[rollsroyce]

hi again can anyone recommend a good bank as we will have to open a spanish bank account, and any ideas as what to bring we are looking at about £75000 cash what i.d. will we require was told bring a bank draft made out to yourself (was thinking £5000)

 

[lynn]

hi again can anyone recommend a good bank as we will have to open a spanish bank account, and any ideas as what to bring we are looking at about £75000 cash what i.d. will we require was told bring a bank draft made out to yourself (was thinking £5000)

We opened an account with Banco Halifax Hispana (Bienvenido a HALIFAX HISPANIA) whilst we were still resident in the UK. You can do the whole thing from the UK and open a non resident account. Once we were resident here in Spain, they changed the account over. I have to say, we have been very very impressed with Halifax and would recommend them. However, if you might like to look at their website to check there is a branch near to where you will be living in Spain. I am afraid my Spanish is not yet that good, so I appreciate being able to deal with English speaking staff, and they are always helpful and polite.

When you wish to transfer money into the account, there is no charge if you transfer from a Halifax UK account, however, if you are transferring a larger amount it is always better to use HiFX or moneycorp or such like as they offer a much better exchange rate.

 

[grahunt]

At the moment the best deals are being offered by Solbank Sabadell Atlantico on mortgages so if you are thinking of buying further down the line then having a prior relationship is useful. I wouldn't recommend the Halifax unless you have a local branch and are not going to travel around much because their branch network is extremely sparse.

 

[rollsroyce]

banks

At the moment the best deals are being offered by Solbank Sabadell Atlantico on mortgages so if you are thinking of buying further down the line then having a prior relationship is useful. I wouldn't recommend the Halifax unless you have a local branch and are not going to travel around much because their branch network is extremely sparse.

thanks for that we will not be needing a mortgage we have the total cash, so will just transfer the total

 

[scharlack]

Hello,

I am sure there will be more people here to help with this...

The best bank? It depends on what you want to do.

If you are down here running a small/medium business I would say stick with one of the Cajas (CajaMadrid, LaCaixa, CajaSol, etc) else I would stick to a bank which has a good number of ATMs and won't charge you monthly fees or money transfer fees (ING, OpenBank from Santander, IBanesto from Banesto, Bancaja, etc).
I know Barclays has offices in Madrid. But I have no idea how they operate.

Another factor is that banks are "stronger" in different areas of the country so it will depend on where you will be.

Cheers