Looking to change bank ..recommendations

[Gal]

I'm a bit worried that Caja Murcia in their new guise as Banco Mare Nostrum with Caja Granada and a few others might be going 'pop' in a few days.....    hateful bank but we are stuck with them with our mortgage.   

[jill cockfield]

Well, after waiting three weeks for the Internet service to be reinstated at Cajamurcia, it is STILL not working today! Cajamar here we come. Thanks to everyone for their help and advice x

[rozzieb]

We are also with Cajamar [arboleas branch] and have full internet banking, can do everything we need to do, transfers,pay bills, top up mobiles ,move money around etc. All in English, have been with them for over 7 years,no complaints at all. They only open from 08.30 - 2pm though.

[jill cockfield]

Does anyone know if Cajamar is open in the afternoon?

[Lorraine]

We've been with Cajamar since we arrived 5 years ago and have been using full internet banking since day one. All in English too. Nice people in all branches and they are everywhere.

[CT]

Thanks very much I will investigate further

[p2une]

Yes Colin, full access.  When I went into the branch and told Carmen, she apologised and said I had just been put onto the partial service,where I could just check balances and print off statements each week.  She then adjusted it and now it's fine, can do everything I do with our UK bank account, including transfers and bill payments.

CT, we're with Albox branch, don't live near Arboleas so Albox is best for us.  If you go into your branch they should change your Internet for you, if not I'd consider changing banks, or at least branches.

June

[Optomist]

Thanks for that, are you saying that you have full internet access rather than just checking balances? As CT says they can only see balances with their account. I need to be able to pay bills and transfers etc..

Thanks

Colin

I have had some horror stories with Santander in UK and here so a bit concered about them.. It really needs to be a local bank as well for ease of access and preferably one without long queues! LOL... Nightmare isn´t it  :-\ :-\ :-\

Yes Colin the online Banking facility gives you full access to all the services you should need including transfers to any other bank or paying bills  .

[philw]

Hi Colin pm sent

[CT]

p2une: Which branch of Cajamar are you referring to - I was referring to Arboleas. Maybe the onus is on me to go in and sort it. I wanted to move some money but they said I would have to go in to the branch !

[ColinC]

We changed to Cajamar last year when CAM closed as we didn't want to trail over to Vera whenever we wanted to do anything with the account
Carmen in Cajamar speaks excellent English and is most helpful.  Internet banking is in English too.  I had the problem of not having full access for Internet banking but went into the branch and told Carmen, and she sorted it out there and then.
We have no charges but are pensioners, and have a regular payment into the account.
Suits us fine so far!

Thanks for that, are you saying that you have full internet access rather than just checking balances? As CT says they can only see balances with their account. I need to be able to pay bills and transfers etc..

Thanks

Colin

I have had some horror stories with Santander in UK and here so a bit concered about them.. It really needs to be a local bank as well for ease of access and preferably one without long queues! LOL... Nightmare isn´t it  :-\ :-\ :-\

[the translator]

Colin, Dont touch Banco Valencia in Albox, they are lying, robbing ba****ds.... im looking into changing from them, but not sure who to go with, let me know who you choose.

[p2une]

We changed to Cajamar last year when CAM closed as we didn't want to trail over to Vera whenever we wanted to do anything with the account
Carmen in Cajamar speaks excellent English and is most helpful.  Internet banking is in English too.  I had the problem of not having full access for Internet banking but went into the branch and told Carmen, and she sorted it out there and then.
We have no charges but are pensioners, and have a regular payment into the account.
Suits us fine so far!

[Karen4]

Anyone but Banco Santander in Albox....under investigation by Ombudsman and Bank of Spain for serious issues.

[Louise]

Can only recommend Banco Santander (after we quit Cajamurcia and LaCaixa)

non-resident: 15 euro / year charges
resident account ZERO euro bank charges
condition: min.600  Euro balance and min. monthly deposit of 600 €

electronic banking is very secure (2 codes + via code sent by mobile phone - compared to Cajamar, La Caixa, Cajamurcia,......it is great)

Website I use is in Spanish, but it should be possible to change that into English, but so far I manage.

[Elgin]

Sabadell Solbank have good internet banking and mobile banking sites.  Staff speak english (in branches and at call centres) but the nearest branches are Mojacar and Vera Playa.  I have opted for a Prestige account which costs about €22.50 per quarter but 1 debit card and credit card are free no charges for receiving or paying transfers (domestic & international) and charges for using other (Servired) cash machines are refunded each quater.

[ColinC]

Thanks Sally B & Jeff...

[The Reiver]

Barclays, Colin, are at Paso Mediterráneo, 277, Mojacar, which is across the road from Aku Aku. TN 950 475 244. The Manager is called Maria and speaks fluent English as does Eduardo.

Regards, Jeff

[sallyb]

We joined Banco Andalucia when we first came out (now Banco Poplar). I have no problems with their internet and the only charges we pay (as NON residents) is 10 cents on each direct debit. I am not complaining at that. Also the staff are very pleasent and helpful.

[Optomist]

Yes they did , actually it was only after driving there with our Euro cheque book thinking we could make a withdraw that we discovered it was not possible , Barclays in the UK had given their address as being our closest branch so i guess they didn't know at the time either .

