La Caixa on Camposol - Page 2

If you have online accounts with the utilities you should be able to change your bank details there ??

Take a look at Transferwise online company  you can set up direct debits to pay Spanish Bill's and have a debit card too. P

Exactly!  This is all you need for direct debits. There is no requirement for a Spanish bank account at all. Transferwise is the easiest and free option. 

Hi Barbara, Thanks for your reply, very interesting. As a non-resident I have used transferwise in the past to convert sterling into euros to fund my La Caixa account to pay the utility and IBI bills, but I hadn't considered using them for paying direct debits. I get your point about not really needing a Spanish account, however, what happens when I want to use a Spanish ATM to draw cash in euros without a bank account?

Hi.  Open a Starling Bank account online and you can have a both a gbp and euro account where you can fund/switch money between both to suit. So, for example, I have just one Starling Bank account and use the same card to pay for debits in gbp on the flight and use the same card for debits in euros while here in Spain, as well as drawing cash from the Spanish atm.  Its a very cheap conversion fee - you just need to find an atm that doesn't charge for withdrawals (most Spanish atms charge everyone, regardless of nationally / where the account base is). Bankinter do atm withdrawals free of charge. Hope this helps. 

I like you bank with la Caixa and saw theses charges back in April. Not all the branches work from the same spreadsheet apparently. As I have been unable to go out and change banks due to the pandemic I spoke to the bank, if you do online banking you have an advisor.  She recommended I pay only 1 direct debit into my account each month, which I now do, my pension.  So far I haven’t had any charges so I suggest you do the same.good luck

La Caxia & Bankia Bank are to merge............

Hi Ann,

As I am a non-resident I do not pay my pension into my bank account with La Caixa and only use it for very occasional use, a couple of monthly direct debits, and an annual one to pay for the IBI with maybe a couple of cash withdrawals per year. So on that basis perhaps that's why they want to charge me a king's ransom for the (dubious) pleasure of banking with them!

I am a non resident also but if you don’t want to pay the exuberant charges you need to pay in a direct debit every month, my theory was at least I’ll have some cash there (when and if I ever go again, good luck

Hi Roland,

I have opened a Euro account with transferWise in preparation for closing my account with La Caixa. Getting direct debits transferred was no problem with Iberdrola and Aqualia but I'm having a problem with the IBI annual direct debit, and after searching extensively online I am unable to find a department within the Ayuntamiento de Mazarron that deals with this, and I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction with a contact email that deals specifically with this.

Also, to pick your brains further: I've read some horror stories about closing bank accounts in Spain. Are you aware of any punitive penalties for closing a Spanish bank account? - specifically La Caixa on Camposol.

Thank you Roland.