Blocked Bank account in Spain

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Posted and filed under Legal Paperwork (NIE, Residencia, Padron).

blockedbankaccount

Blocked bank accounts in Spain are common unfortunately in Spain. We often have clients advise that they can no longer access their online banking or use their card and they do not understand why. Clients often do not realise until they experience a problem becuase of unpaid bills.

Why might a Bank account in Spain be blocked or frozen?

This can happen due to the stricter money laundering requirements nowadays. The bank account may be blocked becuase the Bank needs up to date information from you.Maybe a passport has expired. Maybe they realise they do not have a NIE number for you. They may also require financial information such as tax information for you. Or it could be that you need to prove you are non resident.

What do I need to do?

With a blocked bank account, you need to contact the Bank. If they require documentation from you, sometimes it is possible to send by email to them. Other times you or someone else with power of attorney needs to go to the Bank in person. You may find that they will not tell you anything much by email or telephone becuase of data protection laws. In this case, then someone really needs to go to the Bank. But it can only be the client or often someone with power of attorney on behalf of the client.

Can Spanish Solutions help with a Blocked Bank account in spain?

Perhaps the Bank will not allow you to send the documents by email as they need an original or certified copy. Maybe they need them delivering in person. Sometimes Spanish Solutions can assist with this.

You would need to send us information and funds to prepare a draft power of attorney. We could then email this to you to go to a Notary back home.
The Notary will then need to send this to the Foreign Office for a Hague Apostille. This needs sending back to us in Spain with your instructions and details of the Bank and we can try to assist for you. Occasionally the Bank do demand to see their client in person though. (They have the right, especially due to Money Laundering laws these days). But usually we can
manage to resolve the situation. Please bear in mind the cost of a draft power of attorney, a Notary in UK and apostille is going to cost upwards of 400 pounds. Sometimes it is cheaper and better to fly over. But this is not always possible.

Blocked Bank account affecting Utilities

If your blocked bank account has led to problems with payment of utilities, we can often help. Generally a Bank will only not pay utilities though if there are insufficient funds. If the account is blocked or frozen you need still to send funds to top it up. If we can help you at all please contact us.

83 Comments

  • Pete Flynn

    Hi, I have been unable to access my Santander.es bank account on-line recently as they now appear to have added an extra layer of security. After the usual login details a code is required that has been sent to your mobile phone – I don’t have a Spanish mobile phone and don’t recognize the number that they appear to have listed against my account. How can I sort this out? I live in the UK and don’t regularly visit Spain but I have a property there that I rent out so need to have visibility of my bank account in Spain?

    • Ian C.

      Hello Pete,

      I had the same problem with my banking app last week- It was due to the increased traffic. I think you should try it again, and if that does not work, we’ll try to contact the bank and see will they help us.
      Many people use a UK phone to access their banking apps in Spain, so that should not be the problem,
      keep us posted please.
      Kind wishes,

      Ian

  • Paul Sheldrake

    Hello
    I own a property in Spain, I have nie documents, I’m also disabled. Will I be able to go to my house in July
    I would very much appreciate your advice
    Regards
    Paul

    • Ian C.

      Hello Paul,

      As far as we are aware you should be fine. Easy jet are starting to fly to Spain from the UK June 15th, Ryanair are just behind them so as far as I can see, there is no reason why you cant travel.
      Enjoy your summer in Spain,

      Ian

  • Sonia

    My issue was made known to me in June 2019 when i was visiting my family, I have property, my local branch was Banco Pastor – As i do, i went to deposit money before leaving and was informed by the manager that my account was blocked. He didnt know why, saw that passport info was up to date so just said not to worry and transfer money over when back in UK. Well i didnt do this until 3 months later. Thats when my money came back. Now forward to a year later and many many emails between myself, local branch and madrid. I have given them everything they need. There was some translation issues as they couldnt translate to me in English?? i know…so i was using translator to assist which wasnt very helpful but i got there. They have now ignored me for 2 months, in the meantime Experien wrote to me, translated said i owed money….of course i do i owe Santander money because they blocked my account and Still allowed my bills to be paid. My concern now is having whisked money over in the hope it was unblocked, it still isnt! i have emailed them over and over and nothing….now i have a feeling my bills are not getting paid. I was meant to fly out there today as i do every year but of course lockdown is stopping this! i am so frustrated, how can they get away with this, my property could be in serious trouble not paying bills – but i have no clue! I am now waiting for a correct telephone number to speak with someone, i rather it all in writing so its logged but hopefully i will speak with an English speaking member of the team as i did last year. Although she told me not to worry, once all info received they will unblock the account! HELP!!

