Thread: Banks in Spain! Good ones or bad! Your opinion please

We usu Unicaja their online banking is in english and very good!

us what is also great is the fact that the

Originally Posted by JazminesII

You sure can (and we do in S.P. ). For re is a Sabadell in London

The Sabadell in London was handy for sending money out when I was buying my house. It's near Trafalgar Square in (I think Pall Mall) I could pay it directly into my Solbank account.

We have banked with 2 since arriving in Spain Bank Santander who seemed to charge to take a breath in the branch we even had to pay to close the account! The other is Cajamar who we have used since arriving here. Although our branch is in Casarabonela, it doesn't matter which office we go to the staff are always very friendly and helpfull, you know that good old fashioned glad to have you as a customer attitude. And heres the best bit we are fee free and have been for 15 months no catches or conditions, just free banking! They also have online banking in English.

We have been with the Cam since we arrived in Spain. Their servicehas always been excellent. Including suggesting a high interest account for the time we transfered the money to buy the house, untill the actual payment was made. the interest wasn't a huge amount but certainly more than we would have got in an ordinary account. Their online banking is great and the website gives sevefal language options. They have also offered us a Sterling account, unfortunately with very low interest rates, where we can move our Uk accounts to and transfer into Euros when the exchange rate becomes a bit healthier.

This is far better than the service we had from HSBC in Hong Kong or RBS and HBOS in UK

When I transfer say £500 from my UK Halifax account to my Spanish one, I am given the choice of 'in euros' or 'in sterling'. I am not sure as to which offers the best exchange rate. I thought I would ask the audience.

I guess banks are there to make money, if they couldn't make money they'd go out of business. I have a BBVA business account and am scared that if I ever start hammering it hard the charges will pile up - they were bad enough at NatWest in the UK...

We were originally going to go with Santander since they own Abbey with whom we had our mortgage in UK at the time but their Manager in the Alcalá la Real branch was utterly incompetent and screwed up the opening process which then had to be cancelled with the Bank of Spain in Madrid, taking two months to do. So we signed up with Caja Granada (recommended by our abogada who also uses them) - fabulous service both here in the village and in Alcalá la Real.

My mum in law also had an Abbey account in UK then tried to open a Santander account here. Santander were rude , said they had nothing to do with Abbey and if she wanted to open an account she had to get her monthly wages paid in. Shes a pensioner so an impossible request. I wont recommend Santander to anyone.

Originally Posted by ELJEFE

My mum in law also had an Abbey account in UK then tried to open a Santander account here. Santander were rude , said they had nothing to do with Abbey and if she wanted to open an account she had to get her monthly wages paid in. Shes a pensioner so an impossible request. I wont recommend Santander to anyone.

I concur with that