lynnxa

so I imagine you could just transfer the minimum you need to cover essential bills each month then

Mitzyboy

I tend to leave the minimum necessary in my Spanish bank account

johnny13

I’m no fan of Spanish banks, seeing them as inefficient and expensive in equal degrees. So I wasn’t too surprised to hear that merely operating a current account and a credit card costs between 152 and 305 euros a year, or an average of 229. Nor did it come as a shock to read that this has risen by 52 euros in only two years, despite a so-called ‘commissions war’. And that further increases are now in the pipeline. Johnny

DENISE WALTERS

I would prefer to pay locally or electronically I think scared of these Spanish banks getting their mits on my hard earned money

betris

The worst is when they pay some thing and you ask them what is this payment for and they say we dont know. I opend another account in another bank with 200 euro a while ago with the intention of saving a couple of euro a week.I havent used it yet and I just had a statement, my balance is about 80 euro.So first chance I get Im closing it.

littlelambfound

On the other hand, the "flexibility" can work both ways. When I opened an account I asked about the charges, and after a little chat, had them waved completely. I think many expats are unaware that, in Spain, everything is open to "discussion".

sirrom

Be assured if yu owe dosh they Will remove it from your account!!!

Rotor

Only if its in Spain, they have no juristiction in other countries.

Beachcomber

Despite my earlier post, they cannot just take the money without going through various legal procedures.

They have to send you at least one recorded delivery letter and if it is not delivered details must be posted in the official bulletin of the province (Boletín Oficial de la Provincia) in which you live.

If money is taken from your account you can demand to see any letter they may have tried to send to you and evidence of the fact that it could not be delivered. You can also demand to see the entry in the bulletin or, at least, it's reference number so that you can look it up for yourself.

Provincial bulletins are available online and most have a search facility into which you can enter your name to see if there is anything recorded against you.

I have a particular problem in that I live in an area where there is no postal delivery so I have a box in the local post office. However, entities like DGT and AEAT will not accept an Apartado de Correos as a valid address and insist that you give a residential address. The problem is that staff at the post office will not put anything in my box that does not show the post office box number so if I picked up a traffic fine for speeding for example I would never be notified of it.

Because of this I check my local BOP every couple of weeks or so to see if I am being notified of any fine which has been issued that I do not know about.

johnny13

Queuing for 20 minutes to carry out the simplest transaction is quick. Watching someone take an hour with the only available cashier is not unusual.

Excessive maintenance charges and statements that even bank employees don't understand. An infrastructure that makes it almost impossible to complain. Complain by email and I need an electronic signature which seems to involve giving a DNA sample. Complain by letter and they ignore it and say it never arrived. Complain by phone and, if they bother to answer the phone, they say they will need to check something and ring you back which they never do. Go to a branch and the people will need to talk to the manager who has just popped out for breakfast. Standing orders and direct debits don't get paid, no notification of money leaving the account till after it's gone (this may not actually be the banks - it may be people like Telefonica and Iberdrola but I'm on a roll now so why can't I blame the banks?)

Standard bureaucracy going bananas I find vaguely amusing, the convoluted logic, the archaic processes - ah, Spain really is different but these bank people are robbing me of both time and money.