The UK is one of the only remaining countries in the world offering free banking.  That is now changing with First Direct and NatWest introducing bank charges for current accounts.  More UK banks will follow.

The Spanish banking system has historically levid account admin and maintenance charges amongst others.  This has now changed and expats can now qualify for Commission Free Banking.

If anyone is interested, then feel free to get in touch.

Rgds
Manu

are you advertising?

no i am not..i was just offerring fellow expats a free solution to stop them paying spanish bank charges

My husband & I are certainly interested, please give us more information.

Regards

Wendy

We have just had to pay hundreds of euros for a bank draft and to bring money into Spain.
We are also with NatWest in the UK so would be very interested too.

The bank is SANTANDER, they are offering FREE BANKING, you have to qualify like have a pension or a regular payment into the account. If you have a mortgage or something with them you also qualify.

SANTANDER ARE SPAINS LARGEST BANK.

kizzy - 21 July 2007 10:06 AM

We have just had to pay hundreds of euros for a bank draft and to bring money into Spain.
We are also with NatWest in the UK so would be very interested too.

Kizzy if you are bringing money into Spain you should use a Commercial FX company, they will get you high Foreign Exchange rates. If you transfer money into Spain some banks charge others do not. Most FX companies will get rid of these fees for you if you use them. thank you.

Just thought I’d add a bank in Spain that is free.

Caixa Penedes costs nothing. We opened an account for free with just our passports (no Visa or NIE) and didn’t even have to deposit money into it. Also, incoming wire transfers cost nothing. We wired money from Wells Fargo in the states (with our banks normal fees) but there were no additional costs when the funds hit out Caixa Penedes account.

Caixa Penedes was highly recomended over La Caixa and the other prominent banks for the same reason above, high admin fees and service fees whenever possible. Here is their Branch/ATM locator (generally in the Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and Madrid regions)
https://www.caixapenedes.com/oficines.asp

Scott
http://www.karieandscott.com

La Caixa to add card charge og 15.00 euros and additionl card of 12.00 euros in jan 08
if your wages aor pension in la caixa and dont have more 1.500 euro in you account