# Spanish Banks recommendations please



## LesleyL (Apr 18, 2012)

Hi

We are in the process of purchasing a property in the Velez Malaga area with the intention of moving across first part of next year.
We need to open a bank account in Spain quite soon. We are considering the SolBank as we are customers of HSBC and they apparently have an affilication with this Spanish Bank. I also have noted that there is a branch in Velez Malaga.
Does anyone have any experience of this bank (good or bad) or any other recommendations. 
Another question: can you use cash machines of any banks with any bank card or do you have to use your own bank's cash machine?
Many thanks for your help


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## Guest (Apr 25, 2013)

LesleyL said:


> Another question: can you use cash machines of any banks with any bank card?


Yes, you can use your card here. I have been using my US bank card throughout Europe for the last 13 years without problems. As a general rule though, advising the card issuer of your travel plans is a good idea... at times a "sudden" purchase outside your country will cause an alert in their Fraud Department and you will find yourself temporarily unable make transactions with the card until you call the card issuer and go through their verification process.


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## xgarb (May 6, 2011)

Solbank / Sabadell seem more set up for expats. They have English speaking staff in their branches.

I have a new account with them after spending an hour chatting with the manager and looking through their products.


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## donz (May 5, 2010)

yes I am also with Sabadell and have nothing but good experiences. Extremely helpful and I have had no unexpected costs or charges :fingerscrossed:

Would be interesting to know what their affiliation with HSBC is though as I am also a First Direct customer and was unaware of this link...please let us know? Thanks!


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## LesleyL (Apr 18, 2012)

Thanks to all of your responses so far - all thoughts about Solbank seem positive. I will find out from HSBC exactly what the connection is. It was when I queried with them what branches they have in Spain when they said that HSBC don't operate in Spain but had a partner (think that was the wording) being Solbank. 

Since my original question earlier today I have been in contact with a money exchange company to organise a set exchange rate for the final transfer of funds for the property purchase. They are partnered with Cajamurcia in Spain and were offering their services. Any thoughts on this bank?
Have to say at the moment I am still swayed towards Solbank.
Thanks guys.


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## ericban (Oct 18, 2012)

If you are doing a money transfer, may I suggest you take a look at transferwise.com? It is a newish offering from the company that brought the world Skype. It works by their members in Spain for instance swapping money with their members in UK at the mid price and charging around £5 for using the service. I have transferred money with them twice now and have saved a lot in charges and commission.

I transferred £1000 two days ago and got £1163 plus small change in my Cajamurcia bank 36 hours later. That is it, no further hidden charges or commissions, their small charge has already been taken during the transfer. If my sums are correct that cost me just under 86p/euro in total, excellent in today's marketplace.

In comparison the commission only, when I transferred £1350 with Barclays before I discovered Transferwise (on Martin Lewis' moneysavingexpert.com website) was £57 (over 11 times more than transferwise). I'm sure this would really make a difference on larger transfers.

I hope this is of help.

Regards
EB


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## ericban (Oct 18, 2012)

Sorry, I forgot to add.

If you open an account with Cajamurcia Bank at the minute that has a monthly payment paid in of over 1000 euros you can get a free 32 inch TV as a signing up sweetener (as we have coming!).

Regards
EB


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## LesleyL (Apr 18, 2012)

Hi Ericban
Thanks for all the useful information. The TV offer sounds good! Although we won't be making regular payments into the bank account until next year.


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## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

We have been with Sabadell now since June 2012 and have no complaints. They are reasonably efficient and the branch staff are friendly and helpful. There are notices in the bank in Spanish, English and German so I guess these are the main languages spoken. In our branch we also have a Swedish employee so there may be branch variations.

We have an "Expansion" account with them that is free of bank charges and we also receive a small commission each month based on the amount of DD payments going out of our account. You can have free withdrawals from all Sabadell atm's and 4 free withdrawals per month from any other "Servired" atm. 

