# Banking in Spain



## Editor (Aug 20, 2009)

Moving to Spain?Your guide to expatriate banking services in SpainIntroduction Spain is the second largest country in Europe, after France. Spain has one of the highest ratios of bank branches per capita in Europe and offers its customers a banking system that is both modern and efficient, in addition to being well regulated.The national language [...]

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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Get an offshore account. All leading UK banks offer them and you can hold accounts in several currencies.
I have a Spanish account for everyday use but my main money, such as it is, comes from the UK to Gibraltar.


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## donz (May 5, 2010)

is that the way to go then? I am in the UK still but plan to be moving to Spain this year and would prefer to still hold a UK account if possible.

Any particular banks you can recommend? I currently bank with Barclays and First Direct but wondered if Santander might be a good bet too?


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## jockm (Jun 23, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> Get an offshore account. All leading UK banks offer them and you can hold accounts in several currencies.
> I have a Spanish account for everyday use but my main money, such as it is, comes from the UK to Gibraltar.


Can you provide a bit of info on the benefits of the offshore account? And are you able to transfer between your offshore accounts to take avantage of exchange rate fluctuations? Are there any quirky taxation considerations?


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

donz said:


> is that the way to go then? I am in the UK still but plan to be moving to Spain this year and would prefer to still hold a UK account if possible


Just change the address on the Uk account /s to your Spanish address.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

jockm said:


> Can you provide a bit of info on the benefits of the offshore account? And are you able to transfer between your offshore accounts to take avantage of exchange rate fluctuations? Are there any quirky taxation considerations?


The chief benefit for me is that I can have UK income paid into one sterling account and any open accounts in euros, dollars...any currency I wish.... and access it via credit/debit cards in each currency or online anywhere in the world..
As for taxation....recent EU legislation ensures that off-shore banks (at least the UK-based ones) report account holders tax details to HMCR. 
The chief reason I opened an offshore account was that I'd had enough of the high charges and ineptitude of the banks with whom I had accounts in Prague. 
I have never transferred between my offshore accounts as to date I've not needed to. I also have a sterling account with my Spanish bank so when the need arises I'll have to compare charges.
As for exchange rate fluctuations: you need to be changing £millions to make a really big profit, imo.
When we moved to the CR, we got 42.5 CZK to the £. We bought enough crowns to be able to live for years. Two years later, the rate dropped to 26.8 CZK to the £. 
For various reasons we decided to move to Spain at the end of 2008 but we still had an awful lot of Czech crowns. In July 2008 the euro fell dramatically against the Czech crown so we swapped all our crowns for euros - the same crowns we'd bought at the 42.5 rate. So on paper we'd made quite a profit.
However......the transaction costs were huge. I took a Czech friend to the bank with me when I bought the euros as my Czech wasn't good enough to explain where I wanted the money sent - the bank clerk had never heard of the Channel Islands or Gibraltar! She nearly fainted when she heard what I had to pay to buy those euros. She told me I should have withdrawn the cash, packed it into suitcases and changed it on the black market. I really fancied the idea of roaming the streets of Prague with the equivalent of most people's life-time earnings in holdalls.......
So unless you are talking £millions (which you may well be) slight fluctuations in currencies are best ignored, imo, unless you MUST change, for some good reason.


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## jockm (Jun 23, 2009)

Thanks Mary for your reply, I will check them out further!


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Mary does seem to know what she's talking about, even though it is rumoured she might once have been involved in politics...


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

thrax said:


> Mary does seem to know what she's talking about, even though it is rumoured she might once have been involved in politics...



Cheeky toad


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