    • Ian C.

      Hello Sonia,
      What a terrible situation you have with your Spanish bank. We have many clients in a similar situation, however.
      You need this sorted out to ensure bills are paid as a minimum. The bank doesn’t care about that – they just think about themselves.
      Do you have a mortgage now in Spain?
      Well, of course, we can help. Sometimes in my experience, if the bank sees that you have engaged a firm like us, they suddenly realise they should take the matter more seriously!

      We need from you:
      Contact details of the bank and ideally the person you are dealing with.
      Bank account details.
      ID- NIE number and passport.

      We’ll contact the bank on your behalf and see what they say. You will be copied on all correspondence.
      Costs for this service depend on our level of effort, but it will not be expensive.
      We’ll take a provision of funds from you of say 100 euro and return what we don’t use.
      Get it done now though is my advice,

      Regards,

      Ian

  • Michael Raine

    It is a problem about the phone I was told to go online too order a new card and because spanish mobile is 9 numbers English 11 numbers I can not do it getting no help from santander at all

    • Ian C.

      Hello Michael,
      Santander are not really in the business of helping clients to figure this out- I know in my particular case I had to go into the branch and the girl did it for me there and then.
      If you’re having more difficulties, just let us know and we’ll see what we can do,

      Regards,

      Ian

  • Thomas Fox

    i have a account in spain but not used it for over 10years is it still my monies please advise

    • Ian C.

      If there is a balance in your Spanish bank account, it’s yours. If you are paying annual commissions, fees etc. maybe the bank has eaten all the funds!
      Do you have any details of the bank, etc?

  • Wayne

    Our account has been blocked again 2 time in a year with sandantar. Our solicitor in spain has Poe and still haven’t got anything back from the bank after nearly a month. Any ideas please

    • Jane

      Hi Wayne

      Without knowing why the Bank have blocked your account we cannot comment. It may be their annual anti money laundering checks in which case it will require you to attend the bank in person with your passport. I can only suggest you try calling your branch for more information.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Amelia

    My account was frozen today without warning because they needed a NIE card from me. I’ve recently settled in Spain and have a NIE number nut no card because the residency process is experiencing a two-three month delay. I explained this to them when I set it up and they assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem but now it is. I’ve been able to speak to my bank manager and he’s unfreezing the account (in two-three days which is annoying because they were quick enough to freeze it but dragging their heels to unlock it).

    My question is: before the account froze, I sent €1000 from an online-payment service (like PayPal) that I was expecting to see in my account today. Does this freeze affect money going into the account and, if so, will the money be bounced back without issue? I’m worried about losing this money and wasn’t able to get the bank manager to understand my concerns.

    • Jane

      Hi Amelia

      We would be unable to comment on how the Bank would deal with this. I suggest you contact the Bank concerned again, or the online service to check where the payment is. Sorry we could not help further.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Craig

    My account is now blocked for the first time ever in 9years and unable to transfer any money in. Still trying to get the local branch to understand my issue that I cannot pay the mortgage if I cannot pay the money….. They probably need something from me but I only get to ‘ habla ingles’ and reply is NO. Here lies a problem…. Think it will take me a few years to advance my Spanish.. I can’t even get to the branch from the UK due to covid. Any help/ advice?

