Bankia & La Caixa

Midnight last night both Bankia and La Caixa informed the markets they were negotiating a merger.

They presently stand at 3rd and 4th largest banks in Spain, a lot of the press think it would create something that's ( too big to fail ) which seems to worry them.

That will be the 4th name change for Bankia since I've been here. The last change from BMN to Bankia was an absolute shambles. Hopefully they will improve their customer service as there's only one person I will speak with at my branch, the others are so rude.

SharonSpain wrote:That will be the 4th name change for Bankia since I've been here. The last change from BMN to Bankia was an absolute shambles. Hopefully they will improve their customer service as there's only one person I will speak with at my branch, the others are so rude.

Not quite a name change. Bankia was created in 2010 to take over 7 regional banks that were failing after the last banking crisis. Bancaja, Caja Madrid and five others. It was partially nationalised in 2012 due to failings and the government owns about 40% of the stock.
BMN was a state owned bank as well and was taken over by Bankia in 2017 along with Caja Murcia and Caja Granada.

The transition from Bancaja (who I was with) went quite smoothly and I had two IBAN running the account for quite some time. There was a farce with BMN I recall and people were given a new account number and IBAN but, in some cases, the old one disappeared causing direct debits and payments in to disappear into that great banking hole in the sky.

Hopefully that won't happen with this new, big entity.

I am thinking of switching my accounts from Sabadell to another Bank in Quesada. Sabadell have recently changed their on-line service which is now worse and I have just had a charge on my current account. Sabadell did have some good points in that they have a good in branch service and a few cash machines in the area. I was with Barclays until they closed and I wondered if people would recommend Caixa Bank who took over the Barclays accounts ? Is their on-line service in English ?

JohnES wrote:I am thinking of switching my accounts from Sabadell to another Bank in Quesada. Sabadell have recently changed their on-line service which is now worse and I have just had a charge on my current account. Sabadell did have some good points in that they have a good in branch service and a few cash machines in the area. I was with Barclays until they closed and I wondered if people would recommend Caixa Bank who took over the Barclays accounts ? Is their on-line service in English ?

I have accounts both with Sabadell and Bankia. I actually think the on-line service is better than Bankia's. I opened the Expansion account a few years ago with Sabadell and at that time there were no charges. Bankia also offered no charges if your pension went into it, however both banks charge now unless you take out an insurance policy with them. I have a house policy with Bankia because my mortgage is with them, but this insurance policy doesn't count for free banking!!!! All the banks seem to be as bad as each other now. I found Bankia in Quesada very unhelpful, so changed my account to the Los Montesinos branch where they are much better.

I have Bankia credit card ,( and they automatically take the balance from my bank account to pay it on 1st of every month so no interest accrued) and I make a transfer in of 400 euros every month and I am then entitled to free Bankia banking.

I was with Sabadell and complained about the 35 euro per month fees. So they moved me to an expansion account advising free if I deposit 750 per month, or 15 if I don't deposit. I also had house and contents insurance with them.
Due to the exchange rate being so poor, I didn't transfer the 750, so expected a quarter at 3x15, 45 euro. They however took 114 euro in fees.
Totally unacceptable and not what they told me, albeit verbally.
Tried to complain to their HQ, but no response.

MichaelC wrote:I was with Sabadell and complained about the 35 euro per month fees. So they moved me to an expansion account advising free if I deposit 750 per month, or 15 if I don't deposit. I also had house and contents insurance with them.
Due to the exchange rate being so poor, I didn't transfer the 750, so expected a quarter at 3x15, 45 euro. They however took 114 euro in fees.
Totally unacceptable and not what they told me, albeit verbally.
Tried to complain to their HQ, but no response.

The expansion account used to be free of charges, but no longer. I am charged 15 euros a month even though both our pensions are deposited in the account every month.

With Sabadell, you need to have an investment or insurance policy with them or you will pay charges even though you pay in more than 700 every month

to Lavender - Have you looked at the Sabadell on-line statements recently ? They have changed what used to be a good on-line service to a poor one. You used to be able to see all your transactions at a glance and print various statements such as income for the year. They have changed it about 2 months ago so that when you view your transactions it only shows one line of the transaction and most of them say 'payment by credit card no -- ' and the detail of who it is paid to is hidden. The search and printing of transactions has been reduced to a download and you cannot be selective on your search. It must have cost them money to change what was a good system to a poor one.
It seems to me that the bank is struggling.