Spanish account fees and conditions: the real annual cost

Terms used

• Vinculación — Vinculación means bundled products, such as insurance, a pension plan or a credit card, that a bank ties to an account's discounts or fee waivers.
• Documento informativo de comisiones — The documento informativo de comisiones is the sheet listing a bank's standard fees for the main account services, which the bank must give you.
• Estado de comisiones — The estado de comisiones is the yearly statement from your bank showing the fees charged to your account.
• Cuenta de pago básica — The cuenta de pago básica is a basic account with a debit card and everyday services that legally resident consumers in the EU can request.

Key rules

• Free accounts: Most branch-bank accounts are free only while you meet conditions such as payroll, card use or a linked product.
• Linked products: You do not have to buy insurance, a pension plan or a card to open a payment account.
• Cancelling: Cancelling a linked product usually ends the fee waiver or discount, so your costs rise.
• Basic account: If a bank refuses you, a legally resident EU consumer can request a basic account, and the bank must answer within 10 working days.

The headline price is not the real price

Miss the conditions and the bank charges a maintenance fee, and often card fees too. Large branch banks charge €3 to €6 per month on standard accounts and €10 to €20 per month on premium accounts, which is €36 to €72 or €120 to €240 a year before card fees. So compare accounts by what they cost when you do not meet the conditions, and then by what it takes to avoid that cost.

Conditions that waive the fees

Large branch banks ask for one or more of these:

• A payroll or pension paid into the account (payroll domiciliation), above a monthly minimum.
• A number of card payments each quarter.
• A direct debit, or sometimes an insurance policy.

The thresholds differ by bank and by offer, so get the figures from each bank's fee sheet. Online banks have often dropped the payroll requirement, and they usually charge no maintenance fee. If you are self-employed, between jobs or paid from abroad, a payroll condition may be one you cannot meet. Ask for an account without it.

Linked products (vinculación)

Banks often bundle an account with life or home insurance, a pension plan, a credit card or investment funds. In return you get waived fees or a cheaper mortgage rate.

If you take them, work out what happens when you cancel: your fees or mortgage rate then rise as the contract says. The contract for each product sets the exact consequences. For a mortgage, banks may offer discounts for linked products but cannot make them compulsory, apart from certain insurance, and you may choose your own insurer.

Costs outside the maintenance fee

• Cards: debit cards are free under conditions and cost €10 to €30 a year when you miss them. Credit cards carry an annual fee of €20 to €60.
• Cash machines: taking cash from another bank's machine in Spain can carry a fee set by the machine's operator. It is usually shown on screen before you confirm.
• Foreign payments: payments in non-euro currencies often carry a commission plus a currency conversion margin. Withdrawals abroad add another fee.

How to add it up

1. Ask for the fee information document (documento informativo de comisiones).
2. Write down the yearly cost with no conditions met: maintenance, card fees and transfers.
3. Add the cost of any linked product you would need to keep.
4. Compare with the cost of meeting the conditions. A payroll you already have costs you nothing extra. A pension plan you do not want does.

After a year, your annual statement of fees (estado de comisiones) shows what was really charged. Use it to decide whether to stay or switch.

If a bank will not open an account

A refusal does not end it: every legally resident EU consumer has the right to a basic account (cuenta de pago básica), with a total annual fee capped at €3 and free for people in a vulnerable situation. Ask for the refusal in writing: If a bank won't open your account, what are your options?.

If you are a non-resident, young or retired

• Non-resident: big banks charge non-resident accounts €5 to €15 per month, and most online banks do not open them. Ask for the fee sheet before you open.
• Under 26 or a student: many big banks and online banks offer accounts with no maintenance fee and no conditions.
• Retired: a pension paid into the account counts like payroll for fee waivers.

If you are a non-EU or UK citizen

The fee rules are the same whatever your nationality, including for UK citizens with Withdrawal Agreement rights. The basic account right applies if you are legally resident in the EU. Only the document you show differs: your passport and your residence document.

Questions to ask a bank before you choose it

• Ask what happens if you stop meeting a condition, for example if your salary stops, and how much notice the bank gives before it starts charging.
• Ask what fees apply to transfers, cash withdrawals at other banks' machines and foreign card payments.
• Ask how to close the account and whether there is any charge for closing it.