Bankia/BMN

Fazarelli - your post - <<It's a disgusting place, Spain. Once i get my money back from the banks, i'll never set foot in Spain again.>> is absurd...but I suspect it's a two way situation.

The EU establishment ( MEPS and Commission) need to be made far more accountable for their lack of support with regard to consumer protection, and ignoring complaints and not taking effective action against any member state that flouts financial compliance and laws “supposedly” in place to protect will only add to the distrust and disillusionment in the status quo.

Bottom line, unless people use a reporting and monitoring system intended to protect and continue to pressure MEPs to respond, then all that will happen will be a continuance of Banks malpractice and abuse.

Are you saying ( MEPS and Commission) are not completely conscious of Spanish Banks malpractice and abuse, or are you saying they are not paying attention for reasons unidentified?

Angeleyes,

I think you know full well there is a need to not only have an effective reporting and enforcement mechanism in place to handle complaints of this order, but also to encourage complainants to consistently place complaints on FORMAL record for review. If these complaints are not being responded to then it is important for complainants to be persistent and request the reason from the establishment why their complaints  are not being taken seriously.

By your question are you suggesting there is a hidden incentive ( a conflict of interests) to undermine the reporting and monitoring process and if so it would be helpful to report back your own concerns in this regard?

Why is the  establishment not interested in either the complaints or giving reasons why?

You make assumptions that complaints are being consistently ignored rather than they have not been chased up. If you have proof of this then it would be really useful to report this back.

If not careful your own assumptions undermine the reporting mechanism by inference that it is not worth reporting complaints in the first place....

Only when complaints are reported in sufficient numbers will the establishment take the issue of Banks malpractice and abuse seriously.

http://www.writetothem.com

I am not sure I know the difference between ‘’being consistently ignored rather than they have not been chased up’’ seems the same to me, all in the bin.

People have been complaining for many years to the establishment and come to the conclusion they are flogging a dead horse. Have you thought of recruiting Emmeline Pankhurst.

Enough of the personalising nonsense Angeleyes, it appears sadly that you have little intention of following your concerns through in any effective manner or providing proof of your assumptions, which in itself ironically only plays into the hands of those Banks who continue to abuse innocents via their non compliance with their mission statements. 

All too easy to bemoan without being sufficiently proactive to try to gain effective reform and accountability I’m afraid.

We’ll have to agree to differ on this and hopefully without nasty attempts to belittle.

That is somewhat callous and quarrelsome. 

Jarvi,  I see you are or were with Sabadell. 

I'm fed up with La Caixa, general poor service, low standards and I hate queuing.  But I was recommended to Sabadell.  I can see you were unimpressed with their mortgage/life assurance requirements, but do you or anyone else have opinion on them  generally please?  If I change I would be using their "internatiomal" (English speaking) centre in Mazarron puerto.

Don’t know if this helps Acer ....

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bancsabadell.com

We have a non res account with Sabadell and so far, no issues, although our local branch has shut and we have been moved to Vera. We moved to them after Barclays sold out. Quarterly 30€ fee is a pain, although I believe there is a fee free account for residents. 

Many thanks for your replies Markfish and Ads re Sabadell, much appreciated.  The write-ups from Trustpilot were a real shock - they've clearly upset a lot of people, 93% bad sends a clear message.

I was also with Barclays until they closed down in Spain which was very sad - their operation and service was examplary, far better than UK.

I must be in luck, since I have banked with Sabadell for some years and find them reasonable people. But then maybe I treat them reasonably too. I pay no fees, and do not suffer delays.

I wonder if these are regional differences with Sabadell bank, but that is no excuse for their head office not regulating their branches where significant problems have been encountered and reported.

Hello,

I thought I would update everyone with my progress.  I contacted Addleshaw Goddard as suggested but they never bothered to return my call or enquire.  So, I gave up with them.  

I recieved a response from Bankia who only answered part of the compaint and ignored most of the two documented proof I had asked for the policy to be cancelled several times.  They did send me a statement of my mortgage but no information how to pay it off.  They also refunded the life insurance policy payment but still didn’t cancel the policy.  They told him that I should have given them a months notice.  Even though I sent them several examples dating back years to cancel the policy.

