stevesainty

We gat hauled into our bank today for a 'review'.

Whilst we were there the subject of us moving to Spain came up and we were told about the so called Spanish arm of Lloyds banking group. Apparently Lloyds TSB/Banco Hispano (Halifax) have joined to become Lloyds Bank international. www.Lloydsbank.es

We were not told much about it because the staff have only just started getting literature.
Free banking if you keep 600 euros or just 25 euros per year with no other fees for transfers, paying bills, standing orders, DD's, withdrawals etc.
Apparently they are linked to the Servired atm's.

Has anyone any knowledge of them? Are they any good? Any pitfalls?
Can anyone confirm/deny the information we were given?

Mama_Carol

We have an account with Lloyds here in Spain (we still have a Lloyds account in UK)

We have now switched to Sol bank as Lloyds have so few branches. There was a branch in central Alicante but that is now closed and our nearest branch is now in Calpe. That is quite a way from us.

We are going to close the Lloyds account but we need to drive to Calpe to do so.

snikpoh

We are with Banco Halifax Espana (now Lloyds) and would NOT recommend them.

Their branches seem to be very few and far between.

Maybe it's because we have always had to deal with them by 'phone that we really feel we get a very bad service.

missile

I do most of my banking online. Nevertheless, as others have said, having a branch close to home is important to me. I use LLoyds in the UK and I use Barclays.es in spain.

jackytoo

Years ago Natwest was in Spain and they had a branch in every major town on the CDS. Charges were small and paying in a sterling cheque was free with full business exchange rate. They pulled out of Spain and we were in Solbank by default..not for long

Dxf

Hi

I have had a Halifax (uk & Spain) since 2002. The exchange rate used to be good and it was simple to move money with what they called "transparency". But now it´s owned by Lloyds the exchange rate is a rip off. But it is still useful for a backup, and the servired network is OK to draw cash out

Davexf

megmet

I do all my banking online too!
I'm with Barclay's in the UK and Barclays.es and La Caixa here.
Both banks have staff who speak good English, and Barclay's especially has many branches here in southern Spain, something that's quite handy if you need to go in for any reason.

EsuriJohn

Read somewhere at the weekend that Barclays es were about to close a lot of branches in Spain.

Chiclanagir

I would bank with them if it would help you to get a UK loan. Just my personal gripe.

guesswork

I have been with Banco Halifax ( now Lloyds for 4 years) My nearest branch is 100 miles away but as I do internet banking this is not a problem.

I would not use them for transferring money from UK to Spain between accounts as the rate is very poor.

Statements and all Payment advice notifications come through the post regular and without to much delay.

Overall I have no problems with them

megmet

Yes I read that too!
As in many of the coastal towns they have two or three branches I suspect it will be some of those that close.

Rotor

As far as I can see all the banks with UK names in Spain are only connected in name! they appear to be franchised and have no real connection with your UK bank ,remember Spanish banking law is totally different than in the UK and this can sometimes catch expats out!

Dick Dasterdly

Thats the way I've always understood it,though I don't think it applies in all cases.

stevesainty

Thank you for all your comments. I think that as long as I don't use Lloyds in Spain for any transactions that involve currency exchange £-euros I should be ok. After all there is nothing to stop us from changing banks once we are established in Spain.
We will probably be using an FX company to forward plan our sterling transfers other than OH state pension. We will probably leave our savings in UK until we need them, ie if we decide to buy rather than rent, if we can find a bank that will a) give us a reasonable rate of interest and b) pay that interest gross.
One advantage of using Lloyds would be we could open up the account before we move and using Lloyds UK to do it. I think that if Lloyds UK have actually told us about Lloyds ES then there must be some link there other than a franchise as some posters have suggested.
Given some of the horror stories posted about DD utility bills we will try and pay as we go in cash/cheque/debit card rather than set up DD.

EsuriJohn

All the UK badged banks are wholly owned subsiduaries of the group holding company but due to the aformentioned differing legislation operate as free standing entities. This makes them seem totally different to the UK counterpart. Santander seems to be the one that bucks this trend and certain of their UK cards have distinct advantage when used in Spain. The IT platform is standardised throughout the world so you should recognise you statement whichever side of the bank you are with.

I have my State Pension paid by DWP direct to my account here every four weeks which leaves me at the mercy of the market ie 1.2 last month 1.13 this but it is the very best rate avaiable at any point in time and there are no additional charges. I think that difference is the largest we have seen from month to month in 5yrs but then we have had an Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear leak and a couple of wars!!!!

It works well for the account which pays our very few DDs but for major transfers we do that ourselves when the market is good and get prices from two or three brokers to see which is sharpest and change more than £5000 at a time to avoid charges.

With regard to DDs be very carefull they operate differently in Spain they seem impossible to stop and if do you beware of the retaliation by the providor. If I could I would not have any but you are led to believe that for electricity, water, phone and mobile you have to, this is apparently not true but difficult to avoid. Also if you are not in Spain 100% of the time you can be cut off if you miss even by a short period.