Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

As regular forum posters will know I am a big advocate of using Wise for currency exchange/transfers etc.

As I have had another dispute with Sabadell I am thinking of switching over completely to Wise

I am a full-time resident in Spain and need to pay the usual direct debits and twice a year AEAT - my question is to any full-time residents here

Are you using Wise only for all of your banking needs or are there any exclusions/problems with ditching a 'high street' bank and trying to use Wise for everything?

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

There was someone here recently saying that they had to have a Spanish bank to pay their tax and Wise wouldn't work. I am sure other people have pointed out problems when it comes to government direct debits.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

All your eggs in one basket? You might like to have more than one bank, I have accounts with Starling and Chase.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

thanks 1sexsmith - I thought I had seen that somewhere - anyone paying tax man via Wise?

thanks missile - didn't say I was putting all the eggs in one basket - never a good idea, just thinking of dumping Sabadell and subbing in Wise but wanted to know if there are any limitations with them (apart from paying the tax man)

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I have been thinking of doing the same, but because Wise is not yet a bank I cant have my private pension from the Uk paid to them. Nor can I pay my Spanish tax either.
The IBAN being a Belgium one is the issue as the number is a different length so no official site will accept them in Spain,

Although if you have a gestor or solicitor they can pay on your behalf (I believe) and you could then just transfer the money to them from wise...
I have to do this for the non res tax for my son as he has no bank presence here nor the digital cert to allow the tax office to debit me for the tax.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Yes it's true not all private pension providers will pay Wise - I have one that does and one that won't accept Wise which given that the UK government will pay into Wise I find ridiculous.

I mentioned it to Wise and they said they were prepared to talk to any pension provider to see what their problem is.

I had not considered the IBAN length before - I thought IBANs were acceptable to all and thought that was the point of it?

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Living in France,I just use Wise as a conduit for my pensions before moving them on to my French bank account.I only keep a couple of hundred pounds sterling in the multi currency account if I know that I am going to the UK as a fall back.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

When you look at Spanish only forms the IBAN has to be 24 digits the Wise one is only 16 (Belgium IBAN) because you leave blanks the computer cant understand.

Happens all over the world with different stuff.
Ive just spent 30mins on the phone to Brittany Ferries because their system doesn't allow Spanish car reg numbers to be put on a booking (UK, Irish and French yes) strange when they run routes to and from Spain...

Pension wise, mine is with Transact and they will ONLY pay to a Uk bank.. No other option, so Im having to keep the Uk account open....just for this...

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Revolut gives you a 24 digit IBAN with your euro account. I have just opened a basic free account with them for transferring money to Spain. Just tried it seems to work ok. They also give you a sort code and account number for sterling account.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

If it's "just what the computer wants" won't leading zeros do the trick? Or at the end?
Just to fill the space, like.

Many moons ago I remember working at the DWP (then DSS) and the bank numbers for one or two different financial institutions didn't work because the spaces didn't match. The tech department set something up that involved 2 or 3 numbers being added - not zeros and not the same ones for the different ones involved - to the first boxes.

That solved it.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I honestly wouldn't trust Wise with my life savings or even just use it as a current account to pay direct debits as they're not really a bank.

If you're willing to move to an Internet-only bank as Wise is, there are no shortage of Spanish banks, either Internet-only banks or normal banks offering an Internet account.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Getting a Spanish IBAN is quite easy by using N26 instead of Wise. As long as you set up your N26 account in Spain using local details (and NIE) then you will be allocated a Spanish IBAN.

But overall it's still not as "fully local" as regular Spanish accounts so no official stuff will work (wages/taxes/etc.), so for that you would need a separate (local) account. But you can set up local direct debits on N26 to pay for stuff like utility bills, car insurance, medical insurance, etc.

Are you certain Wise is not insured in any way? If so that is a major drawback though if push came to shove I think they would sooner be "taken over and saved" than allowed to go bust.

On a side note, N26 is an actual bank and states the following on their site: "N26 is a member of the German Deposit Guarantee Fund. The fund guarantees deposits up to 100,000 euros per account holder and entity."

I believe Revolut is also insured as they have a banking license in one of the Baltic states (Lithuania if I recall correctly?).

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I have only just opened an account with Revolut I did a trial exchange and transfer and was impressed with ease of use to transfer funds from UK bank into Revolut account , exchange and transfer, the transfer was very quick and rate was good. The account protection does in fact differ the UK account isn't covered under FSCS as with banks but is under "safeguarding " rules which I think is the same with Wise? The money held in the Euro account with Revolut is protected under the bank protection rules up to 100000 euros. So safer if holding money of any amount in the euro account than sterling account. The euro account is in Madrid with full Spanish IBAN and BIC, UK account is London with sort code and account number. I only want the account for transfers and mainly because I always used Currencyfair and liked that I could set a future rate and wait for it to meet that rate build up an amount and then make one transfer for 3 euros. However they recently stopped allowing that , now you have to deposit funds automatically exchange and transfer out immediately. Also their exchange rate is slightly lower than either Wise or Revolut. That's why I thought I would try Revolut.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

How our EU entity, Wise Europe SA, safeguards customer funds | Wise Help Centre
How do I use my EUR account details? | Wise Help Centre
Wise operates under Belgium law and conforms to all its financial instruments, and as WISE do not lend money, nor invest much and only in relatively safe institutions, they are not very vulnerable. An IBAN can be many different lengths and should be accepted by all other institutions, WISE can help if they don´t.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I concur. Talk to WISE customer services, they are very good and can probably help with this.
In my experience there is normally a trick for adjusting the IBAN, and the bank or financial institution can help you with this.

