[shane-armstrong]

I use Bancaja mainly, it is a Spanish bank which recently integrated with another larger one, Bankia. The transition was awful, I didn't have access to my card for 6 days, then I didn't have access to the funds in the account for a further three.

My wages were not successfully paid in due to the bank not changing my account over to the international bank number, which had to be rectified.

The process cost me money for 12 days and made me incur an overdraft charge (Which Bankia, after several stern phone calls from the family solicitor agreed to pay back, plus a generous compensation packet totalling near 40 euros.)

I almost lost my home (and this was right before I was due to move back to the UK, so it would have been catastrophic) due to this.

This is by no means the typical Bankia experience, and I would still advocate the use of the bank, it is normally a fabulous one, but my experience in particular was terrible, and I shall be swapping to another bank (preferably Santander or a british one) prior to being paid again.