Banking Facilities in Ibiza

Opening an Account

There are two options when opening a bank account in Ibiza. You may either open a non resident account for which you need to provide a passport and an NIE number (see Employment section for how to apply). Alternatively you can open a resident account which generally attracts better conditions but for this you need an NIE number and also Residencia issued by the National Police. The process and conditions for obtaining Residencia and NIE are described in the section on Employment.

Couples cannot have a joint bank account if one is resident and the other is not. These are legal rules and apply to all banks. They are not a matter of individual bank policy.

Anyone staying in Ibiza for longer than 3 months is required by law to register with the Oficina de Extrajaneros (within the National Police Station in Ibiza town) and to apply for Residencia. You may find you have an NIE number already, for example if you have already bought a property here, but do not have Residencia and would therefore need to open a non resident account first. However if you do so do not forget to inform the bank if you subsequently obtain Residencia. If you have Residencia and continue to run a non resident account that account can be frozen by the Spanish authorities.

Each of the banks offer different types of accounts for savings and day to day use and most come with a debit/ATM card with the exception of savings account which usually come with a book which can be updated via ATM s.

General Banking Information

Most banks have some English speaking staff and internet banking with English pages. Some are better than others from a language perspective so do shop around. Several UK banks have branches in Ibiza including of course Santander which now owns what was the Abbey in the UK .In Ibiza town there are branches of Barclays and the Halifax and Barclays also have a branch in Santa Eulalia.

Opening hours are more restrictive than the UK with most banks being open only Monday to Friday from either 8:00 or 8:30 to 14:00.

Charges for using your card at another banks ATM can be high so try to use your own where possible and bear in mind branch location when opening your account particularly if you live in a small village which may have only one or no banks.

Generally speaking products are similar to the UK with perhaps less common usage of credit cards and loan facilities. Some banks have some policies on credit unheard of in the UK. Some for example will only give a loan if the client agrees to have an amount equal to the loan amount frozen in their account for the loan term. So if you think you may need to use such a facility do ask before signing up!

There is little in the way of free banking and terms and conditions do vary widely so it is worth a little time and research to get the best deal.

We will be adding contact details for various banks in the near future but if you need this information urgently please contact us via email :- info@ibizapropertyagents.com