    • Jane

      Hi Craig

      It may be the annual Money Laundering checks. Perhaps ask them to e mail and use a translate app to see what they require.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Isobel Shannon

    I have had an account with Santander in Tenerife for many years, with very few problems, until recently. I have always received statements monthly but this has stopped in March 20 I have tried to reinstate this by phone at local branch but because my Spanish is not good enough this has not happened. Don’t know what to do next as I have bills to pay ever month and not sure of balance. Any help most welcome

    • Jane

      Hi Isobel

      I can only suggest you contact them by e mail or call their main office to see if they have an English speaker. If you receive by e mail maybe also check your Junk folder.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Alistair Macfarlane

    We have had our transfers into Banco Santander blocked for two months. After several weeks of trying we got the name of the manager in our bank who asked for documents which we sent. After 2 more weeks nothing had happened so we emailed again and were told that we had to send copies of our passports which we did. We waited another week then emailed again. No response from the manager another week on. We are now threatening legal action against the bank to fight for our rights. And legal fees. We have overdue bills to be paid. Are we doing the right thing? We can’t travel to Spain due to covid restrictions

    • Amanda Thomas

      Dear Alistair, How very frustrating. It is not really something you can threaten legal action over unfortunately as they are required to periodically check people are still alive with up to date passports and ID and often need things signing in person to unblock the account. That said, I agree the unfairness of it with covid. This is actually also a problem, many banks have closed and transferred offices elsewhere, they still have staff on the furlough scheme and even worse for example our local bank have shut the whole branch for two weeks as someone has tested positive so are not answering any emails. I would recommend continuing to bombard them with emails and phone calls saying that you have provided the info, what else do they need? A very last resort is to provide our team with power of attorney and they contact the bank to try to resolve this, but that would cost in total probably around 500 pounds and you would need to see a local Notary back home and get a stamp on the poa from the Foreign Office, so I think that is a last resort. I really hope that you get through to them soon. Kind regards

    • Jane

      Hi Alistair

      We can have you give us Power of Attorney to deal but if it is blocked because of regular Anti Money laundering checks you will require to visit your Bank to resolve.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • William Carr

    My account has been blocked by Unicaja. They need an official document to prove that my income is from my pension. An official document from whom? I have spoken to them but they don’t know from what source the document should be. Do you know? I am most sincere and will engage your services if necessary. W Carr

    • Jane

      Hi William

      We would need to talk to the Bank to confirm the document. Please contact the office and we can advise you on how we can help.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Rhys

    I have a Spanish bank account with Santander which I left open when I returned to the UK in 2014. I wasn’t sure if I was going to return to Spain so left it open. After six years, I would like to close the account. Is it possible to close the account from the UK? Also, I do not have access to the account online. Many thanks
    Rhys

    • Jane

      Hi Rhys

      We can assist you with this or you can contact your Bank to find out their closure procedure.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • simon perez

    my bbva account has been blocked and everytime i go to the bank they say we can’t do nothing!! it has been 2 years now is there a legal way to get my bank account back?

    • Jane

      Hi Simon

      We would require more background on this, if you wish to call the office you can discuss further with one of the team.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Geoffrey Degg

    AVOID SANTANDER BANK IN SPAIN LIKE THE PLAGUE OR COVID!!!

    I have read all of the above comments and have had the same problem with Santander in Roquetas de Mar. I phoned in excess of 30 times…. got through twice … kept me hanging on for 10 mins… then cut me off. No answer when I phoned back immediately.
    About 12 months ago I asked a neighbour to go to Santander and ask them if they would send me a statement. This is because Santander took over Banco Poplar, and as a result I could not access my internet account.
    The clerk there was very rude to her and obviously she came away. Just over 2 months ago I provided another neighbour with copy of my NIE and passport and he drafted a letter on my behalf. The bank manager who I have been dealing with to told him my account was frozen, and that was all. No help whatsoever.

    It is the arrogance of this jumped up manager that annoys me. Send me documents, I did. Not good enough, send them as PDF’s instead of Jpegs. Lame excuse that he could not read them. Would not tell me anything about my account. When it was frozen, are they paying my bills, any money left in my account etc. Dozens of emails from myself, fail to get a reply. Earlier this week, after about two months, he emailed me to say that my wife was on the account, and wanted documents etc. Too much trouble to ask two months earlier.

