amideislas

I never use UK banks for transfers abroad. The fees and exchange rates are extortionate.

But the reverse isn't same. Sending money from my LaCaixa account to the UK from my online banking is brain-dead easy, fast (within 24hrs), and relatively cheap.

I conduct all transfers originating in the UK through my Oanda account. No fees and nearly interbank exchange rates. But Oanda is not a transfer service. It's an FX trading platform, and it's a lot more complicated to set up initially than a regular transfer service, so if you aren't trading currencies, it's not for you.

But for small transfers, PayPal is instantaneous, easier, and not anywhere near as expensive as a bank.

Bri and Katee

FINALLY, FINALLY!

We have managed to close the Torrevieja account- after presenting ourselves like naughty schoolchildren in front of the manager, he sat behind his desk while we had to stand!

He wasn't happy we wanted to close it just because we are 80kilometres away from his branch! But he did close it, after presenting NIE's and passports and a utility bill to prove our spanish address.

He would not refund the 138€ they took in charges between July last year and the present- that was our fault for opening a new account before closing his.

Then just to add insult to injury another charge of 12.32€ for processing the request!

But all sorted now and maybe we will get better service at the new branch

Bri and Katee

I forgot to add he told us we are also liable for our debit card charges from September to present. We were dumbfounded as he had just cut our debit cards into pieces- dated expiry 2009 which is when they ran out. we argued until we were going round in circles at this, we told him they expired in 2009 and we had never been issued with replacements, even though he had charged us each year for them.

His answer? take it up with Madrid, it is they who send out the cards!

Mitzyboy

It doesnt surprise me. They have no one to answer to that would be on your side, without going through loads of hassle and grief, and it's probably just not worth it :-)

Dick Dasterdly

Going through a similar experience with BBVA who have been robbing me blind despite always having my account well into credit.

Thought I'd finally be rid of them today and took everything in except the kitchen sink, but still no joy.

Tomorrow I'm tempted to go in c/w the kitchen sink and wrap it round some barstewards neck.

nyosito

The reason we all have problems is because they are not very smart everywhere you go.
They will tell you a different story from branch to branch because the have no clue whats going on.Its what i call brainlessssss!!!!!

nyosito

And let me explain why:
I have an account with BBVA and i just changed my phone number.
Im doing wire transfers thru the internet and they have to send me an SMS with a code
if the wire transfer is over100 euros.Now i went to change my phone number, to two different branches.After spending about two hours with no result because siesta time came and the banksters in Spain where exhausted from a long day of work(2.15 pm closing)
i went to a third branch the next day where they realized that i have to go back to the person that opened the account in order to change my phone number.Thanks god i was only 15 min away and not in Australia or India.
So i went the next day to the only person that could do that and save me! After 30 min she could not changed the number in her system so she was going to email the corporate people at BBVA because this was an unprecedented event that they never encounter.
She said it will take a few hours, just like the word manana! And it did like manana , i finally got an email after 3 weeks yes correct 3 WEEEKS! just this morning saying that they had to change my user number and i should use the password that was send thru the SMS in order to access my account with the new phone number reflecting the change.
And guess what.........................
Voila now nothing works not even my old user and password!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Taking about dumb , the spaniards have to make top of the list for me!



P.S Im glad im leaving this country in about a month after a one year stint, too bad ts beautiful , and weather is great but you have to be a caveman to survive

amideislas

Far be it from me to defend Spain, but what most people have to get used to is that there is a completely different "life rhythm" here. And the ones who hate it the most are the usually the ones who expect everything abroad to be just like in England (as if it's the "foreign" country that's the exception).

I know a few people who fit that description, and they whinge incessantly about how horrible and un-British everything is here, and frankly, completely miss out on the best things this country has to offer.

But oddly, despite how uncomfortable it is for them, they never seem to go home. At least you have the sense to do that.

nyosito

I'm sorry to rain on your parade but it's not about the life rytm here is about doing your job that you are appointed to do in the level of work that you get paid to perform. We are in the 21 first century and i travel to many countries but God help me they seem that all they care here is just for the siesta to come and the day to pass , they don't want to put the extra effort in anything they do and people waste time because of that day after day

amideislas

No parade. It explains a lot about Spain's historical inability to compete on the world stage.

But as I recently mentioned on another thread, you should've seen what it was like a decade ago. Anything 'official' could be expected to take weeks or months. It wasn't unusual to be without telephone for days, even weeks at a time. Electricity would go out for a while every few days. Wait in a queue at the supermarket whilst the checkout girl chats with her boyfriend. Take your car to the garage and wait 6 weeks for repairs, and nobody would bother to call you when the cost of repairs ended up being triple what they estimated - you'd get that surprise when you pick up the car. And the full tank you brought it in with would be empty, too. And the bank.. forget it.

Then there was guaranteed employment, 3 people doing the work of one, not much incentive to serve customers, and in general, customers didn't mind the inconvenience - it had always been that way anyway.

But it's improved radically. By comparison, it's like the 20th century now.

Dick Dasterdly

Well let's hope that whatever improvement there may have been, is not solely down to the desperate job situation and the fact that staff now have enough time to actually serve customers in between rabbiting to their pals on the phone.

Dick Dasterdly

Under the circumstances methinks this funny little clip is overdue for an airing.

Dick Dasterdly

"Passing the Buck" another typical Spanish ploy ?

To go back to my own BBVA problem, I was advised at two different branches that I could only close my account at the branch where it was opened, so six weeks back I made a 300km round trip to that particular branch only to be informed they had problems with the system and were unable to do it on the day.

Having made further enquiries I was reliably informed that I should be able to close the account at any BBVA branch, however yesterday they tried the same thing on again, until I told them i could close the account at any branch and further gave them a phone number where this could be confirmed.

Suffice to say they didn't argue this point further and I think all along they had known that this was the case and were simply passing the buck to avoid work or inconvenience to themselves.
Anyway as previously mentioned there was still yet another piece of red tape blocking completion, so after a few more days to steady my nerves I'll be back again giving it another go next week.
I should be used to it by now after more than twenty years but I confess even now there are times when my patience is still stretched to the limit and beyond.

Eric S

Interesting. I also have an account with BBVA and I do everything online. I also needed to change my phone number where they send the SMS code. And I was able to do that online. You just go into your profile and change the number. It only took a couple of minutes.

The only trick was that to change the phone number in your profile, they also send an SMS code. So I had to have the old phone number available at the time. For me it was the same physical phone, just a new SIM. So I had to do a little bit of SIM switching to complete the process. But again, it worked fine and only took a couple of minutes from the comfort of my own home.

The thing I like about their SMS thing is that they will even send the text message to a U.S. phone number.

- Eric S.

amideislas

I was also a bit confused by this. I don't have a BBVA account, but LaCaixa, and you can do just about anything online. Really. It's one of the things I find refreshing about European banks as compared to UK banks.

However, I'd agree that visiting a branch for any matter often yields less desirable results. But it depends on the branch.

Just for the record, I also have UK accounts and German accounts - and the latter is equally a doddle to use and virtually any banking function can be conducted online. Banking with the former is quite limited by comparison, especially when it comes to anything not specifically UK-centric.