Complain to bank?

Q.- We live in England, and we have a property in Spain, with a bank account in a Spanish bank. Last May €211.60 was paid out of our account for someone else’s insurance. With Covid 19 we have been unable to travel to Spain until recently. We have been to the branch and written a complaint to an address we found on the Internet, showing them the evidence. We have been told that it is too late to rectify. Surely this cannot be correct. What else can we do now?

R H D (e-mail)

A.- No, it is not too late to rectify. If your visit in person to your bank has produced no results you then have recourse to the bank’s ombudsman, or defender of the customer, the Defensor del Cliente. Perhaps the Internet address you found was this ombudsman. Finally, if you get no answer or receive an unsatisfactory reply, after two months you can make your complaint directly to the Bank of Spain. You must do this with full documentation. The central bank promises to reply within six weeks. Their website is bde.es.

Send your questions for David Searl through lawyers Ubeda-Retana and Associates in Fuengirola at Ask@lawtaxspain.com, or call 952 667 090