    I thought it easier not to complicate matters with these idiots when trying to unfreeze my account. When I sent original documents to Spain by recorded delivery, they were stuck in the hub in. Madrid. When I emailed the idiot about it and asked if he would help by going to a higher authority in these exceptional circumstances…… His reply, Why did I send the documents to Madrid and not Roquetas.
    You could not make it up!!!! How much do they pay these morons.

    It is the arrogance of these two bit clerks that annoy me, with the superior attitude they portray.
    I have managed to first get my neighbour to check my mail box at my apartment and pay the final demand electricity.
    I then managed to set up and check my electricity account with Endessa EnercioXXl. It was so easy to do, all in English if you want, and shows whether it is paid. I have done the same with Hydralia, for some reason, Santander have been paying that, but again, very easy to set up and check your account status….. Worry over.

    My only concern now is whether my Basura and council tax are being paid at the town hall.
    Hopefully, my account is almost at the stage of being unfrozen with Santander, and will be able to get a statement.

    The good news is, I have been able to open an account with Cajamar Bank, down the road from my apartment. I have been told that it has gone live today, so I should be able to get rid of Santander for good…..cant wait to tell them where to go when I finally get to Spain.

    Hopefully, more people will read this, and bin Santander, and use a more professional bank. I did email him to say that the UK public would not tolerate their poor service to customers…. I think he is deaf!!

    Good luck with your account.

    Regards

    Geoff

    • Jane

      Hi Geoffrey

      I hope you get this sorted out soon.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Mischa sepp

    My grandparents both diseased had a bank account opened with banesto bank which is now santander. They stalled 500.000 pesetatss in 1994. We found their bank book and tried to contact santander how to collect it. But emails don’t get answered or they send us from department to department. Any solutions?

    • Jane

      Hi Mischa

      We have a service where we can contact Banks to assist clients, if you wish to give us a call or e mail we can discuss.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • angie

    We are having the same trouble as Sonia and Geoffrey. Our bank was taken over by Santander, (everything was fine before – no major issues for 20 years) . We filled in our anti-laundering forms when they arrived last November and sent them back. Then recently, we try to log into tbe account and find we can’t log in anymore. We got a balance from the customer service phone line and realising our balance was too low to pay our bills, so we did a transfer from our UK bank. We waited and then called up to get a balance again. They said the transfer had ‘arrived’, but they said that they had not added the money to our bank account because they have ‘blocked’ our account. “You have to go into the local bank to unblock it,” they said. BUT WE CAN’T GO (for obvious reasons – coronavirus – we are in the UK). They told us to phone our local branch because the customer service could not fix this for us. They gave us a number and after several days of calling, no one answers. We called the customer service again explaining we can’t go to Spain, we did fill in the security forms and return them, and we can’t get through to the branch, we told them to help us, but they just say we can’t do that, you must contact your branch! This is a catch 22 situation! We are worried our services might be cut off. They are ‘holding’ our money instead of putting it in our account. I would never bank with Santander, they are dreadful. We never had this issue before. We are devastated by brexit, and now we have all this unnecessary worry on top of that, at a time when we can’t even get out there to sort out the mess, they have now created for us! Is there a way of getting them to do something? Their stance is clearly illogical under the circumstances. We just want to get in touch with someone who accepts they need to sort it out without us going out there!

    • Jane

      Hi Angie

      Please contact us and we can see what we can do to contact the Bank for you. I have added you to our database so the team can deal as soon as we hear from you.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • LINDA TIRONE

    I have just been reading the message you had from a lady called Angie, her problem is exactly like ours I too have tried so many times to get hold of the santander branch in Benidorm, same problem, you just can’t get them to answer you, I too am worried about my bill not getting paid. Can you help please as this is making me ill with worry, on top of the stupid brexit and covid I just can’t cope, I am already on antidepressant tablets. Its just not fair. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP US, PLEASE.

    • Jane

      Hi Linda

      Tracie has sent you the details of how we can assist.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Ankit

    Hi, I need to send 25K EUROS to my sister in Netherlands, she will return me the money in 6 month or so. I was thinking will it cause any problem when I recevie it back? I read somewhere that any amount above 10K needs to be communicated to tax agency in advance? What if we break this 25K into 5 or 6 installments? WIll it still be a problem?

