Lloyd TSB / Santander etc. UK and Spain current accounts

Hi,

I have trawled the 'tinterweb for information about these type of account and cannot find the information I am looking for.  I suppose the easiest way would be to give them a call, but I am working away from home all next week which will involve quite a lot of driving and being unable to use my mobile.

My questions are;

• What kind of exchange rate do you get when transferring GBP's in the UK account to Euros in the Spanish account?
• Is it a quick transfer?
• Are there any 'hidden' transfer charges?
• Do the accounts beat the currency traders rates?
• Are they reccommended for small and /or larger amounts?

Cheers

Kelju

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 I have a Santander UK account but they would still charge a BACS transfer fee to move funds even to a Santander Spanish account (so £25 or £40 per transfer, depending on the amount).

I opened a Cajamar account in Spain, simply because there's a branch in my village.  For large sums (for purchasing house, car etc) I used Moneycorp and got a superb rate.  And if you use the click-through link from Eye on Spain then you get NO charges whatsoever.  For smaller, day-to-day expenses, I find the best rate is got from using my UK Santander bank card in a Spanish Santander bank, so there are no charges, to withdraw up to 500 euros which I then pay into my Spanish bank in cash.  And it's a reasonable exchange rate too.

I did a lot of research but couldn't find a better way.  Others on here have done the Halifax option.  I'm guessing you'll get a lot of replies (many of them extremely dogmatic, as I've experienced in other similar threads).  I'm merely passing on my recent experience, as someone who did put a fair bit of thought into it.  Just my two-pennorth :-)

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Thanks for the reply TamaraEssex.

I have read quite a few threads around transferring money and have previously used HiFx for large amounts.

If we buy an apartment it will be for holidays only at the moment, until we retire and can spend more time there.

I am thinking more along the lines of community fees and other regular monthly outgoings associated with ownership and the ease (?) of being able to transfer regular monthly amounts from the UK  account to the Spanish account.  Then for direct debits or standing orders on the Spanish account to take care of paying the bills.

I believe that Lloyds do not charge for this transfer and there are no account fees if a minimum 2500 Euros balance is maintained, what I cannot find out is whether they give the commercial rate of exchange or tourist rate or whether the exchange rate compares favourably with other methods.

That also got me wondering whether the Lloyds account would be the best method for transferring a large amount for the purchase of an apartment and whether the Santander account operated in the same way.

Kelju 

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Hi Kelju

You will definitely need a current account in Spain if you own a property. We started with Barclays but found the fees very high so moved to the Lloyds account you are referring to. I opened a UK Lloyds current account which I use for transfering money. Foreign exchange transactions can now be set up using internet banking so it is easy to do from Spain or the UK.

I send the money out in GBP so my branch in Spain does the exchange. This does mean I don't know the exchange rate in advance but the rates are very good - definitely not a tourist exchange rate.

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Thanks davemunster for the reply, good to know that you can transfer money via internet banking, very convenient.

Thanks for the advice johnzx, something to be wary of.

I think that from what I have been able to glean from the threads that payment of large sums i.e. the purchase is better off done using a foreign exchange company and I think I will go with the Lloyds account for the regular monthly payment stuff.

Thanks again.

Kelju

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I bank with Lloyds TSB in the UK and Solbank/Sabadell in Spain. You're right that it's best to use a foreign exchange company for large amounts (who will give a better rate) and your bank account for monthly ongoing stuff. If you have Lloyds TSB internet banking in the UK you can get a quote for the exchange rate at any time, just pop in the amount you want to send and they tell you the amount in euros you will receive at the other end if you do it straight away. I do this quite often and try and transfer the money when the exchange rate is going my way!

Lloyds TSB charge £10 to transfer under £5000 and £17.50 for £5000 or over if done online(£20 or £35 if done in a branch or over the phone). The money usually arrives in my Spanish account within an hour - on the screen it might say next day etc., but it never takes that long.

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I have Halifax UK and Halifax Espana. I can do the transfers online and it only takes a couple of days at most. There is no fee charged, but the rate is a tourist rate rather than a commercial rate.

Given the uncertainity of the euro situation, at the moment I only keep the bare minimum in my Espana account. I have taken out a foreign currency card, and load that online from my UK account. The rate is much better, although I do incur a €1.50 ATM fee when I draw it out. I have been paying some funds into the Espana account when needed, but as I will soon be returning to the UK I will have to go back to funding from the UK account.

For comparison, the rates this morning are - Halifax UK to Espana - 1.2064. Foreign exchange card - 1.237 (XE give rate as 1.2609). 

 

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We have a Lloyds Espania account for day-to-day-stuff. They do make a annual (maintanance) charge of 18 euros (used to be 10euros)

We use Moneycorp "online" for transfers, next say service is £10 / 3-5 day service is £5.00, this is the one we use and the money is usually in our Lloyds account in 3 days (no charge from Lloyds Espania).

Can't recomend Moneycorp online transfers high enough, easy to operate once you get your head around how the system works, and if you have to ring them for advice they are really pleasent and helpful (just in case you are wondering, i don't work for them).

