Banking

I don’t know if things have changed (maybe they have with Brexit looming) but when we got our ‘Government’ pensions, they HAD to be paid into a Spanish account!

I opened a Yorkshire bank account, and my wife opened a Clydesdale bank account while we’ve been living here, we both have our private pensions paid into these accounts

Thank you

As I am not a pensioner I can’t comment on the rules re where pension payments can or cannot be paid. 

However I have UK GBP current accounts with HSBC and Barclays with both accounts using my Spanish address. 

In addition if you don’t mind branchless banking you could try a Transferwise account. They provide a UK GBP account a Euro account and US$ account all with individual IBAN numbers. They provide a single multi currency debit card that allows you to pay in Euros in Spain and GBP in UK, assuming the individual accounts have sufficient funds. In addition you can move money between currencies online on the internet. All this took about ten minutes to set up online and the card was delivered to our condo here in Vera within a week  

For Spanish bank I have previously and will continue to do so, recommended Sabadell. Branches in Vera Pueblo and Mojácar Playa both have English speaking staff and you can set up ATM to operate in English when you insert your card

He this helps  

I have my private pension from the uk paid into santander uk they allow you to have a uk account even when you don’t live in the uk also you can draw money from that account from santander in Spain, it is they are the Same bank but are run separately 

Our Spanish bank is sabadell where I have my state pension paid directly in to it, and we occasionally have money transferred santander uk into to Moneycorp they then transfer it to sabadell expansion account

Thank you great to know.

My understanding is that under the existing EU laws any bank (in the UK) is obliged to continue to allow you as a U.K. citizen to operate a current debit account with them. As long as you reside within the EU it is not a problem. Tesco need to liaise with their Head Office!

We retain our Nationwide account in the U.K. into which the occupational pension is paid. That account is also used for rental income as we rented our house out when we moved to Spain last year. So our U.K. account is still used regularly.

Our U.K. state pension is paid each 28 days into our Spanish bank account, Sabadell. It’s paid in in euros and varies each month according to the rate of exchange. 

We transfer monies from our U.K. Nationwide account to the Sabadell account from time to time using Transferwise via the internet, which is far cheaper than using the usual interbank system.

Hope this helps! Tesco Bank is a bank like any other and should not be allowed to get away with telling porkies! It may be worth you contacting the banking ombudsman...

You have just said exactly as I have just said 

Thank you

I live in the UK with a house here in Mojacar and used the Cajamar in Mojacar for the last year. If you get used to waiting in a que to open a new bank account they were very helpful and all (most) in English. I have debit and credit cards that used in any ATM anywhere are in English.

The online banking (which I access from the UK) is very good and also all in English. Setup my payments of the local bills and taxs to pay from the IBAN number of my account.

Payments from the UK or anywhere just go to the IBAN account number.

Just have to get used to calmly waiting your turn. Quite good really and I am happy to wait a bit in Mojacar rather than my local UK town bank (if there is one).