Bank and euros

I wouldn't send money directly to Spain from your UK bank as they tend to charge worse rates of exchange and transfers can (though don't always) take longer. As you've realised there are currency companies that can do this better. When we were first looking about 2 years ago we went in to see Michelle Birch at Currencies Direct on Mojacar Playa who explained their services and I think I had to show passports. I then set up the account at https://www.currenciesdirect.com/en

When we agreed to purchase a property we transferred the money from the UK bank to Currencies Direct in London online. You'll see the rate on their site and the amount you'll get in Euros. We transferred the larger sums by bank transfer but you can also use a debit card for smaller amounts. We set up our lawyer's bank details on the site so CD knew where to send it. The money for the initial holding deposit and then later other large sums were then transferred over to the lawyer. Anything over £25000 in a single transcation and you just have to give Currencies Direct a call first. I find that when I am moving money over to the Spanish account for bills etc, if I pay CD with a debit card before 12am it will be in the Spanish account the next morning apart from Saturdays and Sundays. For bank transfers it can take a day longer.

Each estate agent tends to have a currency company they work with and recommend, so will try to steer you in that direction. No particular issue with that and we were/are happy that Paul Fullard at Next Stop Almeria recommended Currencies Direct. There are of course plenty of other companies, GCEN being one, who offer the same sort of currency service. I don't know the 2 you mentioned in your post.

As part of the purchase system you can give your lawyer Power of Attorney and get them to arrange your NIE numbers which is what we needed for the bank account at Banco Sabadell in Vera  who are English-speaking and very good. They can also open the Spanish bank account for you. We didn't have to worry about any of that. Giving POA also means you don't have to keep flying out to sign things. All you will need to do is the next time you are there is to go into the bank to sign the papers for the account and collect your cards - that can take a couple of hours - and probably also will need to go with the lawyer to the Notary to sign a few things. There are always plenty of recommendations for good lawyers, but the one we used and continue to use is Maria Maroto and her team at Mundi Abogados http://www.mundiabogados.com/ who explained everything in English, dealt with getting the NIE and bank accounts, got the utilities connected & transferred over to our names and were very professional.

Our tenant didn't have a Spanish bank account when he rented our Palomares property long term last month (through D&D Property Care Almeria on Mojacar Playa who drew up the contract in English and Spanish). I think he is in the process of opening an account at Sabadell in Vera but it certainly wasn't a requirement.

An alternative to people like Currencies Direct is to open a borderless bank account at Transferwise which we've done recently. This will give you an IBAN bank account number for use in Spain for utilities direct debits etc. You will need to upload a passport to their site. They can sometimes give a slightly better rate of exchange and there are other benefits, e.g. Spanish tax authorities and utilities companies can't put a hold on an amount in your account for no apparent reason and with no warning which I've heard has happened to some people.  Their site is at https://transferwise.com/

I hope some of that is helpful but come back with any other questions and message me if you'd like me to get Michelle at Currencies Direct to contact you so she can explain the process of transfers.

Rob
Los Gallardos/Palomares

Hi, the estate agent spanish holiday choice web site will tell you all you need to know and if your in Spain it's in print also.That's the set up bit.

Money wise I found hi ex to give the best rates but that's for quite large sums of money, but I would still use them as a reference then walk in gcen or others on the playa and haggle....better then using the banks 

I hope that helps a bit.

Set up a basic Spanish bank acount at e.g. UNICAJA,  & use TRANSFERWISE.   Unbeatable rates and service plus easy to use APP,  do everything from yr smartphone GBP to EUR or vice versa.   Money is with you in approx 24-48 hrs mon-fri.  

Good luck.

Gracias! Can I set up these accounts from my iphone or do I need to be physically at a branch? 

Maria x

We have recently rented a property in Los Higuerales, through an agency, but we did not need a Spanish bank account, so I don’t think it can be a hard and fast rule that you must have one.  All we gave was copies of our passports and a cash deposit.  No NIE either.  Maybe it just makes less work for the agency you’re using to demand a Spanish bank account?  Just a thought.   We are now going through steps for residencia, but being at the very beginning of this effort we often find we need different, additional or unexpected paperwork, so I’m beginning to suspect that it can very much depend on correct interpretation of required information.  We have a list but it’s changing almost daily, surprisingly, so I’m not sure of the value in sharing it! :-)

You final list would be useful! Which renting agency did you use? That would also be good to see whether they have anything on their rent books appropriate for me. Thanks

Hi Champ,  Harry and I used New Horizon Villas and found them good.  They have 2 staff who speak really good English, and they were helpful at every stage.  We mainly dealt with Alba, who was excellent and can rec9mmend you contact her.  I will start getting our hand written list sorted so that I can send it to you online.  Plus I’ll send you a private message with my email and phone number too.