Rip off charges from Sabadell CAM

Has anyone else noticed the level of charges being imposed by this bank ? I have been meaning to carry out an audit of my statement over a 12 month period to see just how much we get hit for over a year as I feel like there appears to be more & more charges cropping up all of the time. On checking my statement today, right there at the top is a new charge ( I don't recall seing this one previously) to both my wife & me of 25 euros for service card payment. The ironic part of this is that I have not even been sent the new card since the Sabadell take over and my wife has been unable to activate hers, so effectively they are charging us just short of £50 for something we can not even use !!!

Tried to phone since I spotted this half an hour ago but line constantly engaged. Not holding out much hope that I can sort this over the phone, knowing how the Spanish deal with their customers, but have to attempt to anyway.

Does anyone know how to run their financial affars in Spain without being at the mercy of these bandits?

I seem to remember reading of a Sabadell account without any charges as long as you deposit 1000 euros per month. Better still, I would rather run everything from the UK (I have a Santander UK account) where I could talk to someone and sort out any issues as they arose. I really detest the way these people do things, in that you do not get any pre-warnings of anything and they are just free to raid your account to claw back the money they lose across their operations because they are so frigging incompetent.

Regards,

 

This message was last edited by Billbo on 25/10/2013.

Hi Will,

Under CAM I was charged €8.75 a quarter for account maintenance which I presumed included my debit card.  Since takeover by Sabadell, I pay anything between €13 and €16 a quarter, with an annual card fee of €20.  Like you I haven't had a card since takeover, and I have been told I have to collect it in person.I didn't know they had a UK branch.  To be fair I find all their other banking services very good.

Good luck.

billbo,

sabadell do an "expantion account" which you don't pay any charges on. the amount you have to deposit every month is 700 euro min.

Keeve,
Sorry, typo'. Should have said santander uk account.

Kitchenman, I have enquired this afternoon online about the expantion account and requested a call back. I could use this to my advantage to drip feed money to pay off mortgage which comes off the interest only option this November. Just wary about building up too much of a balance in a Spanish bank !

My mission now will be to get them to refund these charges for something we can not even use.

i know what you mean about not building up a large balance in you spanish account.

our outlook on it is that when we come out to spain we dont need to bring any cash or cards from the uk as all the cash we need will be out there already

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the problem with holding a 'large' balance with a Spanish Bank?  Are they not subject to EU regulations protecting deposits up to ~80k?  Or by large do you mean over the protected amount?

igw,

I assume the same protection up to 80K applies, but I just don't have the confidence that you would see your money 'any time soon' if these banks go to the wall. Isn't it the Government that provides the guarantee ?  Not sure if I have any faith in the Spanish Government being my guardian angel in times of distress ! You hear rumours every week about this bank or that bank about to file for bankrupcy protection.

And 43e for the credit card per annum as well now (used to be 20e), and this on top of the c13e per quarter account fees on an account that was going to be free if you had their mortgage ....... i know what you mean Will, but all banks in every country will go the same way, nothing is free - the UK free banking system is a false misleading market.

As for the 80k protection every bank in every EU country is in the same situation, the money is protected by the government but the protection doesn't give a date for paying up, and as for governments even the US government didn't pay the wages of its employees two weeks ago !!!!

IGW, you are a braver person than me to hold a large sum of money with a Spanish bank.  In N8, a water metre was stolen.....the owner got a bill of about 600Euro, other owners around the resort had bills of up to 1500 Euro....I assume these were similar circumstances but haven't heard!!  Anyway, back to N8....Socamex have confirmed that the metre was stolen and used in a car wash...BUT it's the customer's fault not theirs!!  My theory, if the money hadn't been in the account...they wouldn't have got it!

Reason 2, you sell me a car...paperwork not quite right...6 months down the line I have an accident...cost, for argument's sake...10k...bank will freeze you money...for that 10 k to be paid plus any speeding tickets etc I have acquired!!

Thirdly, you get a contract phone over here from Movistar, for example...afer your term is up you cancel the contract....Movistar decide to take 700Euro from your account....purrly because they can...you go to a solicitor....he says you will never see that money again.

It would be funny if there weren't people being stung in situations like this every day...I would keep the bare minimum in a Spanish account that I have to.  I know when my direct debits are due for the next month...and that is as much as I would trust them with!! Spanish law and Spanish banking laws are different!!!

The Spanish government often help themselves to your money in their banks if they decide you owe them. No explanation, no appeal just legalised theft.