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Paying a Cheque into my Spanish Account

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:05am
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Morning all, those very nice people at HMRC have sent me a cheque for a tax rebate, it is a rather large four figure sum in pounds sterling.

I want to pay it into my Spanish bank account (Unicaja), has anyone done this before?

Is it possible and what issues can I expect, will take my TIE, Passport, etc. with me but having lived here five years I know there is bound to be issues.

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:05pm

Lmj18

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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:05pm

It is possible, but obviously charges and currency conversion fees.

Have you a uk bank account, send the cheque to someone you trust to pay it in? I’ve told Hmrc to make a direct payment to my uk account, for future refunds, and never send a sterling cheque to me. 

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:38pm

Jimh

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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:38pm

If you have a UK account a lot of the UK Banks accept a photograph of the cheque online and pay it into your UK account through their app 

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:52pm

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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:52pm

I did it the other day for a couple of thousand and it cost me 18 euros. Thirty day wait before it lands in your account.


Regards Steve 

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 4:43pm

AndrewS

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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 4:43pm

My experience is limited but if you are registered on the Gov Gateway site HMRC will transfer tax refunds directly (and instantly) to your nominated UK account. You may be able to register a Spanish account to receive it, but I doubt it.

You may already transfer funds from your UK account to Spanish account electronically, which with my UK bank is a bit of a fag but relatively easy, although as a consequence of leaving the EU Brits may have to pay a transfer receiving fee at the Spanish bank end. 

You may have negotiated with your bank to minimize their fees but I tend to keep the account balance in Spain at a minimum due to any risk of Embargo charges (it does happen) and the management charges applied by Spanish banks.

You are likely already aware of all this but something may help.

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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 5:03pm

Lyn77

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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 5:03pm

You can pay a uk cheque into your spanish bank account and we pay 18 euros at cajamar.  No problem. Especially if your rebate is a 1 off.  If you now live in spain i found it very difficult to open a ukgov gateway site account from here so i gave up.  If however you still have a uk account the inlabd revenue might pay it direct into that.  But beware some banks are closing accounts for customers who no longer have a UK  address.  Barclays are one of the ones i am referring to.  They told me they were going to close mine so i just told my direct credit company to transfer my money direct to spain.  Problem solved.   

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:53pm

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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:53pm

Lmj18 wrote on Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:05pm:

It is possible, but obviously charges and currency conversion fees.

Have you a uk bank account, send the cheque to someone you trust to pay it in? I’ve told Hmrc to make a direct payment to my uk account, for future refunds, and never send a sterling cheque to me. 

HMRC told us that due to the banking regulations they are no longer able to pay directly into our accounts, they had to send us cheques. Ergo we had to send said cheques to family in UK in order for them to pay into our UK accounts!!!

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:53pm

AndrewS

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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:53pm

JanB wrote on Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:53pm:

HMRC told us that due to the banking regulations they are no longer able to pay directly into our accounts, they had to send us cheques. Ergo we had to send said cheques to family in UK in order for them to pay into our UK accounts!!!

Could this be another benefit of Brexit? 

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:00am

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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:00am

AndrewS wrote on Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:53pm:

Could this be another benefit of Brexit? 

Absolutely!

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:00am

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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:00am

All the advice you’ve been given above is really good with respect to posting the cheque into a UK account - your own or someone else’s - to avoid paying the exchange rate that the bank will charge you. That will cost nothing, and then you can use a reliable company to send the money to Spain - we use Currency Fair, and pay £3 to send it to Cajamar - other trails on this page recommend a number of other companies too. That way you will get a much better rate of exchange. It’s worth doing if you’re talking about a four-figure sum. Good luck!

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