Which bank has the lowest charges in Tenerife?

[Sun-Lover]

With the current trend of bank charges seeming to be rising which bank has the lowest overall charges ?

Thanks

[TenerifeTeddy]

We have accounts with Banca March and Sabadell Solbank. BM charges are high, and their overall service poor. However we have had the Sabadell account which we use for internet banking for 14 months and the only time we paid a small charge was when we went overdrawn for a day, whilst payments were crossing. We have found them to be very good, and we also got our ICO loan to set up Callao Learning Centre through them, in 10 days. We would move all our banking to them if they had a local branch for paying money into.

[garlicbread]

We have a residents' current account with the infamous Santander, charges are nada, zilch, nowt....can't get cheaper than that.

[cressrt]

It also depends if you have anything regular.y paid in, eg wages, pension etc.

[Sun-Lover]

If Santander has no charges I think that will be the one to pick.

I know that Santander had a bit of a bad reputation in the Uk but
how are they here ?

Thanks

[Steve 4]

We have a residents' current account with the infamous Santander, charges are nada, zilch, nowt....can't get cheaper than that.

Thanks for the post, garlicbread - very helpful. Any idea (or do you know anyone on the forum who knows) about bank charges for non-resident accounts? I'm particularly interested in charges for transferring in a large Euro amount to buy a property. Santander look promising, but I've also heard that you can negotiate charges with some banks when opening an account?

[garlicbread]

Thanks for the post, garlicbread - very helpful. Any idea (or do you know anyone on the forum who knows) about bank charges for non-resident accounts? I'm particularly interested in charges for transferring in a large Euro amount to buy a property. Santander look promising, but I've also heard that you can negotiate charges with some banks when opening an account?

Whatever bank you decide to use in Tenerife use a Currency Exchange Company to transfer funds from the UK any of te following I can personally recommend

http://www.moneycorp.com/?source=wcu

http://www.torfx.com/

http://www.currenciesdirect.com/

[Steve 4]

Cheers, garlicbread - your (and other members') posts in this part of the forum have cemented my decision to use one of those very currency exchange organisations from the UK end, and I very much thank you for your suggestions.

My problem now is in getting that money into a Canary Islands bank (as a non-resident) without incurring charges just for putting it in there in the first instance, and then ongoing charges as the money is used and paid out for the property purchase and future bills.

[karaokeking]

Well i don´t know how Garlicbread is getting no charges. We have been with Santander for five years. We used to get charged one euro each, for each month. Now we get charged three euro´s a month between us. So at this moment i am looking to change my bank.

[Steve 4]

The best I've found so far...

BS - Banko Sabadell (also branded Sol Bank) has the current offering to non-residents (and, I presume, residents as well):
Expansion Account (at least 700 Euros must be paid in each month)
- Zero fees for account admin and maintenance
- 3% (up to 20 Euros) returned on main bills Direct Debits
- Free debit card, credit card, internet & phone/mobile banking, ATM withdrawals

If any interest is paid, it's negligible. But the account start up was easy enough at the bank - just passport and NIE/F number required - and internet banking was up and running instantly. No problem that I hadn't moved in to - or even completed on - my Canaries property yet: my debit card was mailed to my UK address. Oh, and they gave me a free pair of flip-flops.

This in conjunction with using the Currency Exchange company MoneyCorp to get Sterling into Euros at a good rate have been my preferred choices. MoneyCorp have been great, actually.