Back to school, work and bank fees. As analyzed by the commission-free account comparator HelpMyCash.com, this September, several banks in Spain coincide again by charging the maintenance commission of their accounts to less connected clients.
BBVA (40 euros), Banco Sabadell (30 euros), Unicaja (30 euros), Banco Santander (up to 20 euros), Bankia (up to 14 euros) and ING (10 euros) are the banks that will apply expenses this month to customers that do not enter a salary or meet the requirements that they demand to operate for free.
The good news is that these expenses can be avoided in a number of ways. “If the bank charges us commissions, we should not sit idly by. To escape the costs, we must investigate what requirements the entity requires or change accounts,” explains the comparator.
Find out what the bank is asking for
Entities usually demand to meet several requirements to not pay: direct debit income, receipts, carry out various movements with credit or debit cards or even contract insurance or investment funds . However, each bank establishes its own conditions.
Most specify their cost avoidance requirements in their “zero commission program.” In these programs you can see what the advantages of the service are and what requirements are required to get rid of the most common expenses (account maintenance, administration, transfers in euros, associated cards …). This information can also be accessed by asking directly the bank’s customer service or the manager himself.
Knowing in detail what the entity requires to offer this free service, we can assess whether we are interested in continuing at the bank or if, on the contrary, it is better to pack our bags.
Change an account without fees
From HelpMyCash.com they affirm that opening an account in another entity that does not charge commissions and does not require compliance with linking requirements may be the best strategy to prevent the payment of commissions.
For example, the current account Openbank , the Online No Commissions Account BBVA , account imagin or Clara Account of Abanca do not ask the customer to link your income, nor that domicilie mandatory receipts or pay with cards a minimum number of times every trimester. They are free, without asking for anything in return, so if we stopped entering a payroll, a pension or an unemployment benefit every month, we would not pay commissions anyway.
Be careful with debit cards
“There are more expenses that we have to repair,” explains HelpMyCash.com. Banks such as CaixaBank or Bankinter do not offer free debit cards even if the customer joins . The only ones free of commissions are the credit ones.
As a result of the absorption by CaixaBank, from January 2022, Bankia customers will begin to pay 36 euros per year for debit cards, except those that meet the requirements of the Por Ser Tú program in October, which will begin to pay in June 2022.
The card that Bankia customers can use for free will be the CaixaBank MyCard, a credit card that bears a certain resemblance to debit cards: purchases are reflected at the moment and are charged to the account after 48 hours, but also You can pay in installments if you prefer. The customer can see their purchases in real time and know what balance will remain in the account after making the payment.
Again, in these cases, the experts’ recommendation is to weigh whether we are interested in keeping the current account or card and compare what other entities offer and under what conditions.