The told me why I had to prove who I am every two years but never answered why the branch keeps loosing this information every few months and asked me to send it. Which was what the complaint was about.  I had to email those jokers 3 times every year and they still lock my account out.

They finished the letter off by telling me.

Por todo ello, damos por concluida nuestra intervención y le informamos de que, de acuerdo con el Reglamentc para la Defends del Cliente y legislación concordante, en caso de presentar nuevos escritos por el mismo asunto se le aplicará el apartado IV del artículo 18 de nuestro reglamento, que permite la inadmisión cuando la queja o reclamación reitere otras anteriormente resueltas en relación con los mismos hechos.

Therefore, we conclude our intervention and inform you that, in accordance with the Regulation for the Defends of the Client and concordant legislation, in case of submitting new briefs for the same matter, section IV of article 18 of our regulation, which allows for inadmissibility when the complaint or claim reiterates others previously resolved in relation to the same facts.

In other words, they have chosen to answer only two points from the complaint letters and therefore they are not going to answer anymore elements from the complaint even if I raise the complaint again.

Of course, I not going to let this stop me and I now have a Spainish lawyer who will take the matter further.  I will complain again, the fact they never answered most of the original questions and tell them they I will take the matter to the Bank of Spain.  Its fraud what they did to me and they have breached E.U. banking regulations with the data breach.  Which will come with a fine.

Steve

Good look Stevie. Please keep us posted

M

Hello everyone,

I am posting the latest status up with my on going issues with Bankia.  Things have gone from bad to worse and even my Spanish lawyer is finding it difficult to deal with the Torrevieja branch of Bankia.  I have since sold my property and now my bank account has been frozen due to money laundering concerns,  the money to pay the mortgage off has been lost by the bank.

I was in the fortunate position of being able to raise enough capital to pay my Spanish mortgage off and start the process of switching banks.  After transferring the money from the UK into the bank account, Bankia blocked my account.  My lawyer who also has signatory powers contact the bank and found out what I needed to do to clear the mortgage and unblock the account.  They didn’t give home a clear answer so he suggested paying almost all the mortgage off and over the next few months it will be closed naturally.  That’s when I got a phone call that someone had made an offer on my flat which was the full asking price.

I was then advised not to pay the mortgage because it can take the bank months to sort things out, which will delay the sale.  I agreed with the management company over this point and as luck would have it, they also use the same lawyer as I do.

Over the next 10 weeks the bank blocked my account several times, normally after a deposit.  My lawyer would call them about the issues and he was told on more than one occasion that there is nothing wrong with my account.  Within the hour I could log back into my account.  It is clear than the branch is blocking my account deliberately with the only goal was to cost me more money paying my lawyer to unlock the account.

The sale went through and I was expecting the mortgage to be cleared all the utility companies to take their final payments then I could transfer the money back to the UK,  I have now emailed the bank manager twice who has ignored the emails, I have called the head office customer services who said that the account is frozen because of money laundering rules as they have no record where the money came from!!  The mortgage was not cleared and the payment from the sale of the property has not been paid in.

I no no longer have a property but I still have the mortgage and the original money I transferred from the UK has been frozen by the bank.  My lawyer has even tried to go into the bank to get this resolved and after a week he hasn’t been successful.

My lawyer and I will of course continue to take legal action against Bankia but if anyone is reading this who is a customer of Bankia then I would suggest that you change banks before you get caught like like have.

This has turned into the ultimate banking horror story which does be targeting foreigners.

Steve

Steve

Has the lawyer originally advising you on the Banking procedure and liaising with the Bank associated with paying off the mortgage also been subsequently handling the sale of your property and all legal conveyancing processes associated with sale and transfers of monies, and payment of all outstanding debts, etc? 

Yes, my family have been using this lawyer for about 12 years and his firm is very good.  Both my parents and myself have used his firm before to buy and sell our previous houses in Spain. When the money was handed over to the bank he got them to sign for the money confirming the payment was to pay off my mortgage.  He has kept detailed records when the bank blocked my account and when he had to intervene during the sale of the property.  The next step is start start legal action against the bank which should happen this week.