BBVA España Reviews 

We wanted to open a new account and benefit from all the promised refunds. We wanted to use it for my savings, my income and daily expenses. The online start was easy all we had to do is go to a BBVA office and validate our identity. Not! at the bank they told us that it is impossible to open an account this way and if we wanted to use it for my income from the Netherlands the bank will charge 2.5% for every transaction. Nothing that was advertised on the BBVA website was possible and the man who “helped” us at the bank was totally not interested in doing business with us. Perhaps a good bank but not for non Spanish residents. And why advertise with misleading promises if you do not want to live up to them.

As with all banks their charges for using a foreign bank card are disgraceful.
Beware as up to $12 or £10 is representative of the high levels of dishonesty representative of big banks today. This being arguably one of the worst examples, in a country where most earn no more than a 1000mxn a week?

This is our story:
My wife and I are both Danish citizens, and we own a 500 K€ property near Alicante. We opened an account online. After answering the long questionnaire, the final step required us to visit the nearest branch — Santa Pola, since we were on vacation there.

Surprise: BBVA only opens accounts for residents with a green card. After insisting, the bargaining — or blackmail — begins. Forget the green card: BBVA can in fact open an account, but only under two conditions:
we must translate our proof of income into Spanish (fair enough, we can pay 350 € for translation) and either buy a health insurance (unnecessary for us, as we are fully covered in Denmark) or purchase a home insurance (ours was just renewed in July 2026). We cannot possibly insure our house twice.

End of story: we gave up.

Moral: if this is truly the bank’s policy, then the bank is not interested in long‑term relationships, only in squeezing secondary income from customers.

No vale nada

Blocked my account….. 6 days I have rang to unblock…… been informed Manager is not available. I keep ringing, emailing etc but account still blocked. I have informed them I have no money. Still blocked. No one cares. Shocking.

Bad in every aspect.

Buggy app, that is forever broken. Their support suggest you to use functions of their app that have been broken for months.

Locked my account after my trying to transfer my own money to another bank.
Refused to unlock it both via email and phone, forced me to GO TO ATM to unlock.

Okay, I tried the same transfer, AND GOT LOCKED AGAIN.
Called the support, and well, nothing they can do: I cant transfer my own money for some reason.
And yet I have to go to ATM AGAIN to get access to my account.

So instead I'm just going to their office and closing the account.
Great job, guys.

Avoid these incompetent racists. Absutely useless bunch of idiots. No response to repeated emails regarding serious deficiencies in their customer service. Scumbags.

Mi experiencia personal con BBVA en la tramitación de una herencia ha sido muy decepcionante.

Un expediente de poco más de 1.500 € lleva más de cuatro meses de tramitación. Durante ese tiempo se me ha solicitado documentación en varias ocasiones, con semanas de espera entre cada revisión, interviniendo distintos gestores y sin que, en mi opinión, se revisara toda la documentación de una sola vez. Además, el canal telefónico no me resultó útil para aclarar las incidencias.

Cuando presenté una reclamación al Servicio de Atención al Cliente, la primera respuesta fue indicarme que debía reenviarla desde un correo electrónico previamente validado en BBVA antes de poder abrir el expediente.
Respeto que otras personas puedan haber tenido una experiencia diferente, pero la mía ha sido la de un proceso lento, burocrático y frustrante. Después de esta experiencia, personalmente me pensaría dos veces abrir una cuenta o mantener mi operativa en esta entidad.
My personal experience with BBVA during the handling of an inheritance has been extremely disappointing.

A case involving just over €1,500 has now been ongoing for more than four months. During this period, I have been asked to provide additional documentation on several occasions, with weeks of waiting between each review. Different case managers have handled the file, and, in my opinion, the documentation was never reviewed thoroughly in a single assessment. In addition, the telephone support service was of no practical help in resolving my questions or clarifying what was actually required.

When I submitted a formal complaint to BBVA's Customer Service Department, the first response I received was that I had to resend it from an email address previously validated by BBVA before they would even open the complaint file.

I understand that other customers may have had a different experience, but mine has been one of a slow, bureaucratic, and frustrating process. Based on this experience, I would personally think twice before opening an account with BBVA or continuing to use it as my main bank.

The worlds worst banking app

reported a fraud case to BBVA on 4 May 2026 — EUR 2,400 transferred via SEPA into a BBVA account as part of a rental scam. I sent full documentation (police report, transaction records, fraudulent invoice) to three separate BBVA departments, including their dedicated fraud and complaints channels.
The only reply was an automated one from customer service saying they had no access to the information and had forwarded my case internally. Since then: no case number, no confirmation, no update — for almost 8 weeks, despite a follow-up.

Only gave BBVA one-Star as there's no other lower.

