# How do I open a bank account?



## italia

I am British, and will be vacationing in Italy next year, travelling around- no set location.

I would like to open a conto estero (non resident account) to put my savings in. Everybody I speak to has conflicting info on this subject. Even the websites are unclear.

What do I need to do to open a conto estero? It would be better if I could open it from the UK, but I doubt that will happen since the Italian banks still act as if they are in the middle ages.

So could you tell me how I'll do this? 

As I said: I WON'T BE LIVING THERE, so wont have a set address. I WON'T BE WORKING THERE, so won't have payslips etc.

Will they let me open an account? Any solid advice welcome.


----------



## Barry

italia said:


> I am British, and will be vacationing in Italy next year, travelling around- no set location.
> 
> I would like to open a conto estero (non resident account) to put my savings in. Everybody I speak to has conflicting info on this subject. Even the websites are unclear.
> 
> What do I need to do to open a conto estero? It would be better if I could open it from the UK, but I doubt that will happen since the Italian banks still act as if they are in the middle ages.
> 
> So could you tell me how I'll do this?
> 
> As I said: I WON'T BE LIVING THERE, so wont have a set address. I WON'T BE WORKING THERE, so won't have payslips etc.
> 
> Will they let me open an account? Any solid advice welcome.


Can't see why not. We opened an account with UniCredit before we bought our house. The bank sends the statements to our home in Canada.
Why would you want to open an account? They pay no interest and have some high charges just to maintain it.


----------



## italy

you will need a codice fiscale .. would suggest you ask for a card that you can top up..ie ..you load it with money and then you spend it.. would suggest post office as the most widespread system here...

however agree with Barry.. why bother they are a disaster as regards customer service and charges and i doubt that it would have any advantages..

UK bank cards will work the same.. although heading south will mean purchase with cards will be less acceptable.. maybe get a prepaid card or one that does not charge for cash with-drawals abroad

ok you will be a slave to exchange to exchange rate problems.. but before evr going to an italian bank i would investigate ways.. maybe you can get a top up card that you can add to in euro if exchange rate is a concern

anyway if you are set on your decision Banco posta has the most branches and the best opening times.. and is the Italians favorite bank


----------



## Barry

italy said:


> you will need a codice fiscale .. would suggest you ask for a card that you can top up..ie ..you load it with money and then you spend it.. would suggest post office as the most widespread system here...
> 
> however agree with Barry.. why bother they are a disaster as regards customer service and charges and i doubt that it would have any advantages..
> 
> UK bank cards will work the same.. although heading south will mean purchase with cards will be less acceptable.. maybe get a prepaid card or one that does not charge for cash with-drawals abroad
> 
> ok you will be a slave to exchange to exchange rate problems.. but before evr going to an italian bank i would investigate ways.. maybe you can get a top up card that you can add to in euro if exchange rate is a concern
> 
> anyway if you are set on your decision Banco posta has the most branches and the best opening times.. and is the Italians favorite bank


Interact cards work fine for getting cash although they usually charge at least 1.50 euro so it's best to make a large withdrawel when you use them. I've gone back to using credit cards as my Canadian bank is pretty good on the exchange rate. UniCredit arranged our codice fiscale when we opened an account and we were able to buy a house with no problems. The only thing we use the bank account for now is they pay the electrical bill for us.


----------



## bunty16

Barry said:


> Interact cards work fine for getting cash although they usually charge at least 1.50 euro so it's best to make a large withdrawel when you use them. I've gone back to using credit cards as my Canadian bank is pretty good on the exchange rate. UniCredit arranged our codice fiscale when we opened an account and we were able to buy a house with no problems. The only thing we use the bank account for now is they pay the electrical bill for us.


Barry, I need to pay my bills by direct debit, how did you sort it out? I do have an italian bank account. uni credit di banca roma.


----------



## Barry

bunty16 said:


> Barry, I need to pay my bills by direct debit, how did you sort it out? I do have an italian bank account. uni credit di banca roma.


For Enel we filled in a form when we bought the house and got a contract with them telling them to send the bills to our bank. We also had to fill in a form at our bank authorizing them to pay the bills. It went smoother than it sounds!
Unfortunately the Comune won't let us pay the ICI, the water or the garbage tax this way.They wouldn't even mail the bills to us so I have a distant cousin in the village who looks after it and I just leave him the money to cover it when we are there.


