Canouan4ever

Hola all,

Quick question to ask, does anyone here have their private pension or income paid into a Wise account which they then use to live in Spain?

From what I understand pensions can be paid into the Wise account and due it to being a mutli currency account with a Euro IBAN account number, you can also set up direct debits for all the spain monthly payments to be made.

Does anyone here actually do this, rather than forwarding UK money to a spanish account?

Would love to hear if anyone does do this and your thoughts on currency conversion fees of doing Wise versus tradition UK to spanish account every month.

spainrico

I have been using Wise for around 3 years now without problems - but no I do not have my pensions paid directly in because I have had my Lloyds account for more years than I care to remember so those arrangements have been in place for a long time and I cannot see any benefit of changing them.

But I do believe using Wise is one of the cheapest quickest and easiest ways of exchanging and moving money

https://wise.com/gb/compare/

Joppa

One thing about Wise, N26 etc with Spanish IBAN but not actually a Spanish bank is you cannot use it to pay your Spanish income tax (renta or IRPF) direct, as Spanish tax office (Agencia Tributaria) doesn't accept non-Spanish bank for direct debit. It means once or twice a year (if you opt to pay your tax in instalment, by end of June and by end of November), you have to pay your tax in cash at any bank branch, which can be thousands of euros depending on your tax situation.

spainrico

Interesting point - what about using a transfer as against direct debit?

also - what about local taxes IBI etc?

Barriej

As pointed out you can't pay Spanish income tax via anything other than a Spanish bank. And it's surprisingly easy to do this with a proper bank account with a digital sig.

To be honest if resident I can't see why you would want to pay utilities etc from anywhere other than a Spanish bank. Also using local services via a local bank is what builds your credit rating here unlike the US and UK where its loans etc.

Non resident not a problem for IBI and utilities from any bank.

I only use wise to move the private pension that can only be paid to a UK bank to my Santander Spain account.
And the santander resident account is free anyway if you transfer €650 a month, have a couple of DD and use the card a couple of times a month.

tebo53

Going back to the original question, I have just asked my private pension Company to pay my monthly private pension payment through my Wise account as I want to close my Barclays UK account. I will update on this subject as soon as I see my first deposit into my Wise account.

Steve

UKMS

Ive got my Wise account linked to a stock plan and regularly push US$ into it and convert from there. So no reason your pension wouldn’t work in the same way. As for the exchange rates I think you’ll find that Wise will always beat letting a Spanish bank do the conversion (as has been mentioned already).

For anyone considering Wise also worth considering Revolut, I’ve found them fractionally better on £ to € exchange recently.

Barriej

I spoke with my private pension provider who said it was unable to do this as it was only regulated in the Uk since Brexit and was unable to pay to anything other than a UK account
(the bank change details wouldn't allow me to put a non Uk Iban in) I tried this a couple of days ago with my wise account and its Belguim IBAN (I don't have a Uk IBAN with this account)
For reference my pension is with Transact.

tebo53

I have the same problem with one of my pension providers that they will only pay to a UK IBAN number. However, when I signed up with the Wise Bank account on their app I was issued with a UK IBAN which I forwarded to my pension company. They seem to have accepted the new bank details.

Steve

UKMS

You can create a GB IBAN in Wise then just have the pension paid to the GB IBAN and then flip into euros as and when you want ?

anagerbera

Hello. Excuse me... is that right that the UK pension can only be paid into a UK bank account? Could you say what kind of pension it is, if you don't mind? I am going to claim the Teacher's Pension and I am concerned in case they do not accept paying it into a "Wise" account. Thanks for any advice.

tebo53

When you set up a Wise account you get a UK IBAN number which makes it your uk bank account. I have done that for my private pension payment as the pension company would only pay into a UK account. I've had no problem.

ste

spainrico

Pension companies have their own rules recently Standard Life told me they would not pay into a Wise account whereas Aviva and UK Gov will. Some are concerned Wise is not part of FSCS authority so you need to ask your pension provider what their policy is.

VEDShappy

I have my Crown pension paid direct to a Spanish bank so can't imagine why a Wise account would be any different.

Loco

You can have your Teachers Pension paid into an overseas bank account. They charge a fee of £1.00 per payment.

Your payment is sent in sterling and then a foreign exchange rate is used to convert the pension amount into the local currency prior to the payment reaching your account.

It is worth checking the exchange rate used by the converter and compare it to Wise.

Best
Loco