Regarding the UK, you can have a proper UK account with sort code etc, so it should not be a problem at all.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Seems that from this month Spain will now allow the payment of tax from foreign accounts
https://marosavat.com/spain-payments...bank-accounts/

But the account must be from an account from a bank operating within theSEPA zone.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I agree Wise customer services are excellent in my experience, helpful and quick to reply.

I had my Wise cashback payments today - The annualised cashback rate for the money you held with Wise in January 2024 is 2.28% for EUR, 3.31% for GBP

Very interesting news about paying the tax man - thanks Barriej

Don't we share some great stuff on this forum!

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I've had an account with La Caixa for over 20 years, also have my buildings insurance with them. They seem to be bending me over for various charges which have increased since Brexit, so I am tempted to move away from them. I've had a Wise FX account for a few years, I assume I'll need to get a full bank account with them - can you set up direct debits for IBI, agua, luz etc with Wise? Do they give you an ATM card to get cash if you need it?

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Yes you can apply for a card and use it with a multi currency account and it will automatically pay in the local currency and convert from your holding currency.So if you have your money in € and go top the UK and spend in £ the conversion will be done for you at a good rate.You get two free cash withdrawals per month after that you pay a small fee,so you do need to plan ahead a bit if you use cash regularly

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I think there is only one Wise account and it does all (and there are 'business accounts) but research more here -

https://wise.com/sg/blog/current-account-account-types

I have had the same account with them from day one and I do transfers, exchanges, and earn cashback and have a debit card with them. Currently, I don't have any direct debits.

Whether it can totally replace a 'normal' Spanish bank account was the point my thread and I think the jury is out - for no-fee Spanish bank accounts you either comply with their conditions (taking insurance, investments etc it varies) or go for one of the online-only such as Openbank (Santander) or now Sabadell are also pushing a new online-only account (new customers only)

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

ING has had an online account that can be both setup and closed down in the future with just a few clicks.

But you have to be a resident, an A4 paper from the copshop with the NIE will not suffice.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

The green (CUE) certificate is just fine.

As spainrico says, why not use one of the Spanish online accounts - there is even one for non-residents then you have no issues and no fees!

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Been with Caxia for 6 years and never paid 1c in charges!

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Online account for non-residents? Which one is that?

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I'm non-resident.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

More commission-free accounts listed here, a couple allow bank branches to be used.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

HolaBank (La Caixa) - there are commissions though.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I must say I am very impressed with Revolut topping up with pounds from UK bank is literally instantaneous as is exchanging to euro which is done at a very good exchange rate with no fee. Their app is easy to use and I think one could easily use them for banking in Spain. I have been using currencyfair for years but with recent changes Revolut beat them hands down better exchange rate and zero fee.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Wefferent from CajaMar

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

My wife has the wefferent account although she's resident and it works just as well as my standard Cajamar account . I have the standard Cajamar account as I've had it years and pay no fees as my state pension is paid into it. I do have a wefferent savings account.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Are you sure they still do non-residents?

When you click apply the first thing that shows up is:

You will need to:

• Have your DNI or resident card, valid and on hand.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

We have the BBVA online account. It has worked great for us for about 10 years and we have yet to pay any commissions. The website and mobile app work very well and can be set to English.

I'm not sure it works for non-residents, however.

- Eric S.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I don't know but the legal pack states "(residente o non-residente)"

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Strange, I've never had a problem entering Spanish numbers on the BF site.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I'm nearly sure my wife had to confirm she would be resident in Spain to open her wefferent account.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Neither have I.

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Its not just the reg number its asks for the country as well, you only get the three choices so I didnt bother trying to put the reg in.
Might try that and see what it does.

Just tried and it comes back with an error and tells me to phone them....

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

Looks like this might have changed as I just went to the website to apply for the account and one of the positions on the online form (Documento identidad) allows you to only choose between "NIF" and "TARJETA RESIDENTE."

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I see 4 countries in the drop down UK, Ireland, France Spain ........ obvious question did you scroll down when the drop down appeared :)

Re: Thinking of going fully to Wise
 

I booked via the Uk site as I paid with a Uk credit card..
I only get the choice of UK, Ireland, France no scroll down....
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...454de06de0.png