Bank and Home Insurance

On home insurance you will find Abbeygate very helpful and all speak English. https://www.abbeygateinsure.com/

Regarding Banking as you now have a Spanish address you can open a Euro account with N26 who are brilliant and very low cost, far better than local banks and can be up and running very quickly.  https://n26.com/en-es/blog/local-iban-spain   You can top up very cheaply via Wise https://wise.com/

Andy, I'm in the same position as you will be, i.e. a non resident, owning a property in Spain

I've looked at N26, the low banking costs are attractive, however the 1st question on the online application is "Country of Residence". If you answer, as I do, "United Kingdom" you will find N26 is not available in your region.

Of course you could say Spain is your country of residence, then no doubt you could then input your Spanish address. I've not been tempted to do that.

Enjoy your house in Antequera, a lovely town, we spent a day there earlier this month

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your reply.  I have been emailing customer services at N26 and they have confirmed if I apply for the account while I am actually located in Spain even though I am a UK resident, then it will be fine.  Like you,  I saw they had withdrawn from the UK but we can still have a Spanish account under these circumstances.

My only other query with them was the Spanish application requires a number beginning with 6, so Spanish.  However, N26 confirmed I will be able to use my UK number at that point which I am not convinced about, worst way I will have to buy a Spanish pay-as-you-go sim.

We also love Antequera and the people.  We previously had a place near Marbella for 12 years and did not want to go back to the same area, even though it was perfect for us at the time.

I will post here what happens with N26.

Cheers
Andy

Andy, thanks for the info on N26, that's good to know

We use Lobster for a Spanish sim. It costs €12 a month, but importantly you can stop & start it as you wish. We just pay whilst we are in Spain

We found that we needed a Spanish number for deliveries to our home (white goods, furniture etc), they all want a spanish number for the delivery driver.

Thanks Andrew that's really helpful;.  I did see Lobster but did not realise you can stop and start so that's a good option and as you say, we will need a Spanish number so that will work well.

Cheers

Andy

Hi! Santander is a great “one stop shop” and you can open a non resident account. They helped up with both home and health insurance. I can definitely recommend checking them out. 

Thank you very much for the message and when we are over I will definitely check out Santander.

Once again thank you.

Hi David,

With N26 can you setup all the direct debits necessary as a resident in Spain?  I am looking to see if switching from Sabadell to N26 would sink me somewhere or other that I cannot see at this point?  Currently paying 120 euro per year with Sabadell basic account including a credit card.

I do not wish to just read the 'marketing' of an online bank and then find myself stewing because of some small detail I failed to know about.  Cannot see the point of having more than one bank in Spain so switching 100% is the only option, or staying with Sabadell of course.

Lots of chatter on Facebook that other banks are preferable to Sabadell but their rates have suddenly shot up and some are now even more expensive than what I am paying Sabadell.  Sometimes, as they say 'better the devil you know' because Sabadell is a good banking system in my experience.

Thanks!

Hi Kerri

Thanks for replying and you make some very good points.  I agree, only one account is an option.  If it works, I like the idea of N26 and I have been in contact with them by email and they seem very helpful.  

Thanks again

Andy