Spanish bank accounts...

[RobbieW]

Having just arrived back in Spanish waters with an intention to stay a while. I've been researching SIM card prices, the PAYG deals on offer are pretty poor - 3-5Gb/month for around €20-25. I know we'll use 10Gb and 20Gb makes life easier. Trouble is getting that means a contract which seems to require a Spanish bank account to service the contract. Hence the question, how onerous is setting up a bank account in Spain ? We will have an 12 month contract with a marina from October so should have a verifiable address if thats of use, I also have a cousin near Malaga whose address I might be able to borrow.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Just sent PM

 

[colind3782]

I have an account with Sabadell. They have English speaking staff and you can use your UK address if you like. The charge is €8 per month.

 

[capnsensible]

Have you tried Lebara? Their prices seem ok. We only use them for phone and text though.

 

[Steve Clayton]

www.telitec.com will sort you out.

 

[ribrage]

It's fairly easy to get a Spanish bank account but the deals for phones probably aren't as good as in the UK

A UK 3 mobile sim only contract with 600 mins (UK phones ) Unlimited texts and unlimited data costs me £22 per month.

Most of the time the phone is logged on the Movistar network - which if you look at a similar bundle with them is double the price

Spain is on the feel at home list As is France etc.

Works for me.

 

[colind3782]

Unless things have changed recently, you will need Spanish residency to get a mobile contract.

 

[RobbieW]

It's fairly easy to get a Spanish bank account but the deals for phones probably aren't as good as in the UK

A UK 3 mobile sim only contract with 600 mins (UK phones ) Unlimited texts and unlimited data costs me £22 per month.

Most of the time the phone is logged on the Movistar network - which if you look at a similar bundle with them is double the price

Spain is on the feel at home list As is France etc.

Works for me.

According to the Ts & Cs Feel at Home is good so long at you travel back to the UK frequently, we wont be in UK till late October. Its intended for holiday/business trip use rather than permanent use outside UK - looked at that last year at various times, of course it may have changed. My comparison is with Greece/Italy rather than UK.

 

[RobbieW]

Unless things have changed recently, you will need Spanish residency to get a mobile contract.

That is, of course, possible when it comes down to it. I emailed Yoigo whose reply suggested that the only hurdle would be a Spanish bank account though

 

[Trident]

Tuenti - a movistar subsidiary do a PAYG deal with 1gb at 4 Euro and you just add as many 1Gb top ups as you need - so far this month we've used 12 gb but then we did just download the entire Orange is the New Black season for the First Mate - its 3G but we regularly get 1 Meg per second speeds and still had a signal 30 miles off the coast on the way to Ibiza.
www.tuenti.com

With regard to the 3 At Home - you are right about the T&Cs but they do say they will only stop you if you use it for more than 30 days for over 2 months of the year. I just turn mine off for 24 hours one Sunday a month when I know I won't get work calls or mails (ok 2 Sundays in the months with 31 days) and that way I don't break their rules. But I do get 29 days days use a month at UK rates for 12 months of the year - having said that you cannot tether with it so its only of limited help.

 

[RobbieW]

Tuenti - a movistar subsidiary do a PAYG deal with 1gb at 4 Euro and you just add as many 1Gb top ups as you need...

With regard to the 3 At Home...having said that you cannot tether with it so its only of limited help.

Thanks for that, off to Mahon in the morning to see what I can get so the tuenti deal sounds promising to get us going. I'd ordered a Lycamobile SIM to be delivered to Addaya but that hasnt turned up yet & I want to move on. The no-tethering is a show stopper as we use a MiFi like setup with two laptops running through it, I can fake the sniffers by pushing everything through VPN but thats a bit of a pain.

 

[Trident]

Make sure to take a Passport as you need ID for the Tuenti SIM - also don't be put off if they say its for Spanish only - the girl in the shop I got mine from thought it was but the Tuenti website says for any EU passport holder - so I had her check the website from her shop computer and she apologised and was very helpful, got it all registered and set up in about 20 minutes for me.

 

[lindsay]

For my tablet I bought a Three Mifi in the UK on PAYG Sim and alternate it every few weeks in Three's "friend" countries with a local Lebara SIM card. Works a treat for my requirements anywhere, including anchorages, and no need for bothersome procedures to get a bank account. Even simpler to get the Lebara sim because you dont need it to function outside the country you buy it in. Only need was to change the APN after inserting the local Lebara sim the first time. After that, alternating no problem

 

[RobbieW]

Following up and closing out a number of things in this thread, thanks to those making suggestions. I think picking up a 3 SIM next time I'm in the UK is high on the list of priorities now I have some experience of working around tethering restrictions with my setup. I found this website, http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Spain, invaluable in researching further.

I have an account with Sabadell. They have English speaking staff and you can use your UK address if you like. The charge is €8 per month.

Thanks for that, they were very helpful - opened an account as I'll have other bills to pay in Spain and it gets me a spanish sourced debit card, useful for online PAYG topups that dont accept international cards

www.telitec.com will sort you out.

They were very informative, I could have bought a contract on the Orange network with 60Gb/month for €45+iva but that was a min 12 month contract + set costs of €40 + iva. I wouldnt get full use out of that and it is more data than we currently use - thats not to say we couldnt use it though since Dragons Den and Only Connect have just restarted May revisit that

Unless things have changed recently, you will need Spanish residency to get a mobile contract.

In effect that may be right as Yoigo wanted to see evidence of direct debits for household bills when it came to it

Tuenti - a movistar subsidiary do a PAYG deal with 1gb at 4 Euro and you just add as many 1Gb top ups as you need...

Tuenti is now €7/Gb as they have upgraded thier service to 4G, Jazztel is the cheapest I've found at €5/Gb + 50% bonus for online topups till end July

 

[Trident]

Tuenti is 7 euro for the first Gb each month and then 4 euro per Gb as you top up and the 7 includes texts and minutes too

We just spent about 40 euro watching Wimbledon from a cala in Mallorca

 

[RobbieW]

Tuenti is 7 euro for the first Gb each month and then 4 euro per Gb as you top up and the 7 includes texts and minutes too

We just spent about 40 euro watching Wimbledon from a cala in Mallorca

Thanks for that, may add a Tuenti SIM to the collection - being able to just add data as required is a distinct benefit as there seem to be constraints on some of the others