    Thanks
    Ankit

    • Nicola Ryan

      Morning Ankit,

      It would be best to discuss this matter with your bank.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Eve

    Hi there, hoping to hear your opinion on the following: I purchased vechicle from uk company that has opened warehouse in spain (to keep their stock in) , once we have agreed on price etc. I’ve sent money directly to their spanish business account ( amount was just bellow 10k) and few days later seller contacting me asking for my ID – he told me that their bank asked for this information due to new extra checks because of Covid – which I did, couple days later money just bounced back to my account. I still haven’t heard back from the seller but naturally it has raised some concerns about the company although Internet research was not enough to figure out what possibly could be wrong with the company / their accounts that money were not accepted. P.s. Just to make it clear money were sent from uk account.

    • Amanda Thomas

      Dear Eve, I think it is probably a good thing that the money came back to your account. If you have the vehicle, then you should obviously keep trying to contact the seller. If you do not have the vehicle, I would advise making more enquiries before paying any money to them, as once sent, if they are not genuine, it could be lost. Good luck. Kind regards

  • Laszlo Csanyi

    Hi,our bank account in Santander has been blocked,without any warnings,for incomes,but not yet for payouts.
    I called their Costumer Service. They said,I need to fill out a FIOC document via the Santander app.
    Now,when I called them again,they said,that my document is not enough,we should attach my wife’s FIOC as well. She does not have an app.regirtration.
    Is this a normal situation?
    Many thanks
    Laszlo

    • Tracie Miles

      Hi Laszlo
      I will email you under separate cover.

      Kind regards
      Tracie

  • Laura Etherington

    Hi, is there any way you could assist with the following – I have received an email from BBVA asking me to provide an up to date copy of my passport and a declaration of economic activity. The email says I can either provide the documents through my online banking or by visiting my branch. I cannot access my online banking (I have never been able to) and obviously cannot visit Spain either. I have tried calling my branch but nobody answers (I also do not speak Spanish). I don’t know what to do. I have money in my account, however on the 18th June they will freeze my account and stop my direct debits which will cause huge issues. If there was a way I could email them the documents I could do that, and they must have a form for the declaration of economic activity that I could fill in and send. Thank you.

    • Tracie Miles

      Hi Laura
      I will email you under separate cover regarding this.
      Kind regards
      Tracie

  • Sue Derewicz

    Hi, we have the same problem as Laura Etherington. We had an email from BBVA requesting up to date passports and a Declaration of Economic Activity. We have until June 18th to send these otherwise out account will be blocked. We have a property in Lanzarote and pay our utility bills and burglar alarm fee by direct debit from our account.
    We are both pensioners with no other income. We have tried emailing BBVA customer Services and also tried to phone our branch. No reply from either.
    We do online banking but this is in my name only. Where can we get the forms for the DEA and how and where can we send copies of these and our passports to? Neither of us speak Spanish. Do hope you can give us some advice on this. Kind regards, Sue

    • Jane

      Hi Sue

      We are not familiar with the process for Lanzarote I am afraid. If you contact a local gestor on the island they should be able to contact the Bank and speak to them in Spanish.

      Kind Regards

      Jane

  • Teresa Owen

    We have money stuck in a Santander account in Spain since the sale of a property 3 years ago. The issue is due to a change of a mobile number which means we can no longer receive a code to arrange transfer of the monies.
    We have tried to call numerous times and have emailed our account manager providing copy passports and NIE numbers without success.
    We are at our wits end as we don’t know when we’ll be able to fly out and retrieve the funds if this is our only option. The monies are needed to pay off our mortgage in the UK and any capital gains due to HMRC.
    Is this something you can help with at all?
    Thanks.

    • Tracie Miles

      Good morning Teresa
      Thank you for your enquiry. If your bank account is within the Orihuela Costa / Torrevieja area we can assist you. Firstly, you need to check with your bank if they accept Power of Attorney for us to do this. If they do then please email us on – enquiries@spanishsolutions.net and we can move forward regarding this.

      Kind regards
      Tracie

  • T

    Hello!

