el collado kid

We were charged the minimum of 18€ fees or more for each GBP credit they made from the UK to Sabadell even from before Brexit happened. And we had an Expansion account with Sabadell with no fees for a minimum credit each month of 700€. They said the law had changed when I challenged this and so I wrote via email threatening to close the account and since March 01 the fees have stopped.

I also needed to open a new bank account to transfer GBP to Sabadell as Marks and Spencer is closing all their banks and as we are not living there it made it very difficult. So yesterday I opened a free Revolut account in 5 minutes, on my mobile giving face ID, copy of passport and had my ID verified, a virtual debit card supplied and made a transfer instantly from my existing UK M and S bank account within minutes with no fees. The account is held in any currency you want too so makes paying people anywhere in the world very easy. Its worth considering.

Longlegpete

So are you saying Sabadell are not charging you for transfers from your Euro Revolut account to your Sabadell account?

UKMS

My recent experience has been Sabadell haven’t charged me if the transfer has come from an EU IBAN …. Non of which have been Spanish.

UKMS

ive been running a Revolut account side by side with a Wise account ….. I’m finding Revolut a pretty good fit my use case living in the Middle East but with interests in the UK and Spain. The only thing to keep in mind is that everything with Revolut runs from a single IBAN (even though you have funds in different currencies) rather than the localised accounts you get with Wise. If you register for Revolut from the UK I think you get a GB IBAN …. Register from Spain you wil get an EU IBAN which will obviously have an impact transfering into Sabadell.

Longlegpete

That's exactly right, hence Revolut is no good if your in the UK sending money to Spain because you now incur charges from the receiving bank

UKMS

I fully understand that but not everyone sending money from UK banks is based in the UK hence I posted the info. My understanding is that Revolut are soon to be making changes to enable you to have an IBAN of choice regardless of where you are based. If you register from the UK you can actually change your base country afterwards to an EU location. Im not sure what info they need because I don't actually recall providing anything beyond my passport (I could be wrong). If you go for an account with a physical card they will deliver it almost anywhere in the world regardless of your registered address.

At the moment Wise solves the problem if you are based in the UK as you get a Belgian IBAN and no charges from Sabadell.

Lagoo

That would be great. Earlier this year I asked about changing my address and they said that Spain was a country where this wasn't possible - can't remember why - and I'd have to close my account and reopen another.

Can I ask where you got that understanding from? I'd like to know when we are able to change address. Thanks

astera

Seems like N26 is key here for those who don't want to set up a local bank account. Maybe I'm just overly worried that Spain could be a bit like Malta, where banks are unprofessional and the account opening procedure is a circus - it literally depends on whether the person at the branch feels like filling out forms on any given day (or maybe lunchtime is drawing near), otherwise it's sayonara and any of 101 excuses to get you out the door.

My only concern with N26 is that they want tax details during registration and those (Spanish ones) won't be available for a while, hence a delay to... opening the N26 account itself. And if you use current address/info then... you won't have a Spanish IBAN assigned.

But at the end of the day it seems like a combination of N26, Wise and Revolut (or possibly even all three?) is a good way to be prepared for all scenarios, from local payments with a Spanish IBAN to cross-border transfers and international expenditures when travelling.

Loafing Along

See the German Financial authorities doing a special monitoring of N26 as they don't like their internal controls ..In the financial press yesterday - they had a similar problem in the past.

https://www.complianceweek.com/regul.../30374.article

Barriej

To be honest I think the Banks here are no less professional than in the Uk, in fact Ive had better experiences here. And in fact its nice to actually talk to someone face to face. We visited a couple of different banks before settling on Santander and all of them were helpful in explaining non resident accounts and what they expected of us.
I have the direct email and phone number of the nice lady who helped open the account and the manager and have emailed them a couple of times to ask questions and always had a response within 24hrs. (I send the email in English with a google translated to Spanish but always get a reply in English), its a big branch as well (the one in Albir)

You can open an account online with banks all over the world, you only need to go in person to confirm your ID and to pick up cards etc (both things that can be done easily whilst on holiday if you want) I opened my account during a holiday in 2017 as we were spending more time here and the exchange rates using a Uk card were rubbish. I think you can even supply some documents digitally these days.

I have an account with Barclays in Barbados that Ive had since 1983 (not been back since 2012) but the account still runs and I pay a subscription out of it. I opened this by phone and presented my passport when I went there for work.
I also have no issue with a monthly fee either as someone has to pay for the services that these places offer (they are a business after all)

DLC

You walk in, show your residency card, and get an account.

N26 seems to have most of the services that Spanish banks have now, the problem is they suspend accounts without warning and don't give any reason why.

snikpoh

I know non-residents with them

UKMS

Specifically which banks ?

Barriej

All the high street ones here have non res accounts. And ours still are only because I haven't bothered to go in and change it yet.
We didn't have an address here when we opened ours.
I went into Santander, Sabbadell, BBVA all of them would have opened an account for me.

Online wise, its different you open the account in the country you live, I dont think any of them have a 'borderless non res account' as you get tied to the countries IBAN that you applied for or chose from a list.

Could be wrong here but I doubt there is a truly borderless account anywhere due to banking rules being different in almost every country in the world.

avionisto

I think "WISE" bank is one of the best options for people who receive their income in sterling and need to exchange it to euros and transfer the euros to a Spanish bank account. It is an online bank with accounts in a number of countries. I can log on to my UK bank account, transfer pounds to my Wise sterling account, then logon to Wise, convert the pounds to euros and transfer them to my Spanish bank account. Wise sends the euros from a Belgian bank so there are no Spanish bank charges to receive my euros. From start to finish, transferring euros to my Spanish bank account takes about 2 minutes. Wise provides a good smartphone app making the process easy. You can also set up DDebits to pay regular bills (utilities, Suma, etc) from a Wise account which, for some people, might obviate the need for a Spanish bank account at all. The overall cost of exchanging and transferring money from the UK to Spain using Wise is the among the best available currently.

They also offer a debit card (offering excellent exchange rates) which can be used in countries all over the world.