----------



## bunty16

Barry said:


> For Enel we filled in a form when we bought the house and got a contract with them telling them to send the bills to our bank. We also had to fill in a form at our bank authorizing them to pay the bills. It went smoother than it sounds!
> Unfortunately the Comune won't let us pay the ICI, the water or the garbage tax this way.They wouldn't even mail the bills to us so I have a distant cousin in the village who looks after it and I just leave him the money to cover it when we are there.


Thanks for the info, will try and get a form from enel, have not yet had an electric bill off them due to 1 years break following the earthquake, have had gas and water though. You are lucky to have someone to see to your bills, people I know have someone in our village to do similar, I have someone who keeps an eye on the house, but is very busy so don't like to ask really. Do you have house in Abruzzo?, only I have read recently that people are going to be able to pay all commune bills on-line soon, something to do with federal arrangements/funding, if you have a house in the L'aquila region for example where population is smaller, you may have to pay more, as less money going into pot, but more prosperous places like Pescara, residents will be better off!


----------



## Barry

bunty16 said:


> Thanks for the info, will try and get a form from enel, have not yet had an electric bill off them due to 1 years break following the earthquake, have had gas and water though. You are lucky to have someone to see to your bills, people I know have someone in our village to do similar, I have someone who keeps an eye on the house, but is very busy so don't like to ask really. Do you have house in Abruzzo?, only I have read recently that people are going to be able to pay all commune bills on-line soon, something to do with federal arrangements/funding, if you have a house in the L'aquila region for example where population is smaller, you may have to pay more, as less money going into pot, but more prosperous places like Pescara, residents will be better off!


Our house is in Carrufo, a frazione of Villa Santa Lucia, just up the mountain from Ofena. We haven't had an electric bill since the earthquake nor have we paid ICI. We have been paying the water and garbage tax though. I don't know how it's going to play out as only 1 house in the village has been repaired so far. Last I heard they were looking at paying 80% of earthquake repairs for us as we are in the "historic centre" of the village. Actually we had very little damage other than a lot of cracked plaster but if they would fund upgrading to current building standards that would be great but we aren't holding our breath! As only second home owners pay property taxes and if the house is classed as uninhabitable you don't pay it's going to be years before they get any income from the property taxes.


----------



## litelfun

italia said:


> I am British, and will be vacationing in Italy next year, travelling around- no set location.
> 
> I would like to open a conto estero (non resident account) to put my savings in. Everybody I speak to has conflicting info on this subject. Even the websites are unclear.
> 
> What do I need to do to open a conto estero? It would be better if I could open it from the UK, but I doubt that will happen since the Italian banks still act as if they are in the middle ages.
> 
> So could you tell me how I'll do this?
> 
> As I said: I WON'T BE LIVING THERE, so wont have a set address. I WON'T BE WORKING THERE, so won't have payslips etc.
> 
> Will they let me open an account? Any solid advice welcome.


Hallo I Travel a lot all over the world I would sugest you have 2 cards both at the same uk bank, bothe linked online and allso have telephone banking thats a must nether keep the 2 cards in the same place licke your hambag beter leeve one in your suite case just in case your hambag gets stollen ok its im portant to have 2 cards in case one wontr work thats happend to me before this is the cheepest way to get money because in europe you have to pay monthly for your bank account usally between 7 and 15 euros per month what would hapen if you get robed before you get chance to deposit your money :-( I am curently in manila I draw 180 euros per week and it cost me 3,50 to draw I can live with that ! ok thats my advice to you hope you have a lovely time on your travels God bless


----------



## Vincentash

You may find difficult to open the account there because as you said you don't have an address in Italy and don't work there. So due to my experience, most of the banks will as - then why do you need an account in Italy if you have no connection to this country? And it's quite logical. 

In your case then you need to find an offshore bank who accepts non-residents.


----------



## NickZ

You're responding to a four year old post and now so am I.

The problem is the UK doesn't have many € accounts. If it did you could do everything that way. Most bills come with an IBAN number from the sender. It's easy enough to pay bills etc using the standard EU € electronic transfer. But the UK being outside the Eurozone doesn't have the same limits on costs that Eurozone banks do.


----------



## BBCWatcher

Citibank U.K. is a viable, reasonable option if you can maintain a £75,000 minimum total balance across all currencies. (If you don't, there's a £25 monthly fee). They offer a euro current account with free SEPA transfers -- unlike Barclays, for example, that charges at least £15 for each outbound SEPA transfer even from a euro account.


----------

