Thanks. I'm going to try to open one tomorrow without the letter tomorrow. I'll keep ya updated.

Chad

I was able to open my account at La Caixa on c/Sagsta not too far from the Glorieta de Bilbao. All I needed was my passport. I asked her what the minimum deposit was to open the account and she stopped, thought about it for a moment, and said that 20 euros should be fine. Plus, she was friendly.

Chad

yes, I've heard La Caixa is real friendly lately, with the whole Catalonian Boycott, they are aparently losing a lot of business in Madrid.

Did she tell you if you'd have an account that would earn interest? My biggest issue when coming to Spain was that as a foreigner they wouldn't pay interest of any kind.

as far as i know la caixa pays interest on all accounts but interest on a savings account in spain is pathetic at best.

saludos,
jer...

I have to say that the service I have had with La Caixa here where I live is the best I think I've had of any service since being in Spain.

I opened a bank account and the girl was super helpful about telling me about all of my options. I didn't have to make a deposit and the charge is only 12€ a year. She even set me up with a program for teenagers (which I'm not, lol) that gives me points when I use my debit card that I can later use in a bunch of stores. I sometimes get checks from the U.S. and she reduced the percentage that they take on that for me too.

I would definately recommend them. No complaints at all.

hello hello!

have read through this entire thread as i am preparing for my early june arrivl in madrid (YESSS! i got the job offer!). I think i've pretty much decided how to take care of my banking: I'll keep my bank accounts here in the US which i can manage from online, and open a bank account in Madrid (will go to Jer's la caixa and hope they don't want the Carta de No Residente). Here are some questions:

1. what is the difference between opening a checking vs. savings account in spain? is there even a seperation of the two like in the US?

2. i read that checks are not widely used there. then how do people pay their rent? do most set it up to automatically debit their bank accounts?

3. will i automatically get a debit card with my bank account? what if i also want a Visa debit card? is that a seperate process? (think i will try to get a Visa debit card first, and then a real credit card in a few months once i have things settled.)

4. i will probbaly take out a few hundred euros from citibank (my US bank) and use that to open my la caixa account. i guess that should help with some exchange fees, divisas, etc., right?

5. When i begin working i will be paid in US dollars (until i get my work permit). from what you know about fees, exchange rates, comission, etc.-- is it better to send those checks home, deposit them at home, and then take out the cash in euros? OR, should i deposit those US dollar checks into my new spanish account? what kind of percentage will they take out to convert the money?

that's it! i think once i get these answers i'll be pretty comfortable undrestanding the banking situation. thanks in advance for all the help

Rebecca

Here is my take on this:

1./2. I've never written a check in Spain... For most stuff, I just do an ingreso. The recipient gives you their bank info and you go to their bank or your bank and make the transfer. Very handy (and necessary) for paying fees, deposits, bills, etc.

For rent we--like many people--pay in cash. A lot of landlords are doing some creative accounting, so they don't want an official paper trail. We make our landlords give us a signed receipt every month for our own purposes.

3. As I remember, it took about a week after we set up our account to get the visa check/debit card. We have a Caja Madrid account (not recommended--they seem to have the most obnoxious hours, restrictions, and employees--though also the most ATMs...). We also have a BBVA account, only because they are open on Saturday mornings.

4. The fees depend completely on your bank in the US. I've never encountered a Spanish bank that charges me a fee for using my American card (though the do charge fees for using other Spanish bank cards).

5. I think the easiest thing would be for them to direct deposit your US dollar paychecks into your US account. I only change my dollars over as need be. I'm still holding out hope that someday the dollar will find its out of the crapper and be worth something.

WARNING: if you have a US visa check card, you will be charged a 1% fee on all foreign purchase and withdrawals. This includes when you use it as a debit card at an ATM. It's probably best to get a regular ATM card and visa check card if your bank will let you.

CULTURAL NOTE: Mentally prepare yourself for the libreta bancaria. This is a bank book (kind of looks like a passport) that lists all of the transactions on your account. There is a little slot in some ATM machines where you stick it in and it miraculously turns the pages and prints all of the latest transactions. The first time I had to do it I got really freaked out and someone had to hold my hand through the entire process. For residency renewal purposes, you might be asked to show your libreta to prove that you have the necessary funds.

Yeah I have to say the whole spanish bank account, tarjeta de no residente, and residency stuff throws me a bit. I spent about 3 hours going through old posts the other day and taking notes and I am still confused. Technically I have to get the tarjeta first, then I can open a bank account (but then there is the question of how to transport the money I need to open the account - just come to Madrid with cash and then transfer the rest from my US account?), then I have to put enough money in the bank account to meet the residency requirement, which was around 2700 euros when Greguito did it, then I can get my residency card, which will assign me an NIF, which then enables the spanish government to tax any amount that is in my account as income? So then my question was, do you have to get a residency card, do you have to get an NIF, is there any benefit to not doing this to avoid taxes? I am a little confused, but hope I will figure it out.

llewilli--
We never had to get a NIF for our bank account (we did later have to get one to receive a package from the US that was taxed). The number that you get on a student visa is not the same as a NIF. It's an NIE (numero de identificación de extranjero). As far as I know (at least in our cases), getting a NIF is a separate process. Christian did it recently and it's not that bad:

NIE to NIF

The way I opened our account was that I got the "carta de no residente/o no residencia" (it was a letter, not a card, as I remember). Then I opened the account with money that I took out from an ATM. I then had my US bank wire the money necessary for the visa. It took two or three days, as I remember. Then I got the official statement from the bank and took it to the comisaría.