The account is dependent on us paying in €700 per month. We did this even before we came to live here as it funded our holidays whilst we looked around for somewhere to live.

If you do not have a regular deposit of this amount, you can have a very similar account that costs €8 per month charged quarterly.

One thing to take into account though is until you are resident in Spain your bank account is classed as "non Resident" and therefore liable to a charge from the Spanish tax authorities, the bank has no control over this charge. We were charged €25 euros each + IBA. I think that this charge is levied every two years. Unfortunately we copped for it just a couple of weeks before we became resident.

For what its worth we use a company called Currency Fair for our transfers. They are an Irish based "peer to peer" company regulated by the Irish equivalent of the FSA in UK. They charge a flat rate of €3 per transfer and the exchange rate is about 95.5% of the interbank rate at the time of transfer. This means for a transfer of about €1,000 you will "lose" only about €6. Try their website, it is very wysiwyg.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

ericban said:


> If you are doing a money transfer, may I suggest you take a look at transferwise.com? It is a newish offering from the company that brought the world Skype. It works by their members in Spain for instance swapping money with their members in UK at the mid price and charging around £5 for using the service. I have transferred money with them twice now and have saved a lot in charges and commission.
> 
> ...


They actually charge 0.5% but this is probably still better if you get a good rate .


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## LesleyL (Apr 18, 2012)

Thanks again guys - great info


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## el pescador (Mar 14, 2013)

lloyds selling its spanish business to sadabell taking a loss.
must be good news for both parties.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

el pescador said:


> lloyds selling its spanish business to sadabell taking a loss.
> must be good news for both parties.


Tried Googling this but found nothing - do you have a link?


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## CapnBilly (Jun 7, 2011)

snikpoh said:


> Tried Googling this but found nothing - do you have a link?


I saw it Reuters this morning ( sorry, it's an IPad app so I don't have a link), but it was also on our local radio station - Bayradio


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## neddie (Jun 11, 2012)

......there are many links on Google e.g. SALE OF RETAIL BANKING OPERATIONS IN SPAIN - London Stock Exchange


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## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

*Velez-Malaga*



LesleyL said:


> Hi
> 
> We are in the process of purchasing a property in the Velez Malaga area with the intention of moving across first part of next year.
> We need to open a bank account in Spain quite soon. We are considering the SolBank as we are customers of HSBC and they apparently have an affilication with this Spanish Bank. I also have noted that there is a branch in Velez Malaga.
> ...


Velez-Malaga is a busy little town. I walked through it the other day. To be honest, none of my expat friends have had anything bad to say about any banks out here. You said you were moving in the area of Velez-Malaga. Other villages close by have banks, not necessarily the one you mentioned, but worth thinking about, especially as Velez-Malaga can get busy with few parking spaces.


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## LesleyL (Apr 18, 2012)

Thanks Aron for the information - we will bear that in mind.


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## chezzielucy (Jan 10, 2013)

thankyou aron for the info were are moving to spain end of june ....


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## LesleyL (Apr 18, 2012)

Hope everything goes well with that for you chezzylucie! What area are you moving to?


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## chezzielucy (Jan 10, 2013)

thanks lesley quesada not looking forward to all the packing thou !!


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## Beachbumbler (Nov 6, 2011)

If you're looking for a bank with branches absolutely everywhere, try BanCorreos. It's the Post Office bank, run by Deutsche Bank. You probably need to speak some Spanish, but they're always very helpful, especially in the small village post offices. We've been with them for 8 years now.

STEER CLEAR OF BANKIA!!


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## 213979 (Apr 11, 2013)

What ATMs can you use with BanCorreos?


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## Beachbumbler (Nov 6, 2011)

BanCorreos - Tarjetas

You can have a Mastercard credit or debit card, or a Vista and Visa Electron, although it seems that the Electron card is being slowly phased out everywhere.

See link above


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