Once you start to acclimatise yourself to your new life in sun-kissed Spain, perhaps having relocated to that dream cottage on the Mediterranean coast or finally managed to persuade your boss to give you that new job posting you've been waiting ages for, one of the most pressing things you'll want to do, is open a bank account.
You'll be eligible for an account for either non-residents or residents depending on how up to date you've been with the paperwork, but either way you'll immediately notice certain things that you're not used to seeing: Yearly charges.
Nasty looking transfer charges.
Extra charges just for having the nerve to have requested a debit card.
Sadly these are the inevitable facts of life when dealing with Spanish bank accounts, and, intensely irritating though that is, when it comes to feeling like you are getting fleeced, credit cards are just as bad, if not worse.
To begin with, and speaking of interest rates, there is hardly anything to divide the credit cards you can choose from in Spain.
And the rates themselves are dreadful.
Expect to pay 18 to 21% regardless of the card.
There are very few special introductory rates and the idea of 0% interest rates would be laughable to most locals.
The consequences of this are obvious: in Spain it's flat out impossible to game the system and swap balances to a fresh card whenever you need to.
In fact, unavoidably high interest rates mean that any intensive spending or long term borrowing on Spanish credit cards is an extremely risky activity.
If you do decide to apply for a card (perhaps in case of some sudden emergency), make sure you break any 'buy now, pay later' habits you picked up before you arrived.
Pay off your balance every month or be faced with a speedily accumulating debt.
So when it comes to credit, what is it that makes Spain so different to other nations like Great Britain and the USA? Well, much of it can be attributed to cultural differences.
Generally, debt isn't as culturally acceptable as it is elsewhere.
Of course plenty of Spanish men and women do carry credit cards and they obviously use them.
But at the same time they are, generally speaking, extremely reliable with their monthly repayments, and, most probably still would be if even if rates were slashed in half.
The lack of demand for cards means that Spain has never seen the kind of credit frenzy a lot of us may have partaken in.
And banks, as a consequence, refrain from marketing their products aggressively.
The fact that some banks continue to list 'No Annual Fee' as the primary benefit of choosing their credit card is indicative of this apathetic mood.
For those of us used to seeing "Nine Months Interest Free!" offers pile up on our doorstep, this can be simultaneously comical and frustrating, particularly if devil-may-care credit card spending is something you'd started to take for granted.
Some local commentators have suggested that the tide may be turning and the next few years will see more and more credit card use in Spain.
If true this should result better value and choices for the end user but until it ever becomes a reality, ex-pats will just have to take things on the chin - and when you consider the endless joys that Spain and its people have to offer, that shouldn't be much of a sacrifice at all.