Open a Nationwide Flex-Account. It's a current account but you don't have to have a salary paid in.

Nationwide don't add any charges for using their cards abroad even at ATM's and the exchange rate is pretty good too.

I've just checked and the last time I used it in Spain was 14th December and the exchange rate was 1.482

Hi Sue
Sorry don't have much info about courses as yet. We have spoken to the rep for the "municipal" course. He was more interested in selling houses. There is some problem with the town hall which needs sorting out. He did say that housowners on the site would have priority.
Roda is, apparently expensive unless you know someone on the roda complex.
The only course we HAVE played is the wee par 3 at torre de pacheco. More difficult than it looks and costs 23 euros for 18 holes.
We do not have a car so those are the only ones accessible to us at present.
There are practice ranges at T de P and San Javier.
We are at present in the post room at Mercadona! ha Ha!
Thunder and lightning yesterday but lovely today but somewhat chilly. We are here until March 4th so if anyone would like some in situ investigations, let us know.
We usuallu check in once a week.
Sylvia beating the clock!!!!

I use a flex account in Spain; withdrawing cash as necessary and getting commercial rather than tourist rates. However, you can only withdraw up to 400 euros daily which might be a bit limiting when making big purchases for furniture etc.

Thats true but you can use the debit card directly to pay for goods like you would here.

Most accounts have a daily limit at ATM's, it's an anti-fraud measure.

Yes I hadn't considered using the card to pay for goods. Although I always use it at home, in Spain I tend to pay cash as they always want ID and I dont like carrying my passport around. Also, when you are buying large items such as furniture, you can get more discount if you pay in cash - in my experience.

Do you have a photo driving licience as this is a good form of id? I keep meaning to get one but never get on with it.

thanks folks, for all your help, i used a mixture in the end and the charges weren't too bad

Yes I hadn't considered using the card to pay for goods. Although I always use it at home, in Spain I tend to pay cash as they always want ID and I dont like carrying my passport around. Also, when you are buying large items such as furniture, you can get more discount if you pay in cash - in my experience.

You don't need to carry your passport with you for ID when you pay by card provided you have a UK photo driving licence just use that, that's all I did until it got my Spanish ID card.

Why dont you open a spanish bank account and transfer money as and when from the UK the pay with your Spanish CC card

I have a spanish bank account but it costs £20 per transfer from my UK account. When I use my flex card it costs me nothing. However I do have a UK photo driving licence that I will use as ID in future.

I have a spanish bank account but it costs £20 per transfer from my UK account. When I use my flex card it costs me nothing. However I do have a UK photo driving licence that I will use as ID in future.

Well I must say then but sorry you are doing it the wrong way, you need to join either one of there 2 currency exchange sites and get FREE currency transfers into your Spanish bank account.

http://www.currenciesdirect.com/
http://www.hifx.co.uk/

With the first 1 you will only be charged to send the money for any amount below £2000 above that you will not pay anything, also you get what is called the inter bank rate which is normaly 2 or 3 points above the tourist rate ie the current rate at 18:20hrs on 21/1/06 is €1.46 to the pound where the tourist rate is currently €1.38 to the pound.

The second company will allow you to send any amount of money no matter how large or small WITHOUT any charge at all.

I myself use the first on and had first rate service from them, also you should not be charged by your Spanish bank for any transfer/conversion into euros if you are then just contact the English company tell them what happened and the will sort it out for you.

Most of these type of companies have an agreement with all foreign banks not to make any charges.

I did use a currency dealer for transfer of funds when I purchased my apartment but didn't realise you could use them for smaller amounts. Do you incur UK bank charges when you transfer funds to the dealer?

I am happy to use the Nationwide flex account as it is the most cost effective way of drawing money abroad: ie no commission and commercial rates. However I want to look at the cheapest way of paying bills in Spain other than paying cash into the bank each time I visit.

If you have internet banking with you current bank you can do a transfer of funds to any other bank/organisation without any bank charges because you are doing all the work, therefore you could send money to either of the 2 companies I sent you without any charge at all.

Once you have the funds in your Spanish account you could either have internet banking with that bank and pay your normal services bills ie light, water, service charge etc via the internet and any other bills you can either pay by cheque or your debit card from your Spanish bank account when you are in Spain. This is the way I pay my bills or you could set up direct debits with your Spanish bank for the bill payments.

The advantage of using HIFix is you can send as little or as much as you want without any charge, give them a call and talk to them what have you got to loose then if you later decide to retire here and have your UK pension payed into your English account you could set up a direct debit to pay HiFix each month or when ever, then set up a standing order payment to pay a said amount into you Spanish account each month.

My moto is if you can get somebody else to do all the work for you without it costing you or loosing you any money let them do it.

If you think of any more question and I can help plese feel free to post on here and I will answer them if I can.

all this info is very helpful and very interesting.

i have opened an account with Caja Madrid and have internet banking facilities which will be most useful.

when ever i transfer money, at present i send it from my halifax current account, the charges are tiny eg: 0.003% about £17 for £5,000 which is pretty good for a high street branch, i tried Barcleys and that was way off the scale. All the charges are paid at this end.

i recently took a booking from a family elsewhere in Europe. i gave them the IBAN no of my deposit account,we didn't discuss transfer costs so have no idea what Caja Madrid will charge me so if you have any ideas on that let me know. i shall find out anyways i guess.

Just waiting for a response from Nationwide as their internet banking doesn't seem to be set up for international transfers. It may be that I have to open another UK account with a bank rather than a building society.

I have got internet access with Sol Bank but have not had the need for it up til now. Utilities are sorted through direct debit but it is taxes and community fees that I need to be able to sort out remotely. Certainly online banking would make life a lot easier.

I was told that it's not possible to do do international transfers via the internet. Something to do with European anti money laundering laws.

Has the situation changed with the Halifax?

You are probably right which is why I won't be able to do a direct transfer.

a1gjv had been referring to foreign transfers via currency dealers which is clearly what needs to be done.

Seems I had temporarily lost the plot Lack of sunshine that's the trouble.

with my post regarding the Halifax. i don't do the transfer myself on the net, i have to go into the branch and they do it for me so its not super convenient or anything.

i think for a high street bank/building soc the rate was pretty good. it was the easiest way that i had found in the short space of time i had available.

I was told that it's not possible to do do international transfers via the internet. Something to do with European anti money laundering laws.

Has the situation changed with the Halifax?

This is not true as I transfered a 6 figure sum via this method to purchase my property here and do regular 5 figure sums quite oftern without any problems.