General Guidelines

First of all you should check if you have any obligatory minimum period with your supplier. This is a normal clause with phone contracts but sometimes utility contracts or magazine subscriptions can have them too. If the minimum period hasn´t expired, check how much you would have to pay to cancel and then consider if it’s worth waiting instead.

The length of time required to cancel a contract can vary considerably from two days for mobile phones to up to two months for some insurance policies, so even if you cancel a contract today you may still have to pay some additional amounts.

Another trick used by companies is to get you to sign up for multiple products under a single payment, so if you only cancel one of them you may find that you’re still paying for the other services (such as phone insurance or payment protection plans).

Telecoms Services (Landline, Mobile, Broadband)

You can cancel your contract either in person, online or by phone. If you do it by phone you’ll be asked to agree to record the conversation; this is essential to ensure that there is no misunderstanding about what you require. If you change to another company the new company must send you the corresponding paperwork for your signature, which will include the reference number of the recording.

After a couple of days it’s a good idea to call your old company to make sure that all services you no longer require have been cancelled, for example you may still have a maintenance or insurance contract.

If you have any problems, see our article from July with full details about what to do when things go wrong.

Premium Rate SMS

Many people get caught out with premium rate SMS messages and often don’t realise that they have been charged until the monthly bill arrives. Some websites offer free downloads and request your mobile number to send a code for downloads; once they have your number you’ll be sent the codes by premium SMS at up to 10€ per message!

If you receive an SMS message from a number that starts with 79 you should answer only with the word BAJA (in capitals) – this message is free to send. Then it’s a good idea to get in touch with your mobile company and get them to deactivate premium rate SMS messaging services. Even if you haven’t been caught out yet, it’s probably a good idea to deactivate this service anyway; some companies allow you to do this online otherwise call the customer services department.

Insurance Policies

Normally you’ll have to let your company know two months before your policy renewal date that you don’t want to continue and this should be done in writing (registered letter, burofax or email requesting a reply from the company acknowledging receipt).

Remember that if a company has sold you an insurance policy over the phone or online, in most cases if you change your mind when the paperwork arrives you have 14 days to cancel.

Utilities Contracts

If you have the Tarifa de Ultimo Recurso (TUR) contracted, you can cancel at any time, with other tariffs you’ll have to check your contract in case a penalty charge is applied.

Take special care with any maintenance you contracted with a utility company – even though this is invoiced normally together with the monthly consumption, you should make it clear that you want to cancel both the maintenance and the supply contracts. Additionally maintenance contracts often have an obligatory 6 or 12-month minimum payment period, meaning that you could be liable for paying more months without being able to use the service if you cancel early.

It’s therefore a good idea before cancelling to call your utilities company and ask exactly what you have contracted and when you could cancel before incurring any additional charges. Most utilities companies will take between 15 to 30 days to deal with your cancellation request.

Bank Accounts and Bank Cards

Normally if you visit the branch where you opened your account and request to close it, as long as you take the necessary documentation that identifies yourself (and anyone else named on the account) this should be sufficient. Remember to keep a copy of the cancellation form that you will be asked to sign.

Watch out with direct debits that go to the account you want to close. If you’re changing banks, even though your new bank will offer to take care of swapping over your direct debits, it’s usually a good idea to keep your old account open for a month or two just in case.

If you want to cancel a credit card, double check in case you also signed up for a payment protection plan – if so you’ll have to cancel this as well.

MSS Tip

European legislation allows consumers a period of up to 59 days to return a direct debit once the bank has debited the money from your account, which is useful if once you’ve cancelled a contract the company accidently requests payment from your bank. For this reason it’s generally easier to pay for subscriptions such as magazines, gyms, donations to NGOs, etc via a direct debit rather than a regular credit card payment as these can be more difficult to cancel.

But watch out if you return a direct debit by mistake and the company has to issue it again as you’ll be charged up to around 10€.

Related posts: What Spanish Paperwork Should You Store?

The post How to Cancel Contracts in Spain appeared first on Money Saver Spain.

What Is It?

The Energy Pack is sold in a similar format to Experience Boxes, with a cost of 9.99€ for each of its three different versions.

Currently you can only buy it at Media Markt and FNAC stores. Alternatively, if there’s not a sales point near where you live (see list) you can call Endesa. Their website says that soon they’ll be more stores selling the pack, which is good news as at the time of writing only 9 cities in Spain are covered.

The pack can be used by existing Endesa customers and by those who are currently with another company and want to move their contract(s) to Endesa. For electricity contracts you must have 10kW or less contracted (check your last bill) and no night tariff to be able to use the Pack.

What Does Each Version Cover?

The three different colour-coded versions cover the following utilities:

• Electricity only (blue): Total discount 30€, broken down as a 5€ discount per bill for 6 bills.
• Electricity and gas (yellow): Total discount 60€, broken down as 5€ off electricity and a 5€ discount off gas per bill for 6 bills.
• Electricity and gas with maintenance (pink): Total discount 90€, broken down as 5€ off electricity and a 10€ discount off gas each per bill for 6 bills.

As bills are sent every two months, each Energy Pack discount will last for a total of one year.

How Do I Use It?

When you buy your Energy Pack, this comes with a code that you’ll have to use online to activate the discount directly if you already use Endesa for utilities, or to move your contracts over to Endesa. You have six months after purchasing the Energy Pack to activate the discounts.

When your discount period has ended you can buy another Energy Pack and activate it.

Remember – you can only apply one Energy Pack per contract!

Advantages

Endesa does not require a minimum contract period in order to use the Energy Pack, although it makes sense to stay with them for one year in order to take full advantage of the discounts.

