Opening your Bank Account in Spain When you own a property in Spain, whether you live there or not, you will find it far more convenient to have a local bank account to handle your monthly or annual outgoings such as your utility bills, maintenance contract, mortgage payment and insurance.  This is a fairly straight forward procedure, just like in the UK, you need to provide proof of identity and an amount of money to depost in the account.

How to choose your bank:

There are many things to consider when deciding which bank you should choose to host your account. 

• How close is the bank to your property and how easy will it be to gain access, i.e. nearby parking, public transport, disabled access, etc. 
• Do you understand the lingo?  If not, you should find a branch that has English speaking staff, they don't all offer this facility so it is worth checking this out. 
• Opening hours - In Spain the majority of the banks are open from 9am to 2pm Monday to Friday.  Some banks open earlier, others stay open later and some open on Saturdays.
• Internet banking.  You may wish to monitor your account while you are away from your property.  The easiest way to do this is to have internet banking.  If you need this, make sure that the bank offers this facility and make sure that this is set up and working for your account before you go away.
• Bank charges.  Banks in Spain charge you for just about anything they do for you, from cashing cheques to making payments and receiving deposts from foreign accounts.  It is worth thinking about the sort of transactions you need to make on a regular basis and the frequency of these transactions and discussing the potential charges with the bank personnel. 

Proof of Identity:

You need to provide proof of identity in order to open your new account.  Whilst some banks will accept a foreign passport most insist upon an NIE number (Spanish tax identification number).  This won't be a problem because you need to obtain one of these numbers prior to being allowed to buy a house in Spain anyway.

In theory, in order to obtain an NIE you would simply need to go to a National Police Station with your passport, the required number of certified copies and the completed form, unfortunately however it is rarely that straight forward as the police seldom speak anything other than Spanish, many police stations are local not national and different offices require different pieces of paper.  Most people therefore employ the services of a solicitor (gestor) to help them with this procedure at the same time as the purchase of their new property.

This article was supplied courtesy of Hornblow International