What do we need to open a Spanish bank account?

Advice on banking please:?:
What do we need to bring out with us to open a spanish bank account and could anyone recommend a bank.
Thanks

I suggest NOT going to Banco Sabadel.
I just opened an account with them using a cheque for 1000€
They immediately hit me with 240€ bill on my account, before the cheque had even cleared.
When I found out, I was obviously baffled and more than a bit pi**ed off.
On challenging this obvious robbery, they "did me a favour" and reduced the charges to 112€ (77€ to clear a cheque and 35€ for unauthorised overdraft!!!)
They have since sent me text messages and letters saying that I must go into my bank and make a payment to rectify my overdraft.
I, of course, have told them that I will see them in court first.
As I said, I DO NOT recommend Banco Sabadel (or BS as they are also, and quite rightly, known).
At least Dick Turpin had the courtesy of wearing a mask!

Hi. We recently opened an account with caja murcia in Rojales. They were really helpful all we took was passports and the address in spain. minimum for opening the account was 50 euros. There are some yearly charges but only 25-50 euros. They also set up online banking so we can access it in the UK.
Very simple and the lady spoke really good English

I now know where not to go and an idea where to go.

I can understand the importance of id & v for security etc but an agent in Spain has asked for us to bring payslips, uk bank statements showing salaries, utility bill, passports and drivers licence, etc? (We have purchased a property but are not applying for a mortgage or any loans as the finance for the purchase is already in place so don't require any lending)?

It just seemed a bit excessive?

They may need those documents for getting NIE numbers and so on. You should also take out residency or get a certificate of non-residency but, I agree, those requests do seem a bit OTT. Utility bill will be to prove your address in UK (even UK banks now insist on that) as well as a photo ID so I'd have thought just the passport would have been sufficient. Those taking out residency must show proof of income.
It has probably changed a lot but all we needed to open a bank account was our passports and proof of address.
As or banks, we were with Bankinter and left because of the high bank charges. We were then with Cam which changed to Sabadell but again changed because of the charges they wanted to accept transfer of money. We switched to Bancaja (which has changed to Bankia) who don't charge us for transfers and had low admin charges when we were non-residents. Now we are residents we get no charges at all as we have a regular amount paid in.

Stanford wrote:Advice on banking please:?:
What do we need to bring out with us to open a spanish bank account and could anyone recommend a bank.
Thanks

We opened our very first bank account in Spain with our passports as I.D. We were waiting for our house to be built at the time and didn't even have an NIE number.

I am almost certain you wouldn't need to show payslips, uk bank statements showing salaries, utility bill, and drivers licence, etc.

We put €100 euros in the account to open it and that was it.

We changed our bank ourselves when we completed on the property as we wanted one that was in the UK as well as Spain (That was Halifax which later changed to Lloyds and recently changed to Sabadell - All this happened over 10 years) but nowadays all the UK banks have gradually been taken over in Spain - Barclays is just about to change too, if it hasn't already.

We have had lots of experience with banking in Spain and now use Sabadell, who we've found are good with helpful customer service and the branch is in Quesada so convenient. They have a good on-line system too and respond to emails quickly.

Obviously there are always one or two people who will have problems with any bank but I can recommend Sabadell - All Spanish banks have some charges unfortunately but Sabadell charges are no more and possibly less than some other banks in Spain.

Hope this helps.


Jan

Because you are not having a loan or mortgage you have to prove where the money you are using is coming from as this happened to us we had to show bank statements
Showing where our money had come from this was shown to the notary on the day of signing.
We are with sabadel and are very happy with their service

We recommend La Caixa, they are extremely helpfull and charge 3 euros per month. Go and see Robert in the Torrevieja branch near the Park of Nations he is so helpfull and speaks perfect English.

Again thanks to you all for the help.

The money for our holiday apartment is coming from a property sale in the UK not from our salary or savings, so was a bit confused on why we were asked to produce bank statements showing a salary along with payslips? Just thought it was a bit personal, but can understand the need for protection against money laundering etc

wilkins77 wrote:Hi.
Just to add a note to Wilkins77's post

We recently opened an account with Caja Murcia in Rojales. They were really helpful all we took was passports and the address in spain. minimum for opening the account was 50 euros. There are some yearly charges but only 25-50 euros. They also set up online banking so we can access it in the UK.
Very simple and the lady spoke really good English

Just to add a different note to Wilkins77's post.

We have just returned from the area having opened an account with BMN Caja Murcia in Guardamar. Perhaps because it was a non residencia account they were adamant that we showed our UK wage slips - The language barrier was quite substantial with our Spanish being poor and likewise the Teller's English. It appeared they wanted our P60's for their records. Obviously we did not have them at the time but have sinced scanned and emailed them to the Teller.

We have also had endless problems trying to login to our account online and as yet have had no luck. The Teller was clearly wishing she could be elsewhere and was very rushed with the whole process so we don't know if the login details are correct or not. It appeared we caught her before her morning break as she went rushing out of the bank at the same time we departed

Emails back and forth to BMN IT staff have not resolved the problem thus far so there's a €100 of ours in Spanish banking cyberspace at the moment.