Re: non-residency status certificate

Hi

Does anyone know about the above certificate?  Our bank, Halifax Hispania, have sent a message on our latest bank statement stating they will be charging a 12 euros fee for acquiring the above but that it will not affect us if we have a resident's account - is this a new tactic that the Spanish banks are trying to charge?

Thanks

It's not a bank thing as they all make this charge every 2 years. I thought however that Halifax accounts were free of charge if you kept a certain balance or had a certain account?

Mark 

It could be the change to Lloyds Bank, as Halifax was taken over at the start of the banking crisis and we all know who is going to pay the bill!

We have also had a letter from the Halifax to say they will be charging us in future.  We pay 25Euros a year which was supposed to stop us being charged for any additional charges like bank cards etc.  Our account is also well in credit.

We haven't checked our terms an conditions yet to see if there is anything we can do about this. We have had our Spanish Halifax account for over 4 years and have never paid for the certificate before.  We renewed ours last October.

We received a note too the other day saying 'we are writing to advise you that from 27th April, Banco Halifax Hispania will charge a 12€ fee in relation to acquiring the nin-residency certificate. This fee will be applied to your account within the first 3 months of the account opening and every two years thereafter, following direction from the Direccion General de la Policia.'

We'll go into Guardamar branch next week & ask.

HOWEVER I'm tempted to think we are talking at cross purposes here as I distinctly recall chatting about this many months ago & those of us that have Halifax ES accounts (we just have the basic one which we have to keep minimum 600€ in or be charged 18€ per 6 mths) were certainly NOT charged for signing our non residency forms every two years BUT the conditions at the time I looked AND NOW state here if you look at group 10 NON RESIDENTS for request of non-residency status certificate 12€

I'm wondering IF you require a CERTIFICATE rather than JUST a copy of the forms we signed which we've always kept then THAT is what theHalifax ES are talking about.

HOWEVER I WILL CHECK & REPORT BACK.

ALSO ... we opened our non-resident account in joint names on 27th September 2006 so two years should've taken us up to 27th September 2008 BUT on 22nd August 2008 we received a letter direct from Banco Halifax Hispania, Madrid saying we were out of time! As we were going to Guardamar the next week we took this letter as well as our copies of forms signed 27th September 2006 & they said it was nothing. They accepted our new signed forms dated 2nd September 2008 & we asked for copies, leaving them to send the forms to Madrid.

So it will be interesting to see if, as my husband has suggested, that these slips alerting us to this may have been for new accounts not ours that has been open almost four years. If we ARE expected to pay 12€ each it's a LOT LESS than what Cam charged which was around 19€ each four years ago as THAT was one reason we moved over to BHH.

Thanks for looking into it More, we look forward to hearing what they say.

Unfortunately we aren't out again until September, We have just come back from Orlando - we decided to go some where different - we had a great time there, but we have really missed Spain, if only I could get more time off work!!

Whew, I'm SO glad someone posted after all my paper shuffling & tackling links etc whilst, at the same time, trying to eat my dinner.

I've been looking for an excuse for closing this account down and this looks like it.  I got fed up with all the charges for cheques and transfers and also the crap website.

we also have had a note with our statements telling us of the 12 euro charge for both of us as it is a joint account.

We also paid the 25 euros a year, and have had our account open now for 2 1/2 years and have always kept a good balance in the account.

Although we have been charged, we have not been sent any certificate.

Any further news will be helpful

We have checked our a/c &, so far, we have NOT been debited! We have the basic joint current a/c as previously stated.

I went into the Guardamar branch of the Banco Halifax today & the staff said they are now charged by the police to do this, it is NOT the Halifax's choice to charge, they never have. So it is 12€ each person named on the a/c. They still are the cheapest. My friend & her OH bank with BankInter who have just charged them almost 24€ each for this as they charged before the police added this12€ on. What would I rather pay?

Kernow24, email your branch for it.

Thanks for finding out about the charge More, we guess the Spanish government need to make some money somewhere!

If the charge is only E12 each every 2 years then we will have to pay it.

As we have renewed ours in October last year we are guessing we won't have to pay it until we get the next one.

Ours is due this September, girl said we'll be sent new forms to fill in, July/Aug, & the charge will be made in Sept.

We have just been charged 12E each from the Banco Halifax for our non residency certificates. We completed these in October 2009, so didn't expect to be charged until the next one was due in 2011. 

Has any one had any similar charges for certificates from that far back?

Oh dear! Well, ours is due September (we last did ours Sept 2008) & girl told us, as I said, that we would be charged the 12€ each in September. It's the police who are making the charge not the Halifax. Which branch do you use, Guardamar? Email them, get it from the horses mouth as I do.

Email ....  guardamar@halifax.es

Thanks for the link More,

We usually use the Torrevieja one, we will e mail them and ask why now. I know its the police charging the banks, but it seems a bit hard to charge us now when we took them in to the branch last year.

I doubt we will get it refunded or anything, but we can ask why so long after.

I agree!

torrevieja@halifax.es