Which banks in Spain are more willing to work with foreigners and expats?

Question

I am buying a property in Spain, I got my N.I.C number from the consulate and already started visiting the properties.
I was expecting to be able to open a 'foreigner' bank account with ease. Just walk-in give N.I.C, passport, show the cash, and you are welcomed with extended hands, right... you wish...
After I got into the bank (starts with S) I had written everything down in google translate as one message that explains who I am, that I want to buy the property, and I need to open a foreigner account, that I have funds in bank account to buy the property, my N.I.C.
Employees of the bank behaved like translate does not work (maybe it doesn't), and after 45 minutes of charades, showing a passport, emails from the consulate with N.I.C (they kept on asking for original), I realized that I will not open a bank account here, no matter how many times I will show everything that is listed online to be enough to open a foreign bank account.
One employee wrote me a list of what would it take to open the account.

Since banks during COVID work short hours (9.00 - 11.30) and only 4 clients are allowed, I pretty much can do one visit per day, and I would prefer to spend time actually progressing in opening a bank account.
Which banks in Spain are more willing to work with foreigners and expats?

Franck Dernoncourt · Answer

In the same spirit as Vicente Bolea's answer, you could use the Revolut bank, which also operates in the most (all?) of Europe as well as the a few countries outside the Europe, such as the United States. See https://www.revolut.com/en-ES/change-country (mirror) for the list of countries Revolut supports.

Answered by Franck Dernoncourt on September 25, 2021

ViB · Answer

I would say N26, it operates in the whole Europe and it just takes a videocall showing your passport to get an account and debit card.
I must add that it has fantastic exchange rates to most of the currencies (it is integrated with transferwise). They also have overdrafts; saving accounts and you can withdraw money for free in most of the ATM in Europe 3 times a month.

Matas Vaitkevicius · Answer

After visiting Kutxabank (excuse: does not work with foreigners), Bankinter (excuse: only opens accounts with clients that would stay in that town to keep it personal (in Valencia where pop in 0.5M)), BNNA (excuse: does not have foreigner accounts (they do advertise them online)), Santander (requires an insane amount of paperwork all translated and notarised in Spanish, see question).
I managed to open an account in Caixabank. Wasnt easy and had to take extra stuff like property insurance, credit card, and somewhat expensive account, but they did it in a day.
EDIT: However after depositing more than 10k, they are now refusing to transfer or allow me to take my money out of the account for reasons unexplainable in Spanish. So I highly advise against using them. Its better no account than the account you cannot access your money anymore.

Which banks in Spain are more willing to work with foreigners and expats?

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