Barriej

Just a heads up if you didn't know.

As of 1st July Santander have converted their 'non resident' accounts to become 'world' accounts.

This has also added to the monthly charge for some reason and its now €16.00 a month.


The only way to get out of the charges is to.

Pay at least €600 a month into the account (has to be continuous)

And use the card on a regular basis.

Or deposit €25,000 into the account.


We went in today and changed ours to resident or the 'one account' which also requires the above but has a €20 a month charge unless you do as above.

Im sure some of the other banks will, or have already started doing this.

missile

What a rip off

DLC

As a non-resident there's not much you can do, as a resident you could hop across to Openbank which is Santander's online bank which has no commissions.

Fred James

To be fair, the banks are now getting almost zero interest on the money in your account due to current interest rates. In the past this is what paid your bank charges.

I have never really understood why Brits think that banking should be free.

Barriej

Ive never really had 'free' banking in the Uk as Ive always had a business account or paid a fee for 'extras' on my personal account.

What did annoy me was the rise from €12.00 in June to €16.00 in July just because they renamed the account 'world' for non residents.

As to swapping for the online version at Santander, we asked about that but its only free in Spain and the EU. If you pop to the UK and use the card there are charges (but not for any of the other Santander cards worldwide)

We ended up swapping accounts to the 'One' account which will (when we can start travelling again) give us free travel insurance, air miles and other benefits for €20 a month waived once my person starts arriving in a month or so and we use the cards at least 12 times a month.