If you come to Barcelona, Spain and you need to open a bank account – do not open account in La Caixa. This bank has very high commissions and also exchange rates between Euro and other currencies.
Before a while when I arrived in Barcelona I made a mistake which left unnoticed for 4 years. My mistake was to open a bank account at the nearest bank to my office. In Barcelona La Caixa always is the closest bank – they have a branch almost at every corner. However they have very very high commissions. For example:
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Operation
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La Caixa*
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Other banks (Ing Direct)
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Debit Card
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15 Euros/year
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0 Euros
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Credit Card
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40 Euros/year
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Withdraw money from ATM
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0 Euros in 4B network
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- La Caixa
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0 Euros
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- Servired
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1,5% (min 0.80 Euros)
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- Other (in Spain)
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4.25% (min 3.50 Euros)
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- EU
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4.25% (min 3.50 Euros)
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2 Euros
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Money Transfer
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- La Caixa
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0 Euros
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0 Euros (if < 50k)
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- Other banks in Spain
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0.25% (min 2.75 Euros)
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0 Euros (if < 50k)
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- EU
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0.25% (min 2.75 Euros)
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0 Euros (if < 50k)
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- Non EU
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0.6% (min 15 Euros)
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36 Euros (but not sure)
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Receive Transfer
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- From EU
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0 Euros
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0 Euros
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- From Non-EU
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12 Euros
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0 Euros
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Exchange rate
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About 4% less than in www.oanda.com
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Don’t know
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*http://multimedia.lacaixa.es/lacaixa/ondemand/portal/tarifasycomisiones/2100i00d.pdf