ONE OTHER THING THAT I DON'T THINK HAS BEEN MENTIONED ELSWHERE. IF YOU ARE SENDING MORE THAN 50,000 EUROS OVER THEN DO REMEMBER TO INSTRUCT YOUR EXCHANGE MONEY COMPANY YO SEND OVER IN "TRENCHES" OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE CHARGED A LOT OF MONEY BY YOUR RECEIVING BANK.

IT WILL STILL ARRIVE THE SAME DAY BUT IN MULTIPLES, SO WON'T BE A PROBLEM IF YOU ARE WAITING FOR THE MONEY TO ARRIVE.

ANOTHER THING IS, FOR LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY TRANSFERS, ALWAYS SPEAK TO YOUR "MONEY TRANSFER COMPANY TO GET THE BEST RATES RATHER THAN JUST DOING IT ON-LINE.

Sorry for shouting but it is all important stuff, hope it helps and good luck.

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Although we have a Halifax UK a/c AND A Lloyds International a/c here in Spain we would NEVER transfer between them, the rate's dire! We use http://www.xe.com/ but they do not give you the rate on their home page, it is lower BUT better than any other we tried. Once you have registered you have access to the trade rate to check. You can then watch how it's going. They do not charge anything, it is all built in. No minimum, no commission.

My husband says it's the best one he has used for ease. All online & security checks by phone. Lloyds told us not to transfer more than 50,000€ a time as has been said in another comment.

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Re the big transfers - l use Moneycorp (no charges at all if you register via Eye onSpain) , and they told me that for the large house purchase transfer, if l rang the Spanish bank to tell them it was coming and it was for a house purchase, there should be no charges. I did, and there weren't. Excellent service all round.

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 1st day back from my week of working and  travelling, so thanks all for the replies while I have been offline.

Think I will give Lloyds a call this morning as this seems to be the easiest spanish current account to set up and I already have a UK Lloyds account, so hopefully this will be straight forward to do.  Still a little unsure about the costs to transfer etc. and the website only confuses me with the scale of various charges for this that and the other.

Thanks again everyone, good old EOS has yet again come up trumps with words of wisdom from its contributors.

Kelju

 

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Have found this thread most interesting, particularly the experience shared by Johnzx below !!

I will be transmitting Euro (from outside the EU Jurisdiction) to a Spanish Bank (& have yet to decide most appropriate bank !!). So, my query is twofold:

1) Do Spanish Banks charge a fee on incoming Euro funds from outside Euro region & is there perhaps a particularly competitive bank that does not ??

2) In terms of opening a normal day to day bank account I was considering Cajamar Bank (ie their i.account) or perhaps Sabadell. Any views on these in terms of fee competitive, efficiency,  service etc or are there better options?? We will be based on Costa del Sol.

Many thanks,

Harry

 

 

 

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But I think it comes down to asking what a bank will provide and negotiating the costs.

In my experience, the banks which provide a service in English (and make a point of telling us) seem to be more eager to charge more than the others

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Hi Harry - my day-to-day bank is Cajamar because there's an office in the village. So l didn't do much research, there are only two banks in the village and l plumped for them! Have found them very good. I've already mentioned that they didn't charge me for the big 100,000 euro transfer because l phoned to tell them it was for a house purchase (which they exempt from charges). However for other bill payments that l do in the bank, they do charge 50 cents. Still, l reckon that'd be a lot of small payments before it adds up to what l saved on the big transfer! Also, they set me straight up with Internet banking, so now l have my broadband installed l can do my own bill payments. Though sometimes it's very helpful to have the friendly staff (Ellie and Jose) to explain some of the odd bills that come through!

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Just to clarify my post (Tamara's came before I could re-read and edit it)

:

I negotiated  with the manageress who agreed to charge just 30 cents  per transaction, which she say is the least the bank will permit.

 

 

 

This message was last edited by johnzx on 11/09/2012.

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 Yes we crossed in cyberspace, John!  Thanks - useful tip, I'll see if they'll reduce it to 30c.  Though they've never charged me for ANY incoming funds, and if I do most bills via the internet now it's not really an issue.  Nice to know they have some flexibility though.

My ex-partner's bank account doesn't charge him at all for bill payments.  He's with CajaSur.

Tamara

 

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John - it seems that different branches are making their own rules up!  I'm charged nothing for transfers of money into my account, but pay 50c for a bill payment, only if I go in and they do it for me (and if it's not another Cajamar account.

Do you happen to know if they have a linked savings account paying any sort of interest?

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We were actually charged 0.5% by Caja Rural just for putting the cheque in from the sale of our cortijo.  This 'fee' came to just over 500 euros and I complained and wrote and threatened them with my lawyer taking it on etc., for them to eventually return about 100 euros.  I couldn't believe that you could be charged for putting in an ordinary Spanish cheque, but I just didn't have the energy to pursue it any further.  It is of course, a complete con.  They were able to do it as they held my money in their hands.  If they'd asked me to pay them 500 euros I would of course have told them where to go.  This is an abuse of power and should be outlawed.

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