Manage your finances while living in Spain

Guest post by Francis Kramer

Don’t convert your currency in the airport!

Moving to Spain from the United States might seem like a daunting undertaking — and sometimes the practical and logistical obstacles can seem like the most overwhelming. Something as mundane as opening a bank account can seem like an insurmountable barrier to relocation. Fortunately, handling your finances while living in Spain isn’t so different from managing financial matters in the U.S.

Convert Your Currency

When you are moving from the United States to Spain, you are going to need to convert your currency, of course, in order to make any sort of transaction. You’ll need to pay rent or a mortgage, not to mention buy groceries and entertain yourself — so you’ll need to turn your dollars into euros. When you decide to do this, you are going to find that the best route to take is to work with a foreign exchange officer instead of doing this through an automated teller. The reason is that the officer can exchange larger amounts of money more cheaply and more efficiently. You can save yourself a lot of money through going this route.

Find a Bank

Managing your finances is only possible if you have a bank that you can trust. With that being said, there are two main types of banks that are in Spain. Those that are regional and those that are national. For the best opportunity and the most access, you should go with a national bank. There are two major national banks in Spain that you are going to have the choice of choosing between, these are Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Satander Central Hispano. Either of these banks are going to allow you to have access to your funds throughout all of Spain, and you will find that this can make managing your money even easier.

Open Your Account

Opening your bank account is the first step to take after getting the bank that you want to work with. You will find that if you are making Spain your home, you are going to want to go with a resident account. However, if you are just going to be in Spain on and off throughout the year, then you are going to find that a non-resident account will fit your needs.

Plan for Later

You should set aside a bit before you leave the country should you need to re-establish yourself in the United States. This way, you won’t have to convert your remaining euros back into dollars, which can be a costly process, depending on the current exchange rate. The best method to do this is by setting up a savings account at an American bank. This will allow you to earn interest. You might also consider putting money into a mutual fund, where it will experience higher growth at a higher (albeit still relatively reasonable) level of risk.

Francis Kramer loves to travel, and he is a contributing writer for TravelInsurance.org.

Can the Euro survive the crisis?

Guest post by Jimmy Kane

There is a crisis of confidence in the Euro

A wide-ranging survey of public opinion found Tuesday that there is a wide dislike of the Euro, but there is little desire to abandon it. The contempt was brought through the debt crisis that has ravaged Europe for the best part of three years.

Pew Research Center, who conducted the survey across eight European Union countries (among them, Spain, Greece, France and Italy), learned that the regions financial woes were the catalyst for full-blown fears about the future of Europe’s economic climate.

Pew said in a statement accompanying its survey, “This crisis of confidence is evident in the economy, in the future, in the benefits of European economic integration, in EU membership, in the euro and in the free market system.”

In spite of these wide-eyed concerns, Pew discovered there was no desire for those countries that use the euro to return to their former currencies, such as the Spanish peseta or the French franc.

Greece, called by many the epicenter of the debt crisis, revealed 71 percent of those polled want to keep the euro around, as against the 23 percent that wish for a return to the Drachma. Most people in Greece, which is now its fifth year and counting of restless, violent recession, believe the euro is doing more good than bad. 46 percent of those surveyed said so, compared to 26 percent who thought the euro was a curse, rather than a blessing.

What makes these finding so important involves Greece’s upcoming polls on June 17, which many see as a referendum on the country’s euro membership.

In contrast, most in France, Italy and Spain think the euro has been more destructive than helpful. In Italy in particular, which has the second highest debt burden in the eurozone after Greece, 44 percent of Italians surveyed think the euro has been a terrible thing, compared to the mere 30 percent convinced it was benevolent. Italy is also filled with the largest anti-euro constituency, with around 40 percent of those polled wishing to resort back to the lira. 52 percent of those surveyed still want to keep the euro around.

Of the five euro countries polled, not a single one had a majority (that is, over 50 percent) that agreed the introduction of the euro has been beneficial.

These surveys were conducted either by telephone in some countries or face-to-face in others between mid-March and mid-April, with at the very least, over 1000 people surveyed in each region. The margin of error varies from country to country, but stays at about 3.3 percent to 4.4 percent.

Jimmy Kane is an avid traveler and Spanish real estate hobbyist. When he’s not traveling or studying the Spanish property market, he maintains the website Time Warner Cable Dallas.