spanish bank account

[ruthdenise2005]

can any one help?i need to open a bank account in spain.is there any way i can do this from the uk.i am in london next week and wondered whether i could go to a london branch of a spanish bank and set it up.any info would be much appreciated.

[Culain]

I opened an account with Banco Halifax Hispania in Torrevieja from the UK.

Just phone 0845-600-3603 and they will send you out all the forms etc.

Bank account

You can open an account with Bankinter using the internet

[smoki41]

[teeder]

You can also open a Halifax account here in the UK and transfer funds from the UK to the Halifax in Torre once opened.

Teeder

[tookea]

just phoned them very efficient response hopefully the introduction pack will be with me early next week

[royjtaylor]

Hi, All.

Bank charges can indeed be high in Spain.

If you are buying property, it might be worth looking into setting up an account with the same bank as your solicitor.
At some stage, you will need to transfer funds from your bank to your solicitor's and this can be quite costly if you both use different banks and it could outweigh the exchange rate advantages you can get from using British based banks.

Having said that, there seems to be quite a variance in the services the various banks offer and the charges they make.

As with all these things, it's horses for courses, but if you can save a couple of hundred Euros or so, that's a lot of Menus del Dia!

Incidentally, if you have a savings account (not fixed term or anything like that) in Spain and you're not getting a good interest rate, tell them you're not happy with it and they can usually agree a higher rate.

HTH,
Roy

[SMG]

On recommendation from someone on the forum, I opened a Bank account last year with CaixaGalicia in Calle Habaneras, because of the high charges from Sol Bank. CaixaGalicia works with Lloyds Bank, so you can pay in money there and transfer it WITHOUT charges to Torrevieja. The manager speaks excellent English. Only drawback is that their internet site is in Spanish.

Contact me if you need any further info.

Sheila