Hola, we are moving to Spain at the end of April, we have got our S1 forms ready.
I have downloaded EX 18 forms ready but read that we need to complete a form 790 then pay at our spanish bank - problem we dont have a spanish bank account yet !. Is there any other way to pay this or will we have to open a Spanish bank account.
We were going to keep our UK account till after we had settled in.

Form 790 will be issued by the extanjeros office when you present your completed EX18’s for processing. Take the 790 to any Spanish bank and pay in cash, in Euros. It is a very small amount about 10 euros each as I recall. When you pay the money into the bank, the 790 will be stamped and returned to you. Take the stamped form back to the extranjeros office and they will start the process.

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Yes Foxbat is right and definitely keep your UK bank account open, you never know if you may need it later and it is difficult to re-open. But you will need a Spanish account as soon as you arrive as utilities have to be paid by DD.

Andy…

Just confirming Rob’s comment about utility bills… and to let you know that Pensions Dept in Newcastle don’t have a problem with paying pensions into a Spanish account. Payments are made every 28 days. Once you have opened a Spanish account let Newcastle know the details. tel 0044 0191 218 7777. Staff on this number are very helpful.

Opening a Spanish account is quite a painless process, much easier than opening an English bank a/c’ but one word of advice would be avoid Cambank. They have a very poor reputation among expats. We deal with La Caixa.

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Yes CAM have had their problems due too allegedly serious mismanagement, however they are now under control of Banco Sabadell and their problems are being sorted out. Anyway it all depends on which part of Spain you live in as most are not country wide. (Unlike the UK)

thanks everyone very much for all the information, feel much more confident now.
I will look to open a La Caixa account when we arrive, I had read this was one of the of the best banks.

😊 waiting for 30th April :coolsmile: