Paperless banking

I'm a fan of paperless anything but as anyone in Spain will know that is very difficult to achieve as every document or contract must be signed in person at the office etc etc. Look at utility companies for example. Get up early to get somewhere in time to get one of the 40 tickets handed out AM or one of the 20 tickets handed out PM and then queue all day!!

But the real mystery is paperless banking and these are my observations.

It would appear cheaper to go to the bank and do transactions in person as if you do it online you have to pay fees. It seems to be most Spanish prefer to queue all day in the bank?

But I prefer doing things as I do in UK online and have opted for paperless banking. In the UK paperless banking means just that and you will be lucky to get one letter a year. But in Spain paperless banking only cuts out half the paper and I still get a pile of post.

But even when I do online transactions I still have to pay postage which I don't understand. So I asked Banco Sabadell why this was and they said that they are permitted to charge for postage even though I opted for paperless banking and keep the money which now is 34 cents each time?

Hi Faro,

All I can suggest is that you change your bank then.  Their is a lot of information on the forum about different Bank's have a look at the thread's. We was with Bank of Valencia and they charged for everything thas is why we changed to Barclay's.

But there is a lot of option's out there.

Regards 

Hi Pat & Roy

For a long time changing banks has been on the agenda but I need to make sure it's not out of the frying pan into the fire plus I have spent years negotiating and arguing and capping fees etc and that was quite an uphill battle. I refuse to pay %ages.

Solbank/Sabadell are probably not the worst but you have to check every transaction to make sure they don't "accidently" overcharge.

I think it also comes down to a relationship with the manager and counter staff.