The worst customer service experience in my life.
Made a complaint as a non-customer over a deposit I paid for an invoice and their failure to do Due-dilligence checks or Money Laundering Checks.

3-months (since 21-04-26) of writing emails, telephone calls and Burofax / recorded delivery letters... and still no support from or help from Customer services.

Tried visiting the main and local branches and, you guessed it... not interested.

Opened an online account and, you guessed it... it was immediately blocked and no one can help!

Don't dare of buying crypto or they will block your card. I moved to another bank.

I am a new customer in Spain, and my experience with BBVA has been deeply disappointing and honestly frightening.

I had just moved to Spain and chose BBVA as the bank I would trust with my money, without yet fully understanding how the banking support system or legal complaint processes work here. As someone new to the country, I assumed my bank would protect me if something went wrong.

Instead, I learned the opposite.

Unauthorized transactions were made using my debit card through Google Pay, despite the fact that I did not add my card to Google Pay myself.

I reported the fraud immediately, expecting BBVA to investigate properly and support me through what was already a very stressful situation.

Instead, my claims were rejected.

The explanation given was essentially that the transactions were authenticated through 3D Secure / RedSys, but authentication alone does NOT prove that I authorized these payments.

I repeatedly asked BBVA to provide actual evidence, including:
- Proof that my card was enrolled in Google Pay
- Device details used for the transactions
- Authentication logs and timestamps
- Any evidence connecting those authorizations to me

No meaningful evidence was provided.

What hurt most was the feeling of being completely alone in a foreign country, trying to understand my rights, the complaint process, and how to recover my stolen money, while the institution I trusted simply rejected my claim instead of helping me.

I have since had to educate myself on the legal path and escalate the matter beyond BBVA.

A bank’s true character shows when customers need protection. In my case, BBVA failed completely.

I would strongly caution anyone, especially newcomers to Spain, before trusting this bank with their money.

I received legal payment into my account 400 € and BBVA took 40 € commission for this transfer. Contact with anyone impossible, only by appointment which is impossible because I'm working weekly days in the morning and can't take an extra day off just to visit bank. Customer service via phone call is with ChatGPT means completely useless.
A few days ago I received another legal salary into my account (it was the first payment 517 €), and bank questions this transaction because it is suspicious.
ATM outside branch never work after bank hours, they are out of service every single day, BBVA app is a nightmare as well, every two days glitches and problem with login.
This is the worst bank in entire world.

Muy lento proceso para herencia. Ha tardado mucho y han pedido muchos documentos.

They have to be the worst bank in the world. Assigned a bank manager for my SL´at Zona Franca who does not speak English but we were meeting face to face so I could use google translate. But then he only insisted on calls which I do not understand. Get sent messages in the app I can not understand, and are illegible so I write to him asking what he needs ' no reply. For nearly 6 weeks. Now account is blocked but can get no information from him and no information from central BBVA as they say its down to him to contact me. And he doesnt. Coming to Spain was a complete disaster. I have gone from financially stable but moving for health of my child to being electrocuted and destroyed by institutions here who protect the Spanish above all else. EU law means nothing. Anti disability law means nothing. You are left to be destroyed

Worst bank ever. Makes you pay for debit card to use your money. I absolutely do not recommend this bank to anyone

I have moved from the Canary Islands because of health reasons ,no longer have my Spanish phone.
I have phoned customer care 55 times and they say they will get my bank to contact me about closing the accounts ,not 1 calll not 1 email, they are holding my money hostage,DO NOT EVER BANK WITH BBVA,
Stay well clear of this bank, I don’t know what to do, i am going to Spain to try to get my accounts closed,but i think legal action is the what will be needed.I have to pay to get my money from this pathetic bank.
Pleas please don’t make the same mistake banking with this disgusting cheating no service bank

Usually, people come here to complain. That's what I did about a year ago, because of the incomprehensible attitude of this bank's staff.
But this time it's the opposite. The collaboration and help of a team that listened to me, and helped me, allowed me to recover around €500 from a credit card payment that was believed to be completely lost.
Many thanks to the staff of BBVA-Spain Noroeste (Coruña) telephone service, for their help.
The quality of a bank is determined by all those who deal with customers on the phone and in person every day, not by its shareholders.

BEWARE OF THIS ESTABLISHMENT, PLEASE!! If you are an expat living in Barcelona (just like me), gestor Raquel Argudo Merino will try to scam and take advantage of you, selling you Allianz Home or Medical Insurance as a "condition" to open an account. I needed a Spanish account at that time so she sold the insurance, got her commission. Later, when I found out this insurance sell was ILLEGAL in Spain, for being conditioned, she denied everything, yelled at me things like "guiri" (how they call tourists despectively) among other insults. Not to mention she NEVER addressed the cancellation of said insurance. If you value your money, do NOT go to this location.