# Regular Money Transfer



## Katenbill (Jun 11, 2018)

Hello, I need to pick your brains and experience again please.
We have opened a current account with Sabadell with a transfer of €700 per month from our UK bank (Santander). We will clearly need to transfer more money per month than this over to a) allow us to live and b) meet the requirement for residencia.

My husband went into Santander yesterday to enquire if there was a better account for us to keep our lump sum in that we could make monthly transfers from to Spain.
Santander told him that once we are resident in Spain we can no longer keep our account with them! Which seems a bit odd given that we want to invest a large sum of money.

I’ve been looking into Smart Currency Exchange and other services like that.

So my question is - What have you people done in similar situations to ours with regard to regular payment transfer? Would we be better off opening a Spanish savings account and move the whole lot out to Spain and then getting a transfer in monthly from that into Sabadell? Sabadell told us that we cannot have a savings account and current account with them as the transfer needs to come from a different bank.

Your input would be much appreciated thanks - we’ve got to sort things quickly as we’re moving on 7th November


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## Colonel Fairfax Curruther (Aug 13, 2018)

A lot of questions here. But to get started ‘’ Smart Currency Exchange and other services like that.’’ whilst mentioning how wonderful they and their services are never mention ‘’YOUR MONEY IS AT RISK AND THERE IS NO COMPENSATION SCHEME’’ they are not banks.


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

Many banks are like separate business in the different countries they operate in. To hold a regular account you need to be resident in the UK (in most cases), but they (Santander) have an international arm like most banks do. You can stay with Santander but will need to move it into a new account with the international "branch". As you will need to move it anyway, it's a good time to look around. What you are looking for is an expat/offshore account in which you can hold different currencies, that way you can deposit UK Pounds and exchange them to Euros when the time is right.

As far as getting it into your Spanish bank account goes, there are many currency exchange services. As mentioned, if those businesses fail while your money is with them, you might lose it due to a lack of protection. In fact, one failed a couple of weeks ago and some people lost a fortune!

That said, many have been in existence for years and are in a very good state. As long as you are shifting smallish (less than a couple of K) amounts... no major worries.

Before you find a good Spanish savings account see how they compare to the expat/offshore savings rates. Only do the Spanish one if it is better. Don't aim to move a pile of cash all at once, you will need to do that when the exchange rate is good.

And, I keep a UK account in my son's address and use it as I always have. As long as you have a willing relative or friend, there's really no need to close your UK account.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I don't understand the need for an international account. When I moved to Spain, my UK bank (First Direct) was happy for me to keep my current and savings account with them, and to this day (12 years on) they send statements and replacement debit cards to my Spanish address. The bank my husband has his current account with does the same, as does my UK credit card provider.

I used my bank to make regular transfers between my UK bank and my Spanish account at first, but after a while in order to get a better exchange rate and lower charges I changed to using one of the forex firms. At first I used xe.com but they then advised me that they would no longer be handling transfers to Spain (no idea why) so I changed to Currency Fair and have had nothing but excellent service from them. They charge €3 flat rate fee for a standard fee (the money arrives in my Spanish account the next day). I never leave the funds in their account to wait for a better exchange rate, but exchange and transfer to Spain immediately they receive the money, as the less time they have the funds in their account, the lower the risk of anything happening to the money. I've transferred larger sums of pension lump sums, etc. at times but split them into smaller amounts, again to minimise risk.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I haven't lived in the UK for over 30 years and still have a current account at Nat West and anything they need to send to me is sent here. Maybe it's because I moved before such and such a law, or because it's only a current account, I don't know.


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## Colonel Fairfax Curruther (Aug 13, 2018)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I haven't lived in the UK for over 30 years and still have a current account at Nat West and anything they need to send to me is sent here. Maybe it's because I moved before such and such a law, or because it's only a current account, I don't know.


You are probably correct; there may be laws and rules on what bank accounts you can have depending on where you are resident. It would seem different banks adopt different policies and pick and choose who can have what. I personally bank with Lloyds and have a standard gold account and credit card, they know I live and reside in Spain. Like most things in life, it’s a lottery.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Moved four years ago, still have accounts at Lloyd’s totally they’re totally aware we are here. If we closed it down we couldn’t open a new one or if we opened one with the intentions of moving countries.


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

I'm not sure what's going on with First Direct then Lynn. They told me that really I should close the account but that they wouldn't insist on it. Today, to open a current account with FD you must be UK resident, and to open a savings account with them you must already have a current account.

