Libbylj

Good morning,
We are renting a place for two years in Competa but only using it as a holiday home. Possibly come for a week or ten days per month when UK commitments allow.

We have an NIE number (Jan '16) and T the same time opened a Spainsh bank account as we were advices this would be a good idea.

We tried to use the account over the weekend to no avail. Just been into the branch and apparently it has been frozen until we provide proof of income from UK.

Is this right? We do not live here?

They won't release the funds we have in the account until we show proof

just wondered if anyone has had to do this?

Thanks as always

bobd22

You should have a non resident bank account? Whereby every 2 years you have to pay the bank an amount to confirm your residency status is still non resident and provide authorities with a certificate to that affect, I think we pay around 30 euro for this. The only time you need to prove income is to become resident or sign on foreigners register to stay over 90 days. You either have the wrong type of account I.e. a resident one or have not complied with non resident certificate rule? Our bank Cajamar simply send us a letter to sign every 2 years for this. You need to confirm with the bank.

Mark604

Libby, I am also with Unicaja. I had the same problem last week. It seems we are not the only ones and, many if not all have been temporarily blocked by the Spanish central bank. It is something to do with money laundering.
To unblock it I went in with a printed copy of my UK bank account statement and that was sufficient. They unblocked it there and then.

A German friend also had the same problem and took in a statement (in German) which she already had that detailed her taxes and earnings from the previous year. The bank couldn't understand it because of the language but accepted it anyway.
I think they are not too bothered and just need "something", as I was told, to show for it plus the bank tellers are getting a bit fed up (mine said) with having to sort all this out. It's not just expats but Spanish as well.

Mark604

Forgot to mention - as you are not in Spain so often and if you haven't done so already, but you can get access to your Unicaja bank account over the internet so as to monitor it. I made the mistake of not having enough money in there when a water bill came due and the water was subsequently cut off. I then had to pay a lot extra to get it reconnected.
There was a section on the Unicaja website, I can't remember if it was in English or not, whereby you apply for internet access. A week or so later I had to go in to my branch for them to give me my password etc.