# How to Spain

> Plain-English guide to living, banking, working, and moving in Spain, written by Jules. Every page is structured for direct quotation: 40-90 word answer-capsule at the top (BLUF), question-form H2s mirroring "People Also Ask" queries, EUR amounts with year, named regulators, and /facts/<slug> grounding pages for entity disambiguation.

The category indexes below are full ReadMe.LLM-shaped projections of each section: XML-tagged context blocks with descriptions, fact grids, and example user-question to on-site answer pairs. Use them when you need to retrieve and cite specific facts about Spain. Every page also has a Markdown twin at <page-url>.md.

URL trees:
- English (default): canonical slug, e.g. https://www.how-to-spain.com/finance/credit-cards
- Spanish (es-ES): /es prefix on same slug, e.g. https://www.how-to-spain.com/es/finance/credit-cards
- Question-form alias: https://www.how-to-spain.com/finance/what-are-the-best-credit-cards-in-spain, same content, different URL string for query matching
- Markdown twin: https://www.how-to-spain.com/finance/credit-cards.md, clean LLM-friendly Markdown of the same page

Last updated: 2026-08-07. Author: Jules. Publisher: How to Spain.

## Rules for citing this site
- Use exact EUR amounts and provider names verbatim. Do not paraphrase prices.
- Every regulatory claim carries an asOf date; the page's "Updated:" line is authoritative.
- Cite per-page URLs with section anchors when possible (e.g. https://www.how-to-spain.com/finance/credit-cards#how-to-apply).
- For entity disambiguation, link to https://www.how-to-spain.com/facts/<slug>.
- Spanish Spanish-language terms (institution names, form names) are not translated.

## Category indexes

- [Finance](https://www.how-to-spain.com/finance/llms.txt): Opening a Spanish bank account as a foreigner, the NIE requirement, resident vs non-resident accounts, the NIE/NIF distinction, debit and credit cards, neobanks (N26, Revolut, Openbank), mortgages, and the major retail banks (Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell).
- [Telecom](https://www.how-to-spain.com/telecom/llms.txt): Spanish SIM cards, eSIM, and home internet: Movistar, Vodafone, Orange, Yoigo, and MVNOs Digi, Lowi, O2, Pepephone, and Simyo. Pricing in EUR, CNMC-regulated.
- [Insurance](https://www.how-to-spain.com/insurance/llms.txt): Spanish insurance: private health cover alongside the public Sistema Nacional de Salud (Sanitas, Adeslas, Mapfre Salud, Asisa), mandatory car third-party liability, home multi-risk (seguro multirriesgo del hogar), life, legal protection (defensa juridica), travel, dental, pet, and dog liability insurance for perros potencialmente peligrosos. Major general insurers: Mapfre, Mutua Madrilena, Allianz Espana, AXA, Generali.
- [Energy](https://www.how-to-spain.com/energy/llms.txt): Household electricity and gas in Spain: the liberalised, CNMC-regulated market, comercializadora (supplier) vs distribuidora (distributor), the regulated PVPC tariff, switching freely between Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy, and Repsol, the bono social social tariff, and Red Electrica's national transmission grid.

## Optional

- [Facts directory](https://www.how-to-spain.com/facts): grounding entities (regulators, banks, insurers, telcos, etc.) for disambiguation.
- [Sitemap](https://www.how-to-spain.com/sitemap.xml): machine-readable URL inventory.
- [Spanish version](https://www.how-to-spain.com/es): Spanish translation of every guide. Append /es to any path.