xxfrecklesxx

My friend went into all the local banks in the village 3-4 months ago to open an account and was also told he could not open one without a work contract...

Madness....

megmet

I opened both a La Caixa and a Barclays account with just my passport and NIE number.

*Dom*
How did you get La Caixa to stop charging you.....I'm retired but still paying?

Domino

Meg, when I went in to open the account I discussed what monies would be coming in and that I was going to have my pension paid in. The guy said "just come in and see me when it is your birthday and I will change your account to a "pensionista" and you will pay no charges"

I have to assume that even in Spain, like most things in life, you have to ask to get - they don't have an automatic changeover when you reach pension age.
Now wouldn't that be a novel use for a computer, perhaps I ought to patent the idea.


hope this helps
kr

scampicat

We opened our account with just passports and then changed it to a residence account latyer; however this was in 2003. No regular money coming in, other than what I transferred from England.

This was with Caja Granada, which has just merged with some other Cajas in a bid to keep going.

The nearest bank to where we lived that is not Caja Granada or Caja Rural is a forty minute drive away so not a lot of choice!

If you have a bigger bank near you, I would try one of those, but not Bankia!

RyanChapa

We finally managed to open a bank account today. Thank you everyone for all the help and support, very much appreciated!

In case anyone would like to know for future reference we went to LaCaixa on Colón (just down the road from the Metro). The man was very helpful and spoke very good English. We only needed passports and a UK address, did not even need money to open the account which was a nice surprise. Our card will arrive in-store in 7 days. The whole thing took at max. 15 minutes! Very pleased!

Thanks again all!

amideislas

Glad it all worked out (this is how it's 'sposed to be).

Stick with me. I'll show ya 'round...

RyanChapa

Haha, I agree!

Thanks again!

pixieve

Glad you got one with La Caixa....they are the best! I got one on the spot with just my passport too And the guy spoke good english!

davidinspain

Just be careful as to the charges.There are a couple of Spanish banks who are now operating free accounts.Mine have just switched me to a new free account all they want is regular incoming payments,so it's goodbye to the 15 euros a year for a debit card and the quarterly maintenance.

grahunt

Hi Ryan

Most banks are insisting on having a NIE number now after an edict from the Banco de España about not opening accounts si passports. The exceptions I know in Valencia are the Catalunya Caixa on Calle de las Barcas (ask for Paco as he speaks English) and the Cam if you can stomach them. There is an English speaker Quique in Lliria at the Cam who is really friendly.
They both accept opening an account with just a passport.
Santander, La Caixa, Barclays, BBVA will not at least in Valencia

megmet

Thanks for that Dom I have to call in this week so will see what they have to say about it.

Not only do I have two pensions paid into La Caixa, I was one of those people they conned into putting a large amount of money into what has turned out to be shares and not the higher interest savings account I thought it was being invested in.....
In the eighteen months it's been there it's showing a sizable loss.
In hind sight I would have been better going on a huge spending spree, at least that way I'd have something to show for it.

grahunt

Whoops just saw your post Ryan. Well now I have another one and La Caixa is a little more stable than the CAM. I tried La Caixa on the corner of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento two months ago with a client and no dice

Domino

sorry to hear you are currently running at a loss...

all these years the only thing I got involved in was British Gas as they were giving us something for free so I put some of my money in as well.
have sat back and wondered what life would have been like if I had invested in shares but with hindsight think I would have been on the negative as well

Put some money into Halifax, said I wanted it to be "safe but accessible" ended up in a savings account - seemed alright until I found out the hard way it was only paying 1% and when I wanted some of the money to pay for the move to Spain they had a branch limit of about £2000 for cash withdrawals. The only thing it will let me do - other than cash withdrawal at an ATM is to transfer into my LTSB current acct - it won't even let me pay my LTSB credit card.
Talk about joined up writing, and they claim to be a bank !!

timmyf

i opened one with sabadell atlantico over the internet and they even have an english speaking telephone line

z0s0

Getting the same run-around here in Barcelona. Have NIE, and they're telling me (well Barclays and Santander so far) that I need a work contract. WTF?

Will keep shopping around I guess.