Banco Halifax

I was giving someone in another forum details recently about Banco Halifax, where we bank & have done so since October 2006. As usual I was telling them there was no maintenance charge (on their basic account) as long as you kept 600€ in the account, no charge for declaration of non residency, only 3€ per debit card etc. 

Someone (in the other forum) commented that all Spanish banks charge maintenance. I wasn't going to argue but I did look at Banco Halifax's terms & conditions, though it had always said previously that there was no maintenance charge as long as 600€ was in account & should you go under, it was 18€ every six months which I've always mentioned.

I see that now it says in HERE ................

Bank Accounts

3. Maintenance Fee

3.1 In general (except for the Extra Account product)  5€ every six months.

3.2 On average balances less than 300€ (residents accounts except for the Extra Account product)  18€ every six months.

3.3  Average balances less than 600€ (non residents accounts except for the Extra Account product)  18€ every six months.

3.4  In general for the Extra Account product  25€  per year.

Date with effect from 8th January, 2007

 I've checked our account & it hasn't been debited with any 5€ transactions for a maintenance fee since this date & I wondered if anyone else's has.  Maybe this is just for those who have taken the account out since Jan 2007 ?

I must remember not to say, in future, it's free maintenance. I know those of us with Banco Halifax accounts always tell others that it is free. 5€ is less than half of Cambank's maintenance charge however.

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Agree more much cheaper than most banks and we opened the extra account so don't even have to pay the €5 any way

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We bank with the the Banco Halifax and we have not been charged the fees that you described other than the €3 for the Debit Card. Guess we are lucky to have opened account before the changes you describe.

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I changed over from Solbank to in December 2007.  I'll let you know in a couple of months whether a charge has gone through on the account.

I was definately told that as long as I left an average of 600e in the account over a six month period I wouldn't be charged any maintenance fees.  The only thing I had to pay for was 3e for debit card and as I only use this account to pay my direct debits I didn't take one out.

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After I heard that Banco Halifax was so good we decided to change from Cambank as the charges were stupid for us, being non residents who rarely used it. 

The Guardamar branch opened same day as we went in, just to ask questions initially. (Oct 2006) We knew what others had told us about the basic a/c being free of a maintenance charge, as long as 600€ was kept in it, & I commented about this to the Spanish lady. 

I distinctly recall this Banco Halifax employee saying I was wrong, there was a charge, it was 5€ per 6 months so I proceeded to argue with her over that.  She insisted there was & we left & went back to the UK with some info. I emailed this lady once home to ask her if we could open an a/c online & she said no, only in the Banco Halifax !  I had spoken with the friends who had told me about the lack of maintenance charge as long as 600€ was kept in the a/c so I asked her again about it. She emailed back that she had spoken to head office in Madrid & they too said it was 5€ every 6 months.

On the BANCO HALIFAX website I saw I could ring the European Dept in Halifax so I did. In fact I rang before 9am &  their ansaphone said they'd ring me back, which they did. They said I could open a Spanish a/c through them & they'd send me a pack to enable me to do so. Whilst chatting with the lady I commented about what the Sspanish lady had said about the 5€ every 6 months for a maintenance charge & what had happened regarding her calling head office in Madrid who'd agreed with her. The lady at the European Dept said the Spanish lady & Spanish head office was incorrect. She asked me for the contact details of the Spanish lady & said that she would send me the terms & conditions to show me there was no charge. You get this in the pack & she had highlighted the part. After that I never thought about it again, no charges have ever shown up apart from the 2 x 3€ for our debit cards, which we now never use.

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The Halifax ES EXTRA account is worth the 25 euros a year. No others charges and some decent English speaking facilities and helplines.

After a bit of research I have concluded that their transfer facility as with most banks exchanges euros / gbp and vice versa gives approximately 1 point less than most money exchange companies.

This is not so much of a problem for small transfers, but if you are transfering a large sum it can make quite a difference. With the Halifax you also do not pay any commission if you transfer to / from a Halifax account in UK.

I always use Moneycorp. They charge a flat fee of £15 per transaction for one off transfers. I also use their regular transfer facility for my mortgage payments, which is fixed £4 per transaction.

Do some simple maths, could save you hundreds.

Ken.

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