[ColinC]

We have had Barclays Sterling and Euro current accounts opened in the UK since 2000 and Barclay's have been in Spain at least that long if not longer , the Logo is the same however i suspect that Lloyds will operate on the same basis as Barclays have and will be two independent businesses with no access to accounts outside the country they are in so best to check this 1st .

Thanks might have a think about Barclays, didn´t they used to have a branch in Mojacar?

[ColinC]

Lloyds are expanding in Spain and apparently their web site and all communications are in English. I suspect they
will perhaps have more of the culture of a UK bank. Might be worth investigating

www.lloydsbankinternational.es

thanks CT, will have a look, wonder if they would like to open a branch in Albox :lol: :lol:

Had a look their nearest branch is Mazzaron

[Optomist]

We have had Barclays Sterling and Euro current accounts opened in the UK since 2000 and Barclay's have been in Spain at least that long if not longer , the Logo is the same however i suspect that Lloyds will operate on the same basis as Barclays have and will be two independent businesses with no access to accounts outside the country they are in so best to check this 1st .

[ColinC]

Lloyds are expanding in Spain and apparently their web site and all communications are in English. I suspect they
will perhaps have more of the culture of a UK bank. Might be worth investigating

www.lloydsbankinternational.es

thanks CT, will have a look, wonder if they would like to open a branch in Albox :lol: :lol:

[CT]

Lloyds are expanding in Spain and apparently their web site and all communications are in English. I suspect they
will perhaps have more of the culture of a UK bank. Might be worth investigating

www.lloydsbankinternational.es

[ColinC]

I may have the wrong sort of account with Cajamar. I can check my statement on-line but for anything else I have to go into the branch which rather defeats the object of the exercise.It doesn't begin to compare with Internet banking with my UK bank. Incidentally, in this day and age why does it take Cajamar a calendar month to clear a cheque from a UK bank ?

Well thats Cajamar out of the equation as well then!

Any more offers? Oh and not Unicaja, miserable lot in there!!

[ColinC]

I have been using chrome for Caja Murcia, but on international transfers (EU) it won´t accept the IBAN number and the annoying part of the English site is also mainly in Spanish ! I have had the problem of the international transfers not working before both on Firefox and Chrome its a pain in the butt! I never saw the Caja Granada site as I have been with C/Murcia since they opened (2006 I think)...

Waiting time in branch is important as I have ashop to open in the morning, from what I can see of any of the Spanish banks they would have a shock if they had to work at the rate they do in a UK bank!

[CT]

I may have the wrong sort of account with Cajamar. I can check my statement on-line but for anything else I have to go into the branch which rather defeats the object of the exercise.It doesn't begin to compare with Internet banking with my UK bank. Incidentally, in this day and age why does it take Cajamar a calendar month to clear a cheque from a UK bank ?

[Optomist]

La Caxia website works well for us on Chrome and the online banking is good compared to some however the only gripe i have with La Caxia is there is never more than one cashier and not unusual to wait 20 mins or more if you pick a wrong time which i always seem to . La Caxia changed its status in June 2010 and is not a conventional bank so interest rates are not as good as they used to be and charges increase regularly .

[felipe]

Colin, I thought the opposite. That it was easier than the old Caja Granada one. I did a successful international transfer on Thursday and it took just a couple of minutes. In My UK account the next day. Mind you I am using Chrome. I gave up on Firefox months ago. It ended up with too many gadgets and plugins required for it to do the job properly.

[ColinC]

Thanks Guz and Alansue, I have thought about them in the past and they may be the ones I go with...

temasek, I know what you mean about changing staff. We were their first customers when they opened their Albox branch and Andreas was very helpful.

I have had trouble with the internet since shortly after the merge and my normal web browser (Firefox) won´t work with the log on in English, yet works when I log on in Spanish! A lot of my history and templates have gone missing and trying to do internatioanl transfers works about one attempt in 6 !

The call centre is next to useless when you try and report a fault as their help desk on understands PC technology and when it is clearly a bug in their data base or web functionality they haven´t got a clue! I wouldn´t mind if they fixed it when they get around to it, but when they do it lasts for a few weeks then it falls over again...

[temasek]

Colin,
I have no trouble at all with their internet banking. The option comes up twice on the first page to change to English.
It is not as good , tho', in that pokey branch, with the staff having been moved on elsewhere.
Always a queue and the ATM out of order for days at a time.

[alansue]

We would also recommend La Caixa.

[gus-lopez]

La Caixa if there's one in Albox. internet side is excellent , in english & works perfectly. You should be able to get  cards etc; for low  or no charge.

[ColinC]

I am fed up with the poor quality of our internet banking here, it (Caja Murcia) has gone downhill since it merged with BNN and Granada. it wasn´t brilliant before but you could change the language to English which worked after a fashion, but now it is totally rubbish, when you can get on it it is full of errors and one ends up getting nowwhere fast.

So what I am looking for is a branch in Albox that has some english speaking staff, low or nil charges on cards and accounts and most importantly an excellent internet banking service in English (a good international exchange rate would be a benefit as well)..

Looking forward to some interesting responses!

Thanks

Colin