Spanish Bank and their Charges - is anyone paying no charges?

 Has anyone found a  decent bank to replace Halifax Bank of Spain, with zero or reasonable charges even if a few hundred euros are maintained in account. I am already toattly disgusted with Sabadell/Soll. They have sent several differeing statements of what they intend to charge, Bank staff do not want to have any discussion or given any clarification and are just arrogant.

I wonder if anyone has opened a Euro account in the UK eg with Santander and has any sucess in using the account remotely from Spain

Any recommendations wiould be appreciated

Les Smith

This subject has been covered on innumerable sites including this one. It seems the only way to get free banking is by having a resident account with either a large amount in credit or a regular monthly sum paid in. Most of the comments have been about the increase in charges with Sabadell by those who were with Cam, Halifax or Lloyds previously. 

Judging by most of the comments, the Caja Rural Central seems to be the best and cheapest option. They have the lowest quarterly fees and lowest debit card charge. You could try Santander in UK and see what they offer but there is no such thing as "free" banking for non-residents. For residents, of course, they get access to your money on a regular basis so that's not exactly free, either. When my residents current account gets over a certain amount, I transfer it to an instant access savings account (I can swap money between the accounts on line immediately) with Bankia and get 2% (taxable) interest on the amount in the savings account. My last interest payment was 84 cents but at least I'm getting something back.

Usually if you pay a salary or pension monthly into an account in Spain most charges are wavied. Sabadell and Caja Mar do this. Sabadell has something called an 'Expansion Account'. No charges, nada. The only charge they make is if you transfer money outside the Eurozone. Sterling can be credited free of charge as well.

Sabadell seem to be much improved from where the bank was a few years ago.

My OAP from UK is paid into our joint account with Cajamar, No charges. in 25 years.

My wife has an account too, but has, ‘shares’ in the bank, I think it is 6,000 euros, the max permitted. She gets free banking too, and dividends.

I think the OP was talking about non-resident accounts without a fixed monthly payment of 600 or 700 or whatever going in. Most banks have no charges for resident accounts if you pay your pension in.

The question was more about reducing the charges for that type of account now that Sabadell have taken over the banks that had very low charges. 

My bank, Bankia (was Bancaja) has no charges for the resident account with a fixed amount going in but does have fairly high (though not as high as Sabadell) for non-resident accounts. 

All the banks publish their charges online so you can make comparisons although they can be hard work ploughing through the sites. 

The opening post was "I wonder if anyone has opened a Euro account in the UK eg with Santander and has any success in using the account remotely from Spain"

So maybe they were talking about residents accounts !