I appreciate that there may have been many posts about this company, but having trawled through a few posts, I haven’t been able to find anything specific to them, so would appreciate it if I could get some input.

I have an account with Bankia, but like loads of other people I am stuck in UK and funds are running low!! Am I right in saying that other people have posted that Transferwise can pay their direct debits eg Suma, Iberdrola and Hydraqua? I have been on the website and can’t see any info regarding this. I have seen that I can transfer money across and at what they say is the cheapest way to do it, but would be interested in any help and comments on the direct debits side as well.

Thanks in advance

you need to open a Borderless account that's what I use

What is a multi-currency account?

A TransferWise multi-currency account lets you keep money in more than 50 currencies, and convert between them at the real exchange rate whenever you need. It’s free to sign up and there aren’t any subscription fees.
You can also get bank details for GBP, EUR, AUD*, NZD, USD, HUF, RON**, and SGD (with more currencies on the way). Share these details to your friends, companies or customers in order to receive money from around the world.
You can send money from your account to a bank account whenever you like. We'll charge a fixed fee when you do this, and a conversion fee when you send to a different currency.
Or, spend the currencies in your account around the world with the TransferWise debit card. Get low conversion fees, and zero transaction fees. Find out if the TransferWise debit card is available in your country.
Learn more about the multi-currency account in this video
* Australian customers — read our PDS/FSG to learn more
** Currently, RON bank details are only available for residents of the EEA and Switzerland.

Still need help?

https://transferwise.com/help/articles/ ... ect-debits

I have a Bankia account, also had a Transferwise account for a good number of years now.

In Jan 2020 I moved all my direct debits from Bankia to Transferwise, I visited each of the utilities whilst in Spain last year but it is also possible to provide new bank details to the utilities on their own websites by logging in to your account or email them.

As Jpeg has shown, open a Transferwise borderless account, this enables you to send and receive funds in different currencies. There is no monthly charge just small amounts for any currency movements ( not direct debits). They have helpful customer services based in London and you can have a debit card too which I use for everyday things whilst in Spain, it works very well, I tend not to withdraw cash at the atm with this card though.

I have also attempted to close my Bankia account at La Zenia whilst here in the UK, they will make no provision for the fact that we can't get to Spain due to the pandemic to personally close the account, I cleared the account of funds months ago but they continue to try to make the monthly charges.

I am not sure that you are aware but Bankia are to merge with Caixa very shortly, the last time Bankia did this they made a holy mess of it by issuing new account numbers, I had to make a special visit to Spain just to sort my account out, this would of course be impossible at the moment.
Bearing this in mind it could be a good time to open a Transferwise account to avoid being entangled in any merger fiasco.

I have involved my Solicitor to try to close my account for me, even she says that La Zenia branch are extremely unhelpful, she also has information that any unused accounts will simply be closed during the merger, so here's hoping.

Ken

I have transferred all the direct debits you mention to TransferWise in the last few months. They can all be done online or by phone so no need to be in Spain for that.

You could look into doing a sepa transfer from your uk account to Spanish account. Usually free if non urgent ie next day rather than immediate and in euros not Stirling. You may want to check this out with your uk bank

Thanks everyone for their input! So in effect does this mean that I don’t need a spanish bank account at all?

tinak wrote:Thanks everyone for their input! So in effect does this mean that I don’t need a spanish bank account at all?

Not if the three suppliers you list are the only ones you pay on direct debit. You need to check the other terms on TransferWise to make sure you're happy with them too e.g. for cash withdrawals and bank transfers.

just did a transfer from Sabadell to Barclays UK through Transferwise too a total of 12 seconds all done