Longlegpete

I use TransferWise now, so it costs me around around £3.50 per €750 monthly transfer but it's cheaper than the daylight robbery that is Sabadells €18 min fee!

Lynn R

I use Currencyfair who charge a flat €3 fee no matter how much is transferred, there haven't been any charges from Sabadell for either of the transfers I've made in January and February.

EsuriJohn

We have used currency fair for many years now for large transfers excellent service. They are headquartered in Dublin so inside the EU and seem to have a strong connection to Australia and give world wide coverage.

snikpoh

It's not just Sabadell but all (most?) banks if the funds come from outside the EU.

Don't just blame Sabadell - it's across the entire EU and always has been

jackteet

I bank with sabadell and like the rest of you have been charged €18.00 for each transfer from the uk. Strangely enough my last uk state pension arrived on the 2nd of March and to date there has been no deduction of fees.
Previously the €18.00 cahrge was applied the day following the transfer. As all banking is computerised I cant put this down to a mistake so have Sabadell decided to comply with the banking regs.
I shall be most interested to know whether anyone else is free from charge since the 1st of March.

Red Eric

Is it possible that UK State Pension payments to residents of EU member states are made from, or routed through, an institution situated inside the EU and are thus not identifiable as originating in the UK?

Or was your State Pension included in payments previously subject to that receiving charge?

jackteet

Hi Red Eric, yes my state pension was subject to the €18.00 charge in both January and February this year. I have another theory which is really quite stupid. I have opened an account with N26 and I made a small payment on my Sabadell debit card to N26 to get the account up and running. That payment was made the day after my state pension arrived in my account. Have Sabadells computers been programmed to pick up on any transfers to other banks which could signify the opening of an alternative bank account. As payments are picked out the computer does not charge for a uk transfers. No doubt OTT but just a thought.

astera

Just thought I'd double-check here regarding the info I've read on various sites about having to operate a Spanish bank account when living in Spain in order to deal with local payments (gov't, utilities, etc.).

Is this actually the case? If so does something like N26 work as an alternative since they offer you a Spanish IBAN, or do you still have to get a proper Spanish account from one of the local banks on top of that?

jackteet

N26 is a proper bank account. I have an account with them and I have all the facilities offered by all other banks.

Barriej

From what Ive seen on the web, at the moment you can only get a Spanish IBAN from N26 when you apply from Spain with a Spanish address. Otherwise they were giving you a German one.
Their website does state that they are working on changing this.

You will however have setup your DD to the electric, water, IBI, etc manually as they wont do this for you (again at the moment) and some may not like a German IBAN. Again as a non resident people just use Uk accounts, and suffer the bad exchange rates given.
I do know that I could not pay my road tax this month from anywhere other than my Spanish bank account. (which is weird because you dont have to be resident to own a car here) and all my UK accounts have the Spanish address as my home address.

I run a Spanish Santander account and its free to operate as long as I have €700 a month transferred (or have an insurance policy). Otherwise its €12.00 a month.
Silly thing is, making a transfer from UK Santander to Spain costs money. And from memory if you are transferring from anywhere outside the EU it will cost.

Most of us here use either Wise (was transfer wise) or XE as you can move money from almost anywhere for next to nothing. Very few do bank to bank transfers as the exchange rates are usually rubbish.
UK OAP can be paid direct and does not incur a charge (I think it gets routed through an EU clearing house).

Think is, unless you are a tourist or non resident, I can't see why you would not have a local account. Its got to be easier when living here to go local (although we went into Iceland near Benidorm last week and the checkout lady asked us if the bank card was UK or Spanish) So lots do still continue with Uk cards only.

jackteet

I am a resident and had an account with Sabadell. Since 1st of January most Spanish banks have started charging a fee for money transfers from the uk. N26 does everything that Sabadell did but for free. I think in time spanish banks will increase their charges for account maintenance. I have no complaints about N26.

snikpoh

Why not go with a "proper" Spanish bank but get one of their online accounts - these are completely FREE.

Wefferent, imagin, openbank, BBVA online, etc.

UKMS

I'm late to this one ..... but to bring it back up to date ....... I have transferred into Sabadell from UK via Wise (TransferWise) in Euros using Wise to make the exchange and have not been charged anything as the transfer comes from an EU IBAN. I've done this since January once a month with no issue. Im seriously considering the future of my Sabadell account anyway for other reasons and moving everything to Wise or Revolut. I use Revolut a lot in the Middle East and have found them to be very good with no issues.

DLC

The only problem with these is you have to be a resident in Spain to open one.

jackteet

In what way is N26 not a "proper" bank. Presumably you would consider them to be "proper" if they had offices in every town. Reason for no longer being with an established bank is discussed in this thread.