It sounds like banks are getting more lax about the "no residente" thing, so I would try shopping around a bit before you go through the hassle of going to the comisaría.

My experience of opening a bank account was so long ago as to not be relevant. But with regards to commission on cheques. I wrote a cheque for 5000$ on my Bank of America account, to pay into my Banco Santander account, and the commission was 22€. Also watch out for the fecha de valor, the date you can actually draw on that money!!! For me now it is only 5 days, but in the past has been up to two weeks!!!

This is the info I received from one of our American bank accounts. I have contacted a few other banks/credit unions, and they also confirm, so check with your financial institute.

quote:

Debit and Credit Card Alert
for transactions in Canada, Spain, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Due to the number of fraudulent debit and credit card transactions occurring in Mexico, Canada, Spain, Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, your Credit Union has taken the following preventative measures:

*
Debit Cards: Blocked all usage of non PIN-based transactions in Hong Kong and Taiwan regions.
* Debit Cards: Blocked all usage in Mexico, Canada and Spain.
* Credit Cards: Blocked all usage in Canada and Spain.

When in Canada and Spain: All debit card and credit card transactions have been blocked until further notice.

One thing, the credit union that sent us this information is not a very large one, so maybe the nationwide banks, B of A, Wells Fargo, etc, may not be doing this.


Also, before going to Spain, call your credit and debit card comapnies to let them know you are going out of the country or else they may put a block on your account, which is what happened to us, luckily at the very end of our trip.

Congratulations and good luck,

Irene

hey binkx and all.

just put my cousin and her hubby on a plane to málaga so i'm back

looks like ya don't need me much though since you got some great advice above.

i will be brief with my 2 cents...

1 + 2) like mariposita, i have never written a check here, in fact, when i think about it i have never seen one either and i would never accept one for payment so you can forget about them. just open a savings account. if my rent were the same every month, i would do an automatic monthly transfer to my landlords account from mine. this can be set up at your bankl and they charge aboit 1-2 euros to do it. so, every month on the day you specify, the transfer is done. my rent is not the same every month as our water bill fluctuates. during the first few days of the month, a family member of my landlord leaves a slip in my mailbox of how much we need to pay so i simply go to any branch of my landlords bank a day or so later and pay into her account. this is like direct deposit. how you pay you rent will depend on how your landolord wants it so not much sense worrying about it now.

3 + 4) covered above by others. i also run like hell from caja madrid. i will also add that there are citibank branches here in madrid but DO NOT EXPECT TO HAVE AN ADVANTAGES JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A CITIBAN CUSTOMER IN U.S.A. citibank spain is an entirely different animal and is a separate company from that os the states. they have no ties as far as i could tell so avoid citibank here as there are only a few branches in madrid.

5) i think the hope that the dollar will come back is just blind faith in the u.s. economy so see if you can get paid in euros as soon as possible. yes, u.s. banks pay a LOT more interest on savings accounts to that is one advantage of leaving your money there. the major disadvantage is getting creamed on the exchange rate, commissions, etc... hard to look at your salary in $$$ and then realize it is 20-30% less in euros

saludos,
jer...

I´d have said until recently that cheques aren´t really used, but I´ve recently been specifically asked to pay by personal cheque on several occasions. My bank does not charge me for writing cheques.

Some people trust cheques more than transfers.

BTW, you can make transfers at cash machines too, at least in the 4B network. This tends to be more convenient than waiting in line during opening hours, and of course you get a receipt. There is an upper total daily limit. Stephen

holaaa,

just double checking on something- i can pay bills and make transfers and such through La Caixa's internet page, right? do you know if they charge a fee for that?

graciasssssss

hey binkx.

their internet banking is only commission free if you are paying from your la caixa account to another one (eg. if your landlord also has his/her acct. with la caixa).

otherwise you pay for all transactions (eg. if you pay from your la caixa acct. into your landlord's bbva, caja madrid, bsch, etc... acct.).

the owner of my office space for example has his acct. at "banesto" (another spanish bank) and since my office rent is always the same amt. each month, i use the automatic transfer on the 1st of each month via my la caixa acct. to pay my office rent. since it is from la caixa to a diff bank, they charge me 1.50 euros per transfer for the service. for me it is worth it to not have to take the money out of my account and then go to a branch of his bank and put the money into his acct. time is money so i let la caixa do it automatically and i eat the 1.50 euro fee.

spanish banks are some of the most lucrative in the world so they like to charge for amost everything, get used to it.

unless you have a few million (euros) with them, they tend not to waive too many commissions.

saludos,
jer...