Hi all, while I agree with jer that foreign cheques are an absolute no-no anywhere, cheques drawn on a "local" bank here in lanzarote are still seen as cash!!! Just shows how far behind the mainland we are!!! I have an al portador cheque I wrote for a washing machine 2 years ago which must still be doing the rounds as it has not yet appeared in my account!!!

Madsue-
I wouldn't say the Mainland is behind- as cashing a check as if it were cash is very dangerous for a bank to do- maybe its more that the island is a better place for more, 'flexibility' to your money! Or... that they want to see about making more money on people's check if they bounce! But then, dealing with so many foreigners- how would they get their money?!

mmmmmmm...........

Espe3!! I was meaning how far behind Lanzarote is!!! Not the other way round

Hey espe3, actually, NOBODY here will cash a foreign check, not even the banks (unless you have an excellent relationship with yours and a loooong standing account with more than enough funds to cover the check total).

What I was referring to was depositing them in your Spanish bank account.

You see, when you deposit a foreign check, it takes 1 week - 10 days for the funds to become available.

Until then it appears as "saldo retenido" (retained balance) in your account.

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. Sue, that washing machine check story ranks up there with DELL Spain who forgot to charge me the over 400,000 of the old pesetas (a LOT o cash!!!) for my desktop and I bought it 2 years ago

Jer-
I was referring to Madsues post- not yours on cashing checks. And apparently I misunderstood Madsue's post- I thought something was really strange! Deposit a foreign check- yes (and yes, I know, about 10 days waiting) but cash it out?! THAT would be peculiar indeed!

:jeje: bugger it!!! And I thought I had got away with a lot of money. That washing machine was real cheap Having said that, the cheque is still doing the rounds I suppose

Yeah sue, it was a kick inthe ass when I got a call from DELL Spain about 2 weeks after they had delivered asking me what credit card I had used to pay for the PC online via their website and all sorts of other details.

Just so happened that they had changed their computer system on billing and mine got lost

I had used my dad's credit card since he had offered to pay for half the computer as a holiday present for me and when DELL called I told them it was my dad's card and they had to take it up with him. Let's just say my dad is a very hard person to get in touch with... and 2 years later, no charge

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. someone once posted on the board calling me a thief fro not correcting the problem with DELL, it was the funniest thing I have EVER read.

Ok, back to the Citibank topic.

I had printed out all the questions on this thread and was ready to bring them over to the Citibank on Calle Alcal� just off Puerta del Sol, only to find that it is a Citibank no longer. They sold the office to a new small bank.

So, they directed me to the Citibank on Calle Princesa (across from the Corte Ingl�s) and I hurried on over.

When I got there I realized that I had left the paper with all the questions at home

So, the only issue I remembered was the compatibility between Citibank USA and Spain.

Well, here it is...

There is a BIG difference between opening a Citibank account in $$$ here and opening one in USA.

If you open a $$$ account here, you only have access to your account HERE. It is an account in "divisas" and you pay the "divisa" exchange rate when you transfer $$$ into it.

If you open a $$$ account at Citibank Spain (or at any other bank here for that matter), you do not even get an ATM card nor a bank book and can not take out $$$ from the account if back in USA visiting. You simply keep track of your balance with deposit slips and other paperwork.

If you have a Citibank account in $$$ back in USA however, you have total and complete access to your funds (got this straight from the Citibank folks on Calle Princesa). They DO give you an ATM card back in USA and therefore you can withdraw on the account while here or anywhere else (in the local currency of course).

THE ABOVE IS THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE THAT I LEARNED ABOUT TODAY.

Speculating that the $$$ will get stronger, I put in $2,500 that I had in cash and the change-over (from cahs to divisa) rate was 1.035. This came to $2,414.31 in my account. YIKES!!! Not even a dollar is worth a dollar here unless you keep it under your M-A-T-T-R-E-S (leave off the last "S" for..."SUCKER" ).

