lots of ex pats use or used to use Barclays but we believe the Spanish operation has now been sold to a bank in Spain?

guesswork

I use Sabadell and the Online is pretty good

I am sure you will have to have an NIE number to open an account and be in Spain unless you do a Power of Attorney and get a Lawyer to do it for you.

Dont go down that route

Porth

Sorry not our experience. We opened an account from France with DB providing our passports plus some other identities and we set up the account. Upon arrival went to the branch and obtained our cards. Then and after only after our NIE did we let the bank have copies.

At least that is and was our experience.

Barwick

O.k Thanks , I will sort it when were in spain , defo wont let some 3rd party open an account on our behalf .
thanks again

petew

We haven't had any problems with Sabadell. As mentioned above. their online banking works well.

shazzabob

or solictor has Power of Attorney , is has been a god send when we had problems paying a bills for us if we had problems with bank as we dont live there , we trust them and we have been with our solictor for over 12 years you just need to find the right one

Bri and Katee

Before you plump for Santander just read my latest post on them. Santander spain is nothing like the UK version to deal with!

Porth

I thought French banks were bad - apparently not

Mitzyboy

We had accounts with Banco Valencia and BBVA before finally settling with Sabadell. Had problems with both the former ones, but with Sabadell all went well and I was happy banking with them. Their online is indeed very good, and if you get the right account you dont pay charges either.

In fact the ONLY hiccup we had was when we eventually closed the account when we moved back to the UK. Every time I emailed them they insisted I came into the branch, even though I told them I couldnt.

petew

Do you mean it's actually worse ?!

johnnyone

Is it straightforward to move your bank account in Spain? I am with Barclays but they moved out of Oliva a couple of years ago and I now have to go to Gandia.
Not a hardship in itself as Gandia is a nice town but I would prefer to bank in Oliva.
Cheers