La Caixa: Payments of cheques

 Can anyone help with a query, please?  We have just  transferred money over from the UK to La Caixa.  We need this bank to issue a cheque so we can complete on a house purchase.  After hearing horror stories, we asked if there would be be a payment for this, and were told yes, but only about 30 euros, which we consider quite acceptable.  But... some friends of our were charged 900 euros- a bit of a difference!  Does anyone have any experience of having a cheque made out in respect of a major purchase, and if so, how much was it/what percentage of the sum involved?

We were also told catagorically that there would be no charge for the transfer of funds from the UK, as, indeed, there shouldn't be.  Is this correct?  Thank you,  Donna 

Well ?m with "la Caixa" & when I transferred money they used to charge to receive it . 0,4 of 1% if I remember rightly. To issue a cheque was the same charge , ie if they wrote a cheque for you to complete for 100,000 €'s they'd charge 400 €'s. I don't pay now when I pay in money & that's the only cheque that they've ever written for me but that was back in 2002. Back then you also needed a letter from the bank manager, for the notary,  to the effect that the money had been brought into the country legally, might be worth checking whether you need this also.

I have just transfered funds to La Caixa from curency solutions who have an egreement that transfers will be transfer free, whoever I would be interested to find out about cheque charges, as I will need to pay for my properrty soon.

I am going to bank on Friday morning in Torrevieja so may be able to add some info after this date.

Slanche BBB

 Transfers under 50,000€ should be received free of charges. Anything over 50,000 and I believe the fee is paid on the whole sum, not just the amount over.

Mark

We bank with Cajamurcia. They never charge for incoming funds. We transfer from First Direct in the UK who charge £9.99 per transfer and it takes two days. We paid the deposit on our property with a managers cheque from the Bank and if I recall it was around 20 Euros to issue that. Should never be in the 100's.

Guy

The transfer of funds from the UK does not normally have a 'landing charge' by the Spanish banks, when you use one of the currency firms, they cover any costs. All of the currency firms that we use (HIFX, Caxton FX etc.) sell you euros & transfer to your spanish bank free  of any charge. That is not a problem, however, the purchase payment of a property, as far as I am aware, is only acceptable by Bankers draft - and banks charge a lot for this 'draft' service, we paid 70+ euros for our completion payment of around 32,000 euros - ask your bank what the charge is before you complete.

John B.

p.s. I have been told that you can pay in CASH !! An acceptable way in Spain- just take a large suitcase & adding machine L.O.L.

hillwood, that's why everyone pays in cash. Although you can't pay totally in cash anymore. If you want 100k in cash, from the bank,  it costs nothing , a cheque for the same amount will be 0,4 of 1%. I used money brokers & paid up front for all my transfers & regardless of the amounts was always charged to receive it back in 2002.

You should never send more than 50,000€ from the UK to a spanish bank, regardless of whether you use a currency broker or not.  I use John Mohan at Sterling Exchange but I never send out more than 50k at once.  (Wish I had 50k left to play with but that's another story!!).  If you need to send more then send several payments - the brokers do not charge but the banks do.

If your bank wants to make an excessive charge for writing a cheque then ask them if you can change your account to one where cheques are free.  A client of mine avoided a huge charge for her recent property purchase, simply by changing her account with the same bank.  You really need your wits about you and you should ask  your solicitor for help if you feel you are being charged over the odds.

We had an account with Caja Madrid. We needed two certified cheques for a property purchase and were horrified to find out afterwards that we had been charged hundreds of euros for each one. We'd naively thought the charge would be nominal, as it is in most of the developed world. To add insult to injury I then sent about 30k euros to the account from the UK. Euros, not Stg. Looking at my Nationwide statement a month later I saw CM had "visited" my account and taken about £100t. I queried this with Nationwide to get usual teenager telling me there was nothing they could do about, CM had just grabbed the cash as a fee for "receiving money".....you couldn't make it up. I'm ashamed to say my Spanish isn't up go going into my CM branch and arguing the point. They smile broadly and say "that is what we do". So, we changed to Halifax Espana in the hope - probably folorn -  that if something like that happens again at least we can call Halifax UK and give them a piece of our mind. I think best is to have folding stuff couriered.

We changed to Barclays Bank .They are excellent.NO CHARGES and 3%back on payment of utility bills.Well worth looking into.

Further to my earlier post I have today paid for my property in Playa Flamence the seller asked for the funds in  Bankers Cheque's.

The cost of this was a whopping 1% of cheque value as you can imagine not best impressed despite asking at bank about charges this was not pointed out for this service, pays to read the very small print.

OUCH another painfull lesson about life in Spain

But still LOVE IT.