The other option was changing the $$$ directly into Euros and taking even more of a beating so I opted to change the $$$ to divisas and open my $$$ account with Citibank Spain.

Morals of the story:

2) Open your $$$ account in USA rather than in Spain, it is more flexible.

1) jer has to start charging his clients in Euros!!!

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. I will be going back next week with all questions in hand this time.

Hey Jer, bring the ransom note to VB on Sunday in case my 'man at the bank' shows - I'm pretty sure he would be happy to pass it on (remember I said I would find out there? - well you may recall my English classes at HQ are no more, so he is our best hope - failing that I have one other 'inside source')

A

Okay, as usual I got a ton of information here. Okay, I have one last remaining question so where do I get a "carta de no residente" i.e. the proof of non-residency letter? Jer you mentioned a specific police station, right?

So, I will go with the Catalan bank La Caixa it seems that the consensus is that they are reliable, friendly, and the most professional.

thanks again
JULIAN

hey jayg, why do you want the letter?

if you read this thread you will see that you do not need it to open an account at the bank i sent you all to

saludos,
jer...

Reading this thread brought back so many horrible bureaucratic Spanish banking memories for me!

And in just a few months I'll be going through it again--and trying to enroll in Complutense--and trying to get a student visa--and renting an apartment. I'm convinced that the insane Spanish bureaucracy is there just to ensure that foreigners can't take root easily!


So here are my convoluted Spanish banking questions:

1. Is it possible to open an account in any Spanish bank while still in the US? Are there any branches here?

2. A lot of apartments now require an aval bancario, which--as I understand it--is a statement from the bank guaranteeing rent for one year. To get an aval, you can deposit one year's rent into an account that you cannot touch (or have good local credit history or proof of income--not likely in our case).

Assuming that the above isn't completely wrong...Is it possible to get an aval on a non-resident account?

3. And here's the kicker... how can you get a bank account and an aval--in order to secure an apartment--when you don't have a permanent address to give to the bank?!

Does anyone know if it is possible to open an account in a Spanish bank and leave the money in dollars? We're moving to Madrid in June and may have to have a certain amount of money in the bank to get our visa, rent a place or do some other things. Given the crappy exchange rate, I'd hate to have to convert a large sum to Euros right away...

Also, if anyone has any insight into the questions that I posted in the message just above this one I'd also appreciate it.

And can someone remind me that moving to Madrid is worth all of this silly stuff I'm obsessing about...

Thanks!

hey mariposita, while you can not have a normal euros account and leave the money in $$$, you can open a different account called a "cuenta de divisas" (foreign currency account) in USD$$$

unfortunately, there are 2 disadvantages (at least 2 major ones):

1) "divisa" accounts are pretty useless in that they pay NO interest and have monthly maintenance fees (amt. depends on where you open the account).

2) it is not as easy as just putting in the $$$ and conserving the amt. you put into the account. here when you open one of these accounts in "divisas", you put the $$$ in fine but the bank takes them and makes you buy the $$$ first, then it goes int the account. so, if you put in say 3,000 USD, your account will only receive say 2,700 (just an example, not sure what the buying price of the divisa in $$$ is today).

yes, hard to grasp but true. even though you give the bank USD here, they make you buy their $$$ and you take a hit. essentially, you are buying $$$ with $$$ and losing $$$ in the process.

all in all, expect to lose some serious cash buying the "divisa"

i did this years ago and then this years ago and it was not worth it!!! hindsight is 20/20 but if i had to do it all over again i would have just changed the $$$ to pesetas.

there is a reason that spanish banks are some of the most lucrative inthe world.

saludos,
jer...

Jer--
Thanks for the info. At least now I know the score--one less detail to ponder.

I sure wish my credit union had a branch in Madrid. I've gotten so spoiled.

I don't know how I always manage to live abroad when the dollar is in the crapper. I just need to mentally prepare myself to flush a whole lot of my money down the metaphorical toilet and I'll be fine. At least the banks in Spain do some good things like funding the arts and having cool logos...

--Megan