Hi everyone, I would like to ask your views on this. A friend on mine in Madrid went to buy a mobile phone plan with Vodafone. She was told at the Vodaphone shop that they did not accept her bank card, because the IBAN Number did not start with the letters "ES" (i.e. it was not a Spanish bank card). She was told that she could only pay with money coming from a Spanish bank account. My friend would like to use "WISE.com" for shopping and paying bills in Spain, as she has not fully settled down in Spain yet. Has anyone had that experience of having their bank IBAN Number not accepted for a payment in Spain? Is there a solution? Many thanks. Kind regards.

My experience with them has been ......... I have a pre pay mobile with Vodafone ES and use a Wise Debit card for the regular monthly top ups (Vodafone call it 'Easy Pay'). However if you try to set up a direct debit using anything other than an ES IBAN it wont accept it.

We also have a Simyo mobile account in the family and my experience with them has been that they will only accept a Spanish debit card for topups.

Hola,
My Wise card was issued to me in Spain; my friend has a Wise card issued in the UK. I can pay Spanish bills, my friend cannot. You need a Wise card issued here - maybe issued to the Schengen area would work

Davexf

Not wishing to take this to another Wise thread but Out of interest does your Wise account have an ES IBAN with your Euro pot or a BE IBAN ?

I suggest you contact Wise and enquire with them - I have always found them very helpful and quick to respond.

Hi
I started to use wise, and I came across the same refusal issue, my electricity company, my monthly community etc. Some modern forward thinking companies like my internet company (Vozplus) were no problem.

I spoke to wise (which has a BE Iban origin code) and they said “it is illegal in the EU to not accept a Eu/euro denominated account number” and you must report them to some commission or other and they can be prosecuted.

I stated this to both companies who initially refused, and lo and behold they accepted my d/debit from Wise, so far it is working well for me and I have ditched my Spanish bank, and I couldn’t be happier!

regards
al

I would have thought companies have every right to say that they want only Spanish based accounts for the simple reason it is much easier to recover money in the event of outstanding debts. For example, the hacienda will only repay money to Spanish accounts and residency requirements insist on Spanish accounts. Afterall if you live or have a property in spain it seems sensible to be using their banks

What part of gaining residency insists on a Spanish bank account?

Tell her to get a Lobster SIM, they accept payment from anywhere including UK card and Wise.

You require to show funds in a Spanish account

Nope not strictly true, friends are moving over later this year on the NLV their savings are in the Uk and he gets a Government pension paid to a Uk bank and the visa was approved in December and they never asked him to open a Spanish bank account..
They dont have a Spanish account even though they have a property here and have had for many years..

It makes life easier to have one if you are resident as the Tax man can then plunder the account at tax time.

Ive just checked and Im Spanish resident with a wise account and have a Belgium IBAN on the account, the sterling one comes with a Uk IBAN, I also keep AU$ which has no IBAN at all,
They dont do BBDS$ so I use cash or UK cards.

Must have changed then since I did mine as then we were told they wouldn't accept a UK account nor a uk property as proof of funds. It had to be in spain at time of application. Mind you that wasn't for a NLV