Free Spanish Bank Account for Non Residents - Page 2

At the moment I present the forms and pay the tax at my Spanish bank - Sabadell. That will change I suspect when I get the online account opened with Cajamar. If I can't get it paid online, I will pay the €7 that Pauline refers to by making a branch visit to Cajamar.

Hi Martyn

Glad you found my post and I think I have a better deal with my gestor who does my non resident tax. Angar Taxation Service charges us 20€ each (joint owners) and that includes paying it too and receiving receipt for proof. All done by email, no going to bank, no printing out paperwork etc. Perfect for non residents. 

Regards 

Pauline 

Hi Pauline,

We still use the solicitor to pay the IBI and non-resident tax but as I'm on a roll and have changed bank and set up all of the new did myself I'm also going to reclaim payment of IBI and non-resident tax.... Pauline do you mind giving me a brief rundown of what documents I need to instruct my solicitor to redirect to me so that I can pass on to Angar to enable them to do my taxes.... thanks again...

Hi Anni

Do you pay your solicitor a set yearly retainer to pay for these services, or does he just bill you per service. Having never used a solicitor for anything other than purchase I, m not sure what you,d do other than instruct him to change the receiving of your IBI to yourself at your Spanish home and inform him to stop doing it. I fear he will try to scare you into paying him his expensive fee as he, ll not want to lose it. It must be paid by December so get in quick to stop him doing it this year, it depends whether he can forward your IBI invoice to send on to Angar. I set up our IBI payment by direct debit from year 1. I used to get the invoices sent by paperwork to house but I opted to receive electronically, but have never received by email yet(I should sort this out but keep forgetting) However Angar seem to get the IBI info and let me know the amount to pay. Remember it goes up next year as rate for EU was 19% and from Jan 1st it goes to 24% for non EU (Brexit grrrrr!) but not payable until 2022 (year behind). I paid mine very early this year in March. Actually this was why I mentioned "transfers" on opening Cajamar account as it wasn't usable, so couldn't transfer the payment to Angar. Had to return to bank to request the "service" and received a "contract" for the service(so weird compared to UK accounts). 

We use "Suma" who collects the IBI payments for Alicante area and they have a good English phone number, but I don't know if you have Suma in your area. 

Good luck cancelling your solicitor. 

Regards 

Pauline 

Sounds like a bargain Pauline and it's now obvious why the Transferias facility is needed on the Cajamar account.

Hi Pauline,

When we purchased the house our solicitor set up the standing orders and made the IBI and non resident tax payments, which at the time was great and meant we didn’t have to worry about missing payments or getting something wrong.....for which he charges an annual professional fee +vat which works out at €180 per year....we paid our last professional fee In September!!...as you know I changed bank and have thankfully set up the utility bills standing orders, and have been in touch with Angar and will pursue all of that in the new year, once I’ve got someone lined up to pay the IBI and non resident I’ll terminate our relationship with the solicitor .....and I’ve set a reminder to research an alternative home insurance company...I’m really enjoying taking control and doing things for myself....

Hi Anni, yes our purchasing solicitor" offerred" to do same but we declined. You are not in my area, Alicante uses "Suma" a collection agency who collects IBI and car taxes etc, and I,ve always set mine up on direct debit. Some areas seem to pay at Town Hall, I would either wait until over and ask a neighbour who and how they pay their IBI or put question on this forum, someone will tell you who and where they pay for your area. Our IBI is usually paid in September but Covid has delayed it until November. Remember if solicitors contract is like insurances etc you may need to give him 2 months notice of cancellation. That's a lot to pay just for doing NRT and paying your IBI. NRT is paid by December for previous year so you just need to get your IBI invoices sent to you (preferably by email) so you can send on by email to Angar for your NRT. That's another 140€ saved for year. 

Keep well, stay safe

Regards 

Pauline 

Hi Anni again

See you are also looking to better your home insurance, I assume Spanish home. I can't trust any Spanish Company after the disgrace from Caixa,s insurance Co. not paying us out over our ransacking in 2007.Losing over £20k of belongings incl the moving cost of £5k has ruined our life and I only insure with UK companies since then. I use Towergate part of Staysure, it's not cheap, pay £360(just paid last month) for 5 bed det villa with pool, but they are governed by UK laws and more stringent, I,ve made 2 claims for storm damage and no problems with payouts. Also seems most Spanish insurers are very slow to pay out. Anyway Good luck with that. An insurance Co. is only as good as its service dealing with a claim. 

Regards 

Pauline 

An update on mine and a friend's attempt to open Cajamar Wefferent accounts. According to the bank teller, a week ago they were told only to provide new customers with a computer generated name and password. Customers were then expected to download the relevant banking app and complete the rest of the registration process themselves online.

However, the teller helped us further with the app which involved downloading various pdf docs and signing them off using a PIN. On the last page though we both received error messages that the registration could not be completed due to a problem with the phone numbers that had been imputed.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem using a non-Spanish mobile number to open an account?

Ultimately we were given a helpline number and told to sort the problem out for ourselves. This is currently where we are at. The saga continues.....

Hi Martyn

It seems things have changed somewhat, maybe because so many people have been recommended to join them from all the other banks that have now started to charge fees to residents too. 

When we applied we had UK phone numbers and I had a Spanish sim too so my Spanish no. was input for both of us, I didn't question if it had to be Spanish only but I get messages for both of us on that sim, just thought agent did it for cheapness. Maybe you have to have a Spanish no. then, another person on this forum said he,d been OK with his UK no so a while ago. Think it was Roland? so didn't think any more about it. Things do change though all the time and although maybe a little more arkward to apply online it will be worth doing. My Spanish sim is a payg "hits mobile" one I rarely use but I, ve had for 10yrs+. Bought from Internet again after a lot of research for cheap payg no. For 2€yr it retains the number without me topping up. I can top up online if needed but I also opted for an auto min credit recharge from my bank account if credit falls below 5€ so I never recharge myself but did do it online through their app before I discovered the auto top up. I have it because I,ve also got a house alarm which calls me and keyholder if it goes off and wanted a Spanish sim in it not UK one. So your answer is maybe get a Spanish sim. Google "hits mobile" you can order one to be sent to you so no need to shop around. It works on Vodafone network. Did you enter your UK no.with all nos ie 00447791999999(omit 0 at front of no.) as wouldn't recognise 07701999999 or maybe just 7791999999 omitting the 0. Now that all banking in EU has to have a tel no for extra security with codes being sent on certain transactions maybe you will have to get a spanish sim. Mine costs me 1 auto top up of 10€yr so not expensive. After Brexit things may change again when free roaming may stop. That's something I,m expecting. Annoyingly Tesco my UK sim can't tell me yet but I too may have to look for alternative to them if they pull plug on it as I only use UK data not Spanish sim. I don't have Internet just my home away roaming. Watch TV via large sat dish not WiFi. Do update with your process please as we all need to know how you get on. Remember nothing worth having comes easy.!!

Good luck

Regards 

Pauline