    Problem with Spanish banks…I did open an savings account in Torremolinos in local bank in 2004 and left 300e into account. This account was forgotten for years. Since I have never lived in Spain.
    What I can gather, from internet this small bank was taken by Santander sometime in 20018.
    There was never action in this account and last balance statements read some 200e from 2017. I would like to close permanently this account since I do not have any use for it. How can I do this easiest with out traveling to Spain?
    I have tried to contact Santanders customer service with e-mail, with no luck.

    Only thing that I would like to to do is just to close this account, and prevent any unknown running costs that I have not been informed. as far as the money goes in the account, don`t really care about it.

    So how to proceed?

    • Tracie Miles

      Good morning, we received your enquiry via another chanel. I have replied to you via email.
      Regards
      Tracie

    • Nicola Ryan

      Good Afternoon T,

      Thank you for your enquiry.

      If the bank is happy to accept a power of attorney, we can help you with this for sure. Please note we would need confirmation from the bank that the power of attorney is accepted before proceeding. We hope this helps.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Barbara Taylor

    Unfortunately due to criminal elements money laundering is a huge issue in banking with severe consequences for banking employees who do not follow the rules to help combat it. So have a little sympathy as I am sure they are just as frustrated as you. My advice is to make sure you have online banking with a password and a digital signature because sometimes the problem is simply an unsigned document.

  • Howard Jones

    My name is Howard I have an flat in Torriveja my bank account looks as if it is blocked. Bankia they tell me to speak to the branch no luck what should I do

    • Nicola Ryan

      Good Morning Howard,

      Thank you for your enquiry.

      Can we ask if you have given your Solicitor or anyone power of attorney for you. If you have and the bank is detailed on the power of attorney, they will be able to deal with the bank on your behalf, but please note the bank have to agree to the power of attorney being used. Bankia are usually happy to deal when a power of attorney is involved.

      If you do not have a power of attorney, we can help you with this and also deal with the bank on your behalf, should you wish.
      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Nia

    Hello. I’ve had my account at Bankia (now merging with Caixabank) for over two years. I opened it with my passport as my main ID, since at the moment I didn’t have my NIE card yet. However, the account was opened under a “resident” status, using my NIE number. Since my NIE has expired (I am in the process of renewing it), they have blocked my account, not accepting my renewed passport as ID. It could take months for me to have a new NIE card, and I can’t access my money at all. I’d be very grateful if I could get some guidance on what to do.

    Thank you very much.

    • Tracie Miles

      Good morning Nia
      Could you advise the location of your bank to see if we can help you.
      Thank you
      Kind regards
      Tracie

  • Roger Roberts

    I have just provided my Spanish Bank (Cajasur) with six months statements from my UK Bank ,Lloyds) . This was requested before I transfered £3000 to my Spanish account. As a permanent resident of Spain with a 10 year TIE card, do I need to do this every time I need to top up my Spanish account? Cajasur told me I need to supply 6 months UK statements from Lloyds even for transfering as little as £1.0.0.! This seems completely crazy. I have been a customer of Cajasur for 20 years, but now treated like a common money launderer I live in Spain and regularly visit my Bank. I provide them with my TIE card as proof of identity. They advised me to transfer a large amount to avoid having to provide 6 months of my Lloyd Bank statements (approx 24 pages) but if I transfer a large amount to cover all my facilities bills and living expenses, I would empty my UK Bank account. What can I do?

    • Ian C.

      Hello Roger,

      Thanks for getting in touch with Spanish Solutions.
      Many clients are having issues with the Spanish banks. We have even sued the banks on 10/12 occasions so please don’t feel your case is unique.
      We speak to the banks on behalf of many foreigners in order to get answers to their issues.
      This one appears very odd, but may be due to the amalgamation of many financial institutions in Spain over the past number of years?
      In order to speak to the bank, we’ll need authorisation from you and we charge a small fee.

