Accounts, cards, mortgages ... how a possible merger of BBVA and Sabadell could affect its clients

• Banca.BBVA launches to purchase Sabadell after making cash in the US

The possible operation of BBVA and Banco Sabadell once again puts a flood of questions on the table for the clients of both entities.

Although the operation is still in the study phase and the details are not yet known if it is carried out, doubts about what will happen to consumer accounts, direct debit bills or mortgages return to the fore.

Based on what has happened on previous occasions, we try to clarify some of them:

What

What happens to the account number?

A merger scenario would imply that both the IBAN of the bank account and the number of debit cards associated with the account would remain temporarily intact.

However, this may be a temporary measure until the merger is implemented and customers have adjusted to the new situation.

Then, the IBAN will change, in which case the bank would give advance notice to notify the change.

And with direct debits?

As for the receipts and direct debits in the account, it is to be expected that they will remain intact and that the bank resulting from the merger will take care of the pertinent direct debits.

However, you must provide the new IBAN for new payments and notify your company of the change in IBAN for direct debit of the payroll.

Can the conditions of an account change?

Without losing sight of the fact that we are talking in conditional all the time, waiting for the operation to be executed -if it is finally executed-, the entity could change them.

Legally, the bank has the power to modify the conditions of an account when it deems it appropriate, but it must always notify at least two months in advance.

What about the deposits?

Deposits, unlike what happens with accounts and cards, have contracts of defined duration, so that both one bank and another, regardless of the final result of their hypothetical commercial agreement, must respect the conditions of all the fixed terms contracted in both banks.

Therefore, they would continue with the same profitability until the termination of their contract, of course, at the time of renewing the product, the new conditions present in the bank resulting from the merger would apply.

And the mortgage?

If a client has a mortgage contracted with one of the two entities, either BBVA or Sabadell, the contract will remain unchanged after the merger.

Therefore, the conditions will be the same as before: the term, the interest rate, the additional products to grant it, the commissions, etc. However, in the case of the products to get the bonus, their conditions could be modified if they are not fixed in the mortgage deed or in the service contract itself.

For example, annual insurance premiums could become more expensive or cheaper, new commissions could be added to the card after renewal ...

What about credit cards?

As credit cards have an indefinite term contract (the contract of what happens with mortgages, deposits or credits), we could see changes in the conditions of the credit cards in the event that the eventual merger occurs.

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