Talk Quesada forum

Had notification of the initial intentions from Sabatell today on the treatment of former Halifax/Lloyds customers.

Today's missive was in line with current accounts and I can see we will be paying 12.50 quarterly for service charge and 50 cents for any transaction in a month after the initial 5.

If you have a deposit account acruing interest its being adjusted more to their favour.

No mention of the Mortgages yet but I'm sure we will be screwed.

Their underlying tenet is: If you dont like it, move before the end of March.

We also received this letter today. Wonder if anyone has a Sabadell Account already and can tell us if there is any way of avoiding these charges. Also what about cash machine transactions, will they still be free of charge?
I can't imagine it's as easy to leave and swap banks in Spain as it is these days in the UK. Here in the UK we just go to another bank, say we want to move to them and they do all the transferring. However, sorry to say this but usually if there is a difficult way to do something, the Spanish authorities will find it!
Be interested to hear any views on this.

Jan

Hi I was a CAM Bank customer and was charged for everything, then when Sabadell took over I was offered an Expansion Account. I have copied the terms for this account below, the only condition is you must transfer at least 700 euros per month into this account, either a pension, or a direct debit from your uk account. Hope this helps.

• Características
  
  
  Salary Account with zero fees, for
  administration, maintenance, for transfers in euros, both domestic and to EEA countries and deposit of cheques in euros domiciled with a Spanish credit institution.
  
  Free cards
  Both debit card , and credit card , the SIN card and Repsol Máxima
  Free withdrawals at ATMs
  With the debit card at all ServiRed network ATMs for withdrawals equal to or greater than 60 €
  
  Refund of 3% of bills direct debited
  Electricity, gas, fixed telephone, mobile and Internet (maximum 20 euros a month) when direct depositing your salary, pension or regular income with us.
  
  2% refund on fuel
  With the Repsol Máxima card for filling up at Repsol, Campsa and Petronor petrol stations
  Expansión Line
  Extra money up to 5,000 euros which you can use in full or in part, immediately, with no paperwork or arrangement or assessment fees. By accessing your home banking service See video .
  
  Your bank by your side, with all the home banking services included.
  
  Special conditions for your savings
  With the Vinculación Deposit we reward your loyalty with greater profitability.
  And our commitment to service and customised care
  Find out about everything the Expansión Account, the Salary Account can offer you, with zero fees or expenses:
  
  
  • Application to change direct salary payment
  • Application to change direct bill payment
  
  Offer valid as from December 2012 for direct depositing a salary, pension or regular monthly deposit of a minimum amount of 700 euros (except those aged under 26). Deposits from accounts open with the Banco Sabadell Group belonging to the same holder are excluded.
  Customers aged between 18 and 25 can enjoy all the advantages of the account without having to deposit their salary or regular deposits.
  
  
  
  
  

Was with Halifax/Lloyds now looking at other Bank options like Santander and Barclays

keithkwll wrote:Was with Halifax/Lloyds now looking at other Bank options like Santander and Barclays

Hello keithkwll,

Please let us know how you get on - I think we would consider changing to Barclays in Spain, if it was easy to switch all the utility direct debits without too much bother.

We have some dealings with Abbey/ Santander in the UK but have not always been happy with them for various reasons, so we would prefer not to bank with Santander in Spain but Barclays sounds hopeful.

Look forward to hearing how you go about switching to another bank and if anyone else manages to find any information on switching banks ( preferably while in the UK as we won't be there for a while).




Jan.

Seen the forms Guapa - We have them too.

Glyn wrote:Had notification of the initial intentions from Sabatell today on the treatment of former Halifax/Lloyds customers.

Today's missive was in line with current accounts and I can see we will be paying 12.50 quarterly for service charge and 50 cents for any transaction in a month after the initial 5.

If you have a deposit account acruing interest its being adjusted more to their favour.

No mention of the Mortgages yet but I'm sure we will be screwed.

Their underlying tenet is: If you dont like it, move before the end of March.

==========================

I've been with them for over 9 years - and do grit my teeth about these charges! The only plus for us is that we regularly send over money - for utilities (via their London office) free of charge and at a good rate!

The Expansion Account is probably of more benefit to Spanish residents than to non-resident, because of the monthly amount that you have to pay in to achieve the benefit!

I have a couple of similar accounts in England - but at the moment don't want to hold more money in my Spanish account than I have to!!

Out if interest, does anyone have a Barclays account in the UK and a Barclays account in Spain? If so can the UK Barclays be used to transfer money over at a preferential rate, or no charge, as we did with our Halifax to Halifax accounts? Also how do the charges compare between Barclays in Spain and Sabadell in Spain? (The basic charges for Sabadell can be seen on Guapa's attachments above).

We phoned Sabadell in London to enquire about opening an account in the UK with them, to transfer monies across and to help with other queries while we are in the UK but they said they only take on Corporate clients nowadays.

I know we have had some good suggestions & recommendations on TalkQuesada before about using the various money transfer companies. These suggestions have been very helpful and we may very well use them but this still doesn't help with the high charges that Sabadell and possibly certain other banks in Spain seem to be adding to their current accounts. We do need to make a decision whether to jump ship from Sabadell before March 2014 but careful comparison with other banks in Spain is important, otherwise we could be making a bad decision.

Thank you for any help with this.

Jan.

Guapa wrote:

Jan wrote:Seen the forms Guapa - We have them too.

I posted forms as many non residents are currently in Spain but the form was sent to their UK address so they have no clue as to what it says. Many on other forums are asking what it says!

Good idea!

You can go to another bank here and they will do all the transactions for you. The only thing you must do is tell them about your standing orders.