      I’ll get the details over to you by email,

      Kind wishes,

      Ian

  • Mark

    My Instagram account was hacked and it was used to defraud a few people and because of that my bank account was frozen. Is there any way I can get it unfrozen soon because they say I have to wait till July to go to court and that’s too far

    • Nicola Ryan

      Afternoon Mark,

      You would need to contact the bank or the police dealing with your case to confirm, we hope you get this matter sorted quickly.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • ShiYun

    BBVA blocked my bank account in the middle of buying a house due to my NIE expiring. Can you help?

    • Nicola Ryan

      Good Morning Shiyun,

      Thank you for your enquiry.

      Can we ask a few questions to confirm where we can help.

      Where in Spain you are buying please.
      Do you have a Solicitor acting on your behalf for the property purchase.
      If you have a Solicitor, do they have a power of attorney for you or are you in Spain for the purchase.

      We will contact you directly to discuss this matter further.
      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Margarita

    My account has been blocked to write my password 3 times wrong. They managed unlocking it will be 2 weeks but I still didn’t get any answers. I’m not able to transfer and get anything.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Afternoon Margarita,

      We are sorry to hear of your situation but you would need to contact your bank directly to discuss this matter further.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Susan Lovering

    We are resident in UK but have a Spanish holiday home. We, therefore, have a Spanish bank account. Last year we had to visit the Bank with passport and NIE number. Do we have to do this every year.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Susan,

      Yes, these documents have to be submitted every year or 2 years, depending on the bank. We hope this helps.

      Kind Regards
      Nicola

  • Chris Morgan

    My boyfriend lives in Spain his account has been frozen , do banks charge to unfreeze account

    • Amanda Thomas

      Dear Chris, Not usually I believe but banks are a bit of a law unto themselves. He needs to find out why it has been frozen, it is probably merely they need him to contact them and update/confirm his identity information for money laundering regulations. With kind regards,

  • Liz Davis

    Hi, we bank with CaixaBank (Sotegrande branch) and recently transferred money over to pay our quarterly tax bill. After a few days of it not arriving we called customer’s services to be told the account has been blocked. They suspected it was because my passport has changed (albeit that was nearly 2 years ago). They told us we had to speak to our branch. Unfortunately on calling them we realised our Spanish is not good enough to converse. We have emailed them and are awaiting a response but I wanted to see if our power of attorney we set up when buying our property would still be in place? They dealt with our bank account set up on our behalf and I’m hoping therefore they could continue to help us. It’s been nearly 4 years since we bought the property and I’m not sure if power of attorney runs out? Many thanks for you advice.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Liz,

      There is usually no expiry on the power of attorney.

      If dealing with the bank is detailed on your power of attorney, your solicitors will be able to help you for sure. However you would need confirmation from your bank that they would accept the power of attorney for the unblocking of the bank account initially. We hope this helps.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Laurence Hore

    I am writing out of exasperation, with an issue that is causing me disproportionate bother. Banco Sabadell are being extraordinarily difficult about closing down a thoroughly dormant account I have with them. A brief timeline:

    • May 2011 – I moved to Madrid for work, salary being paid into newly opened account
    • October 2013 – returned to England, leaving the account open with some €600 remaining (I think), with a view to returning to Spain one day, maybe permanently
    • March 2015 – spent some of this on a holiday in Tenerife, leaving around €400 (I think)
    • June 2016 – Brexit. Well done everyone
    • No further activity on the account, until a recent message informing me that I was €26.15 overdrawn. On investigating, it seems I am partly locked out of my account, requiring paperwork which I don’t have
    • I paid this €26.15 at a Nationwide branch in UK, and have requested the account be closed
    * It seems now the €26.15 has become €18.00, but I cannot see how or why, with limited access

    Clearly I don’t want to give them any more money, but neither do I want to burn my bridges (potentially) with the Spanish banks. Of course a large part of me wants to just ignore it all, as I can’t believe they’d try any legal action for such a piffling amount.

