Transferwise/ Banks

Hi everyone, hope we all getting through these stressful worrying times as best you can..
So, having looked at many threads and getting confused, here's my question.
I'm with Barclays, (still in England) but looking at opening the Transferwise borderless acc that has been reccomend by many.
When in Quesada, do I need to have a Spanish bank account?
Do you have your pension paid into your Barclays bank, then transferred to TW acc or do you have pensions and other income paid straight into that TW account, or direct to a Spanish acc?
Do TW need to transfer to a Spanish acc, or do TW pay all direct debits themselves?
I see you can get a debit card with TW , do you use this to pay for day to day items, food, petrol etc?
Is this card free to use or is there a limit you can use before fees arise? Thought I've seen a e200 pm limit?
Do people have pensions etc paid into UK acc, then transfer as and when? Can anyone recommend which is the best option?
Will I need a Spanish bank acc to get the NIE, residencia and other "start up" needs? And need said acc to show the new funds needed before hand?
Finally, when buying our property whats the best way of transferring money over, re purchase? If not into a Spanish bank, do you transfer to your lawyer acc? Or direct from Transferwise?
Sorry for so many questions and long post.....
But thanks in advance, because I know this forum helps a stranger in need.... ha ha.... cheers Dave.

That’s a lot of questions.
Perhaps a lot of these could be answered by contacting TW directly. Otherwise I’m sure you will get some positive help on here.
I’m interested to see the responses.
Good luck.

Dear Dave

To answer you questions in reverse.

Money for house: Transfer to lawyer. They complete the sale so make them responsible for transfers. Its a lot of money and there are loads of people trying to scam you, so be careful. I would start by transferring a small random amount to you lawyers and ask what they received before moving big money over. Even then do it in separate transfers.

I would start by continuing with Barclays and moving money to TW as needed. See how you get on.

There is a small fee for using TW, see their site, but its cheaper than anyone else. You can use it for day to day purchases. But ATMs will charge you for getting cash. This is the same for ant ATM unless its the same bank.

I think you can set up Direct Debits with TW, so no need for a Spanish account. But see how you get on with just TW and your Barclays account, you can always start a Spanish account if you need it.

Always be careful!

I’ve lived here 5 years and my pensions etc are all paid into my UK acc with Santander. I then transfer money as reqd to my Sabadell acc here using TW. Though recently I started paying one of my pensions direct to TW

Reason I did this was being advised it was not advisable to keep all funds in a Spanish bank as I’m told if anything happens to you as the acc holder it can be a problem getting the money paid out to your next of kin.
There is also the question of bank charges here commented on many times on this forum which are getting worse post Brexit. This system works for me at the moment because I’m not ruling out returning to the UK permanently and have opened both Euro and Sterling. Accounts with TW

Thank you for the replys, great help.
Does seem a bit of a mine field with these new rules....

Closed our Caixa account around 6 months ago when they more than trebled their charges, not to mention poor customer service. Opened a TW account (2 accounts sterling and Euro) and switched all our direct debits Electric, water, Suma, community charges to TW. No charges just a very small transaction cost when converting excellent exchange rate - Sterling to Euro. I have a UK Santander account and have a direct debit monthly to my TW sterling account based on a rough calculation of annual direct debit costs. I can convert the sterling when ever my Euro account is running low and the exchange rate is ok. If I forget and there are insufficient funds in my Euro account, TW automatically take the balance from the Sterling account. TW send me an email when ever they receive and pay a direct debit.
Personally I don’t have a need for the TW debit card as I can use my UK Santander debit card to withdraw cash at a Spanish ATM with no charges. I also have a Halifax credit card which I only use in Spain and there are no charges for Euro purchases. Obviously I pay the balance monthly.

Transfer Wise account negatives. NONE, Positives significant saving, more control, great customer service. What’s not to decide. This is from a Non resident point of view, no idea if the benefits are as good for residents.

Ah, nice one...

Cheers Rone.

Rone wrote:Closed our Caixa account around 6 months ago when they more than trebled their charges, not to mention poor customer service. Opened a TW account (2 accounts sterling and Euro) and switched all our direct debits Electric, water, Suma, community charges to TW. No charges just a very small transaction cost when converting excellent exchange rate - Sterling to Euro. I have a UK Santander account and have a direct debit monthly to my TW sterling account based on a rough calculation of annual direct debit costs. I can convert the sterling when ever my Euro account is running low and the exchange rate is ok. If I forget and there are insufficient funds in my Euro account, TW automatically take the balance from the Sterling account. TW send me an email when ever they receive and pay a direct debit.
Personally I don’t have a need for the TW debit card as I can use my UK Santander debit card to withdraw cash at a Spanish ATM with no charges. I also have a Halifax credit card which I only use in Spain and there are no charges for Euro purchases. Obviously I pay the balance monthly.

Transfer Wise account negatives. NONE, Positives significant saving, more control, great customer service. What’s not to decide. This is from a Non resident point of view, no idea if the benefits are as good for residents.

Iaddpreciate this. I also have a Caixa account and have been sent communications to advise they're going to start charging 35 euros per quarter for their Hola account so I was starting the search for more cost effective solutions.

Thanks

Hi I'm thinking about setting up a TW and shutting my caixia account how much would it cost me to withdraw say €600 at a time from a ATM machine. Cheers Jules

I use them for all my banking pretty sure limit is 300 euros at ATM
https://transferwise.com/u/a122 use this link first transfer free