BBVA closed my non-resident account at month 11, escalation worked
This happened to me last year before the DNV was even fully a thing. I was on a different residency and BBVA just shut the door on me. I ended up moving to N26 because I couldn't deal with the stress of walking into a branch every time I needed to change my phone number or address. It is good to know that filing a complaint actually gets their attention since they usually ignore emails.
The Calle de Alcala branch is actually one of the better ones. If you go to the smaller offices in Malasana or Chueca they have no idea what a Digital Nomad Visa even is. They still try to put us in the non resident category which triggers this exact mess. I keep all my tax documents on my phone now just so I can show them the resident status immediately when they start acting up. Great tip about the formal complaint though.
thanks for the specific dates, it helps a lot. bbva is famous for this stuff. they usually close accounts because of the annual document review or if they suddenly decide you should have been on a resident account since you spent more than 183 days here. did you have to go into a specific branch in madrid to fix it or could you do it all over the phone?
bbva phone support is basically useless for account blocks. you almost always have to go to the branch where you opened it, which is a massive pain if you have moved neighborhoods since then.
It is worth noting that some banks in Madrid are better at this. I switched to Sabadell because BBVA kept asking me for the same payroll documents every quarter. Even with the DNV approval letter they treated me like a high risk client. If you are near that 11 month mark you should probably open a backup account at a neobank like Revolut just in case they lock you out. It is way easier than fighting a bank during rent week.
Sabadell is not any better honestly. They charged me a 30 euro maintenance fee just because I forgot to log into the app for a month. All Spanish banks are basically designed to frustrate you.
i am at month 8 with bbva right now and this post makes me nervous. were there any warning signs in the app before they shut it down? usually there is a little red notification asking for a tax document or a scan of your passport but sometimes they just pull the plug without saying a word.
check your post mail too. they still send physical letters for these things sometimes even if you opted for digital everything. very old school.
glad you got it sorted. it is honestly a miracle that you got an escalation to work. most people just get the automated email saying the relationship is terminated and that is the end of it. did you have to file an official hojas de reclamaciones to get their attention, or did a manager just finally step up?
I have a different take on this. I think it is less about their internal system being clunky and more about them trying to push people into higher fee accounts once they become residents. My manager at BBVA tried to get me to buy insurance products the second I handed over my NIE. When I said no my account got flagged for review a week later. It feels very intentional. Glad you got it sorted though.
Did you have to pay any fees for the reopening process? When Santander did this to my roommate they tried to charge him a reactivation fee. It was ridiculous because it was their mistake to begin with. Also did they change your account type to a resident one or is it still technically the non resident version? The terms and conditions are usually way better once you are officially a resident so check your fine print.
They shouldn't be charging reactivation fees for their own errors. If they try that you should go back to the complaints department. It is illegal under the banking regulations here if they made the clerical error.
In my experience they just leave it as is unless you explicitly ask for the resident account package. You have to push for it.
I am surprised the Banco de España worked that fast for you. Usually they take months to even look at a file. You must have caught someone on a good day or included the perfect set of keywords in your claim. Did you have to get a lawyer to draft the complaint or did you just write it yourself in Spanish? I am nearing month 10 and now I am paranoid about my account being frozen while I am traveling next month.
the 11 month mark is interesting. that is right before the one year anniversary when most banks trigger their anti money laundering refresh. if you are on the dnv and have your tie now, you should really go in and switch to a resident account anyway. it is usually cheaper and they stop bothering you as much about the non resident certificates.
it would be helpful to know which branch in madrid you used. some office managers are way more helpful than others. if you found one that actually listens to reason, they deserve a shoutout because the corporate compliance team is usually a brick wall.
this is exactly why i always tell new dnv arrivals to open a second account at an online bank like revolut or lightyear as a backup. if bbva freezes your main one and you have rent due in madrid that week, you are totally screwed. glad your fight worked out but man what a stress.
That is a huge win for the community because biasanya banks here are a nightmare to deal with. I had a similar scare at the branch on Calle de Goya but they caught it just in time. The trick with BBVA is that their online system and the actual branch staff don't seem to talk to each other. You think you've updated your NIE in the app but it never hits their regional database. Filing that complaint was a smart move. Most people just wait and get screwed by the late rent fees.
Exactly. I always suggest going to the branch every 6 months just to ask if your details are updated. It sounds paranoid but the system is genuinely that broken. If your NIE starts with Y you are more likely to get flagged too.
honestly the fees for non resident accounts are a total scam anyway. i was paying like 15 euros a month before i switched. glad you got your money back and the account open. did they charge you for the time it was actually frozen or did they waive those costs?
they usually keep charging the fees even when the account is blocked. it is the ultimate insult. i had to fight for two months to get sixty euros back.