    I wouldn’t blame you for ignoring me entirely (see ‘piffling amount’), however I can’t help thinking others might be in a similar position, with larger debts having been ‘run up’, and maybe causing unnecessary worry. It does seem that theft, sorry I mean the unnecessary fee is a standard part of Spanish banking

    I doubt if they’d like adverse publicity, which of course, is a large part of the reason for my contacting you. I can forward you two short Kafkaesque email correspondences if you’re interested.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Laurence,

      It is best to resolve this matter rather than ignore it. A solicitor, local to your branch may be able to help. Firstly, you need to contact the branch to confirm they will allow someone to act on your behalf via power of attorney. If the bank agrees to the power of attorney, an international power of attorney can be done. The international power of attorney draft would be emailed to you in the UK, to be finalised at your nearest Notary Public and then returned to the person representing you. We can help you with the international power of attorney, should you wish.

      We hope this helps,
      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Semih Abdulazar

    Hello,
    I want to buy a property in Spain and I want to transfer money to my account in BBVA in Spain, I cannot transfer money directly from my country and I should use an exchange office, it seems that they are using private account inside the EU. what documents should I have to prevent my account being blocked? can I notify them before? what documents I should have so I will not get subjected to money laundry or tax income problems?
    I have documents that show the money come from selling my property in my country btw.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Semih,

      As long as you have a paper trail to confirm where the money has come from (proof from the sale of your house) you should be fine in regards to money laundering checks.

      In regards to your BBVA account being blocked, it would be best to discuss this with your BBVA branch before transferring the money, or the solicitor who is representing you for the sale will also be able to advise you. Should you not have a solicitor/representative in place for the completion, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to help.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Jane

    I have received these messages from social security and the bank. I had booked a flight for yesterday to Cdaiz from Manchester but my Dad convinced me not to saying there is no point so I didn’t take the flight. Against better judgement because my plan was to book an appointment with the foreign office and show them my new passport, the old one expired on the date quoted 08/01/23 and then do the same at the bank. I can see they are basically about to seize all my money.

    ING – Enlace a sitio web
    Tienes una retención en cuenta por embargo

    Estimada Jane Louise:

    Queremos informarte sobre la retención en tu/s cuenta/s como consecuencia de un proceso de embargo. Los datos completos del mismo son estos:

    – Organismo embargante: SEGURIDAD SOCIAL.
    – Fecha de retención: 27-01-2023.
    – Importe total del embargo: 1820,97€.
    – Importe retenido: 1079,49€.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Jane,

      We are in contact with you via email.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Nita

    I opened an account two weeks ago in Spain. They have all my documents.. I’m an exchange student from South Africa, upto now they have not unblocked my account, they mentioned that it’ll take another 3 weeks. Why does ut take 5-6 weeks to get a bank card working? I’m unable to pay my bills or withdraw the funds my school deposited.. this is quite frustrating.

    • Nicola Ryan

      We understand your frustration Nita,

      It would be best to direct these comments to the branch itself, we would not be able to give you an explanation for this, we are sorry.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

  • Paul Roche

    Hi, Are you hearing about any issues with accessing online banking with Cajamar? I have same issue for a few months now. Constantly getting locked out of my account as they seem to detect malware/security issue. I have all anti-virus up to date and tried on several PCs and my iPhone App and still same issue. Really annoying having to go through procedure to unlock the online access all the time. Anyone else have this issue? Thanks Paul.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Paul,

      We are not aware of such problems, sorry.

      Nicola

  • Tan, Lance

    Does the UN Nations asked money from the family of the relatives working in UN headquarters terminate the contract to and need to pay the certificate of retirement /leave and private jet, Is all are real?

    • Nicola Ryan

      Morning Tan,

      This question would be best directed to the UN Nations to confirms.

      Nicola

  • Norah maher

    I’m locked out of my Banker account because of wrong saved password being entered 3 times. When I created a new password, everything was fine until I go to log in and the I’m told to put in a 6 number security code that they have sent to my phone, which I’m not getting.. I am unable to put in my Irish no properly as I’m allowing to enter 9 number. Went to bank a couple of times and it was decided to send code through email. Two days have passed and I have not received the email.. I’m worried about my direct debits not being paid..

    • Nicola Ryan

      Thank you for your enquiry Norah,

      There should be a telephone number that you can call to discuss this. The internet banking is something that needs to be sorted by you, a third party can not represent you. We are sorry we can not be much more help.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

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