Watch Out If…

The discounts will only be applied to the lowest fixed government rate (Tarifa de Ultimo Recurso – TUR) and cannot be applied along with other discounts. If you already have discounted rates then don’t buy an Energy Pack.

For those people who have the “bono social” (pensioners and other low-income households) then don’t buy an Energy Pack as Endesa will NOT apply the additional discounts.

The discount for gas is only for those households that have natural gas.

Conclusions

The original question of whether the Energy Pack is worth it, as with many promotional campaigns, really depends on each individual’s circumstances. Paying nearly 10€ upfront to recover 30€ over a year doesn’t seem to be worthwhile, whilst the option of electricity, gas and maintenance contract means contracting a service (maintenance) that costs over 100€ yearly, thus cancelling the 90€ saving.

We suggest you take a look at your bills and see if you could save on your current tariffs before buying the Energy Pack.

For more details visit Endesa’s website: EndesaEnergyPack.es

The post Endesa Energy Pack for Utilities – Is It Worth It? appeared first on Money Saver Spain.

How Do I Get These Discounts?

First of all you’ll have to request a “Familia Numerosa” card. Of course, no-one likes bureaucracy but it’s definitely worthwhile taking the trouble as all these benefits are valid until your oldest child is 21, unless in full-time education when the validity will be extended until the child is 25. Additionally the child(ren) must depend economically on their parent(s) or have earnings below the statutory minimum wage level.

There are two categories of “familia numerosa”:

• Special: Families with 5 or more children (or 4 children if the family includes triplets or multiple adoptions)
• General: Families with 3 or more children (or 2 children if single parent is a widow(er) or one child has a disability)

In order to get a card, see the list here for where to apply in your region. Regarding paperwork that has to be presented, don’t worry if you don’t have a Spanish “family book” (Libro de Familia) as you can present your children’s birth certificates.

What Benefits Come With The Card?

Here is a list of some of the more popular discounts:

• National rail travel: 20% off Renfe tickets with General Card and 50% off with Special Card.
• National air travel in Spain with Iberia: 5% off with General Card and 10% off with Special Card.
• Store and supermarket savings: Carrefour VAT reduction for card holders.
• Reductions on taxes, eg when buying a car with 5 or more seats then the “impuesto de matriculación” is reduced by 50%.
• Discount on annual IBI tax. The exact amount is decided by each Ayuntamiento in Spain, so you’ll need to check locally. The discount depends on the registered value of the house and on family income, as examples in Madrid discounts range from 4% to 90% and in Málaga or Barcelona it’s 50%.
• Discounts on some cars (may need to be a member of the Familias Numerosas organisation, see link for up-to-date info on offers available).
• Preferential access to grants (university fees) and reduction on cost of school text books.
• Discounted or free entry to museums, auditoriums and theatres (state owned).
• Reduced prices at theme parks, zoos, etc (check conditions).
• MRW courier offers 1 courier service per month (one parcel) to Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar or Andorra for only 1€. Weight limit 5 k (or 2k for Balearic or Canary Islands).

Additionally some stores are now offering discounts too. At El Corte Inglés if you register at their Customer Service Centre and show your “Familia Numerosa” card they’ll send you information about their promotions. Currently on offer is a 10% discount on children’s clothing brands: Brotes, Disney, Bass10 and others. To get the discount you must pay with an El Corte Inglés store card.

So, as you can see, it’s definitely worthwhile taking the trouble to get a card. And when you’ve got one, make sure you ask wherever you go if they have any special deals for card holders.

Related post: Get a Youth Card in Spain to Save Money

The post Special Discounts For Families with 3 or More Children in Spain appeared first on Money Saver Spain.

The tide is turning in the Spanish property market – at last.  With renewed interest in the region, Spain’s authorities hope to see a growth in buyers and the economy. And there are some major players getting involved. Bill Gates, no less, purchased a 6% stake in Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) last month, making him the second largest shareholder in the company.

Spain is also a popular choice for those choosing to start a new career overseas. The country is in the top 10 most popular destinations for working expats, based on analysis of 323,734 visitors from 224 countries that consulted www.expatcareers.com in September and October this year.

In addition, The Overseas Guides Company (www.overseasguidecompany.com) say that they had a record number of enquiries for information about Europe during July, August and September. Demand for information about foreign property was also up 30 per cent year-on-year during the third quarter (Q3) of 2013 and 37.8 per cent during the first three quarters of the year, according to the latest Overseas Guides Company Quarterly Index, which measures interest in popular expat destinations.

“Growth has clearly been driven by classic European hot spots,” said Richard Way, Editor at the Overseas Guides Company. “France, Spain, Italy and Portugal all recorded a 50% year-on-year hike in interest for the year to the end of September, and even Greece’s popularity rose 23 per cent.

“Reasons for this surge are varied. At home in the UK, there is growing confidence in the economy, as well as consistent upward pressure on house prices. Meanwhile, most of the Eurozone is still very much a buyer’s market, with property prices either at rock bottom or close to it, and mortgage rates at historic lows.”

He also said that banks in Spain and Portugal are offering attractive deals on repossessed homes. Certainly, in some parts of Spain, property prices are 50% of what they have been in the past.

Top Tip

Daniel Abrahams, co-Founder of OPP award winning site www.mycurrencytransfer.com, said: “It is absolutely essential for anyone thinking about buying property in Spain to check out the government advice, which is accessible, online. You need to take independent advice and work with an accredited translator who can guide you through the ins and outs of legal documentation when buying in Spain.”

Suzi Dixon is a brand ambassador for www.mytravelmoney.co.uk

Related Post: Holiday Currency Exchange – Mystery Shop Results

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