Loco Pedro

We are about to change banks for the fifth time in 7 years. Fickle - you may well think but we're just tired of being ripped off.
Every one of them has moved the goalposts after we've been with them for a while.
It seems that the fundamental criterion for not paying all their exorbitant charges is a monthly salary/pension/whatever paid direct to the account.
That's fine if you're a pensioner in receipt of one but if you bring money over in suitable sized tranches according to the current exchange rate, you get bored, screwed and countersunk up the wazoo for everything they can think of.
We are early retirees so our monthly income is "nada".
So the question to all my wise compatriots is "Is there a bank here that doesn't require a monthly income and still offers free banking, cards, etc..?"
If so, PLEASE tell me who it is.

bob_day

We popped into Cajamar last week to pay our taxes. We paid in cash, well it was only a few euros each as we don't have a bank account with a 'proper' spanish bank. So the guy behind he counter asks us if we would be interested in opening an account and handed us a few flyers. One o which says that zero charges for account maintenance, debit cards, standing orders and wire transfers. Nothing on the flyer about having to have a regular income paid into the account. Which would scupper it for us as we don't receive any regular income being early retirees.

Might be worth further investigation.

Tolly

we send over money when the rate is good in chunks, but have opened a savings account into which it all goes, and then that drip feeds our current account each month, thus ensuring the required monthly amount goes into the account.

I have also found that developing a good relationship with the manager of the branch is key to minimising / removing fees! - in my opinion this is definately worth the effort.

Fred James

Absolutely agree!

Our manager is always extremely helpful and when they recently increased the charges for paying in UK cheques a brief conversation got it all revoked to the old charges!

Bri and Katee

I can empathise with you, just take a look at one or two of my posts to see how we have been and still are being royally screwed by Banesto. Only have to get through to this years tax being withdrawn and we are closing the account and moving branches.

I get a charge every two months, just for having current account, guess what? Yep my wife also gets the same charges even though its a joint account! Each time they pay a water or electricity bill we get charged, yep two charges because its a joint account! Our bank manager doesn't want to know. We have even been charged for having a debit card each for the last two years, yep we haven't had new ones since the old ones expired in 2009. The list goes on and on.

Fred James

There seems to be a feeling amongst British customers of banks that having a bank account should be free.

Why should such a service be free?

Traditionally it has been free in the UK but we now see why when we see the profits made from overdraft charges and miss selling of loan insurance.

Maybe the Spanish banks have a simpler business model - they just charge for all their services but don't rip you off with £25 overdraft letters every day and with huge premiums for insurance you don't need.

Please discuss!

Hillybilly

I've been happy with my bank, Banco de Andalucia now Banco Popular. No charges, no regular deposits as such and I use a currency transfer co (Currencies Direct) for bringing money over, UK to Spain - no charges for that.
I wish they'd stop sending individual slips for every single transaction though...often more than one arrive on the same day, all in separate envelopes...paper mountain or what...

Edit: they charge for paying in cheques but what the hell...don't get many of them!

Tolly

We are with solbank, an are very happy with them, if i see any charges on the account that i feel are not right, i email our bank manager and he either explains what they are for or (more often) removes/reduces them. I get no charges for paying money in, Direct debits or moving money between acounts, there is a charge for depositing a cheque, but he has reduced it to a minimum.

In terms of service i cannot fault them, they are friendly and responsive, our bank manager even organised for his brother to pay a bill for me (i did a transfer to pay him back) when i screwed up and forgot to organise to pay it via direct debit - can't imagine that happening in my UK bank

licinius

I can't praise Solbank highly enough, a thousand times better than any UK bank.

missile

This topic has been discussed several times. I suggest OP searches for those posts.

We enjoy free banking and 3% cash back on direct debits with Barclays.es

John and Elaine

I have a friend who had a sterling deposit account with Sol Bank. Great service, very helpful, until :-

When the time came to renew the investment the rate had fallen so he decided to move the money to another bank. He asked what would be the most efficient/cheapest way to do that. He was told no matter how he transferred the money, whether to a bank in Spain, UK or elsewhere it would cost 0.4% on the total. He said they bank charged over 600 euro on the £160,000.

So Sol Bank, a great bank, I don't think so.

scampicat

We each get a charge of 15 euros a year with Caja Granada, but no other charges. Like the OP, we import money in chunks and don't have a regular income going into it (both our Pensions go into UK banks). We have Direct Debits going out of it, other than that we only use the Cashpoint. There is a charge if you use another Bank's cashpoint. It also has Internet Banking.

I understand that if you chose a 'Caja' rather than a 'Banco' then they are more like Building Societies used to be in the UK and there are nowhere as many charges.

Rotor

I agree, Solbank are probaly the best in Spain for guiri`s ,for me just the same as my UK Barclays ,never a problem.

Rotor

I agree they are good but not that good, Solbank are probaly the best in Spain for guiri`s ,for me just the same as my UK Barclays ,never a problem.

Loco Pedro

I've been to Banco Santander this morning. They've offered a current account with debit card free of all charges.
The qualifying criterion is that I invest a minimum of 1000 euros in a deposit account each year until I reach 65.
Ok - so 3.5 years to go = 4000 euros investment.
That's doable.
Does anyone have experience of this account ?