Following a case brought before Spain’s top court, banks are no longer allowed to charge you a 30 euro penalty when your account goes overdrawn.
With most peoples monthly bills being paid by direct debit and companies like Iberdrola never taking the money out of your account on the same day each month it’s easy to go a few euros overdrawn for a day or two.
The Spanish banks could hit you with a 30€ fee for each time your account was overdrawn.
Well thankfully that will never happen again after a customer in the Basque Country took his bank to court.
The verdict cited a case in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) called the “Gyula Kiss” which says that a customer must be able to see if there is an overlap between charged fees and bank services.
When you default on a loan or a mortgage the lender can take legal action against the borrower and seize assets in an attempt to recover their money.
Now in the case of mortgages, no action can be taken until the debt reaches 20% of the overall mortgage or a full year of mortgage payments have not been paid.
In the case of Kutxabank and its procedure of charging 30€ every time a customer went into the red or their mortgage payment was over a week late, this has now been halted by Spain’s top court.
It would appear that the new law has gone into effect on the day after the court ruling.
As a side note, BBVA is now offering a Fee-Free Online Account.
The BBVA Online Account is a checking account with no fees or conditions, and no obligation to set up direct billing for your salary or bills, while still offering all the benefits of BBVA as if you did. You can now also open it with two account holders.
- 0€ with no account maintenance or administration fees
- No debit card issue or maintenance fee.
- 0€ with no fee for cash withdrawal on debit at BBVA ATMs.
- 0€ for online transfers within the EEA.
Other tips:
On the matter of bank fees, or ATM fees; for those on holiday in Spain using a prepaid, travel money card, withdrawals from cashpoints used to be free. However banks such as Caxia have recently started issuing a 2euro fee (one of the lowest) per each withdrawal.
Therefore always check the prices of withdrawals before deciding whether to get a prepaid currency travel card.
