Santander Bank UK/Spain

rainbow54 wrote:Thank you for all your replies. I will pass the information on to my friend. She hasn’t been here since Covid. Hopefully she will be out before the end of the year and an get it sorted as she has 2 bank accounts and paying fees on both,

She really needs to consider opening a wise or similar account & changing all her d/debits to the new account,If she’s got 2 accounts &paying fees on both.Spanish banks are constantly changing rules to extract more money from their customers.

The Weferente bank account at Cajamar is fee free for non residents

I bank with UK Santander they do charge to transfer money into my spanish account it’s £15 which takes 48 hours if you want it in immediately they charge £25. I bank with Sabadel and I have set up a DD that takes an amount out of my Santander UK account each month free of charge, but only get bank exchange rate.

Younglinda wrote:I bank with UK Santander they do charge to transfer money into my spanish account it’s £15 which takes 48 hours if you want it in immediately they charge £25. I bank with Sabadel and I have set up a DD that takes an amount out of my Santander UK account each month free of charge, but only get bank exchange rate.

Before we changed to Wise last year ,we used to transfer from Santander to sabadelll,the exchange rate was much less than bank rate plus quarterly charges of €40,which I believe have now risen yet again,if you’re non resident it doesn’t make financial sense to bank with them.

Younglinda wrote:I bank with UK Santander they do charge to transfer money into my spanish account it’s £15 which takes 48 hours if you want it in immediately they charge £25. I bank with Sabadel and I have set up a DD that takes an amount out of my Santander UK account each month free of charge, but only get bank exchange rate.

Well I just shocked myself, I saw your above entry, and thought I would check Santander U.K. exchange rate today and then compare it to the Wise account exchange rate for today. As an example if you transfer £500 to a euro account by both routes, the U.K. bank way gives you €40 LESS in the exchange rate, than the Wise account way. Then add your £15 fee, means every time you transfer £500, costs you around €56 euros MORE. That’s not even taking into account what fees sabadell might be charging you for the account ( if any). But don’t take my word for it, please check it out for your self, even if I’m not 100% exact, I hope this helps you save a tidy sum of cash over a year. Good luck.

daz wrote:

Younglinda wrote:I bank with UK Santander they do charge to transfer money into my spanish account it’s £15 which takes 48 hours if you want it in immediately they charge £25. I bank with Sabadel and I have set up a DD that takes an amount out of my Santander UK account each month free of charge, but only get bank exchange rate.

Well I just shocked myself, I saw your above entry, and thought I would check Santander U.K. exchange rate today and then compare it to the Wise account exchange rate for today. As an example if you transfer £500 to a euro account by both routes, the U.K. bank way gives you €40 LESS in the exchange rate, than the Wise account way. Then add your £15 fee, means every time you transfer £500, costs you around €56 euros MORE. That’s not even taking into account what fees sabadell might be charging you for the account ( if any). But don’t take my word for it, please check it out for your self, even if I’m not 100% exact, I hope this helps you save a tidy sum of cash over a year. Good luck.

The weird thing is that if you just take your UK Santander debit card and withdraw cash from a Santander ATM in Spain it doesn't cost you anything and you get the Visa bank rate.

If you're moving money from UK direct to a Spanish bank I would just use WISE.

Thank you all for your information. I have passed it on to my friend in Ireland.

Ginger wrote:

rainbow54 wrote:Does anyone know, if you have a Santander UK bank account and Santander Spanish bank account, do you pay charges when transferring from the UK account to the Spanish one?

yes, they are two separate companies, Santander UK & Santander ES.

Indeed.

The fact they share a name is irrelevant. Two entirely different entities. Might as well be Barclays>Sabadell in terms of comparison.