Most of the leading banks are insisting the you are UK resident to open an account there, hence the need to go to the international "branch" for an offshore account, as they don't care where you live.

Maybe this is a new thing as part of the KYC push.


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## Katenbill (Jun 11, 2018)

Many thanks for the replies.

I shall start googling offshore accounts today.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Horlics said:


> I'm not sure what's going on with First Direct then Lynn. They told me that really I should close the account but that they wouldn't insist on it. Today, to open a current account with FD you must be UK resident, and to open a savings account with them you must already have a current account.
> 
> Most of the leading banks are insisting the you are UK resident to open an account there, hence the need to go to the international "branch" for an offshore account, as they don't care where you live.
> 
> Maybe this is a new thing as part of the KYC push.


I know that it's very difficult to open an account with a UK bank if you are not resident in the UK, which is why I wanted to keep mine open, especially as my main pension provider will only make payments into a UK account. It's always been the case, as far as I know, that you cannot open a savings account with a bank unless you already have a current account with them.

I've no idea why First Direct told you what they did, I just rang them and explained I was moving and without any fuss they changed my records to reflect the new address.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Most banks don't seem to mind if you have a foreign address. Didn't even have problems in Singapore. What I have noticed is that some are not allowing non residents to open savings accounts. Nationwide has what they call a "loyalty account" where the savings rate is 5% though the amount is limited but it does state not available to non residents.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

We kept our Barclays Current accounts going when we left and even had a Euro account with them (only contains 6 centimos!)

Wondering to what extent the Spanish authorities require information about all expats' UK bank accounts since they seem to be taking an interest in amounts over 50k€


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## Colonel Fairfax Curruther (Aug 13, 2018)

baldilocks said:


> We kept our Barclays Current accounts going when we left and even had a Euro account with them (only contains 6 centimos!)
> 
> Wondering to what extent the Spanish authorities require information about all expats' UK bank accounts since they seem to be taking an interest in amounts over 50k€


The Spanish authorities require information about all the money, assets and bank accounts you have worldwide. It is your choice if you disclose them, or let them try and discover them.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Colonel Fairfax Curruther said:


> The Spanish authorities require information about all the money, assets and bank accounts you have worldwide. It is your choice if you disclose them, or let them try and discover them.


Actually they couldn't care less about the paltry amount I have in the UK. I don't have to declare so I'm not going to!

Here's some info
https://www.agenciatributaria.es/AE...cion_de_declarar/Obligacion_de_declarar.shtml


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

baldilocks said:


> We kept our Barclays Current accounts going when we left and even had a Euro account with them (only contains 6 centimos!)
> 
> Wondering to what extent the Spanish authorities require information about all expats' UK bank accounts since they seem to be taking an interest in amounts over 50k€


The automatic exchange of information between countries agreed by the OECD several years ago has now started, so countries are now obliged to send details of all non-residents' bank accounts (and other financial institutions regarding investments) to their country of residence - regardless of how much is in them.

https://orbis-blog.com/2016/08/23/h...f-the-automatic-exchange-of-information-aeoi/

I was sent a form to complete by my UK bank and amongst the information required was my tax identifier number (NIF, same as NIE for us).


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> The automatic exchange of information between countries agreed by the OECD several years ago has now started, so countries are now obliged to send details of all non-residents' bank accounts (and other financial institutions regarding investments) to their country of residence - regardless of how much is in them.
> 
> https://orbis-blog.com/2016/08/23/h...f-the-automatic-exchange-of-information-aeoi/
> 
> I was sent a form to complete by my UK bank and amongst the information required was my tax identifier number (NIF, same as NIE for us).


Yes, that's true. I had to do that too, but I didn't have to send anything to the Spanish authorities; I don't have to declare what I have in my account directly to them


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Yes, that's true. I had to do that too, but I didn't have to send anything to the Spanish authorities; I don't have to declare what I have in my account directly to them


No, that's right. We just have to declare any interest received (or income from investments) on our Spanish income tax return, unless the value of our UK assets is €50k or more in any one asset class, in which case we have to submit the Modelo 720 as well.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Isobella said:


> Most banks don't seem to mind if you have a foreign address. Didn't even have problems in Singapore. What I have noticed is that some are not allowing non residents to open savings accounts. Nationwide has what they call a "loyalty account" where the savings rate is 5% though the amount is limited but it does state not available to non residents.


Funnily enough we had a notification today from Lloyd’s. No savings account so we had to transfer to current account. Paltry Interest anyway


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