# Bank account at Banco Espirito Santo (BES)



## bershka

Hi everyone,

I live in Lisbon now and I am posting this thread to ask if any of you had any good/bad experiences with Banco Espirito Santo (BES)?

I opened a bank account with BES at the end of last month and so far, it seems like this bank likes to mess around with my money.

First, they automatically signed me up for life insurance that I never asked, so I had to go to the bank account and cancel it immediately.

A day later, BES created a second account under my name and transferred 90% of my money from my main account into the second account. I never authorised them for the transfer.

I will stop by the bank on Monday why they did that and then I will transfer again the money to my main account.

I wonder if other banks like BCP Millenium or Santander Totta, etc. do this.

I have lived in England, Holland, Germany, United States, and Canada and this is the first time I have had such experience with a bank that is messing around a lot with my money without my authorisation.

Thanks!


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## robc

bershka said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I live in Lisbon now and I am posting this thread to ask if any of you had any good/bad experiences with Banco Espirito Santo (BES)?
> 
> I opened a bank account with BES at the end of last month and so far, it seems like this bank likes to mess around with my money.
> 
> First, they automatically signed me up for life insurance that I never asked, so I had to go to the bank account and cancel it immediately.
> 
> A day later, BES created a second account under my name and transferred 90% of my money from my main account into the second account. I never authorised them for the transfer.
> 
> I will stop by the bank on Monday why they did that and then I will transfer again the money to my main account.
> 
> I wonder if other banks like BCP Millenium or Santander Totta, etc. do this.
> 
> I have lived in England, Holland, Germany, United States, and Canada and this is the first time I have had such experience with a bank that is messing around a lot with my money without my authorisation.
> 
> Thanks!



I can only speak as I find, we have had accounts with BES for 3 years or so now, we do all transactions through them including transfers in from overseas, the service has been great.

Regarding the 2 accounts, it may be the same as ours, in that one is a feeder account that is interest bearing, whilst the other is the general account.

HTH

Rob


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## John999

bershka said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I live in Lisbon now and I am posting this thread to ask if any of you had any good/bad experiences with Banco Espirito Santo (BES)?
> 
> I opened a bank account with BES at the end of last month and so far, it seems like this bank likes to mess around with my money.
> 
> First, they automatically signed me up for life insurance that I never asked, so I had to go to the bank account and cancel it immediately.
> 
> A day later, BES created a second account under my name and transferred 90% of my money from my main account into the second account. I never authorised them for the transfer.
> 
> I will stop by the bank on Monday why they did that and then I will transfer again the money to my main account.
> 
> I wonder if other banks like BCP Millenium or Santander Totta, etc. do this.
> 
> I have lived in England, Holland, Germany, United States, and Canada and this is the first time I have had such experience with a bank that is messing around a lot with my money without my authorisation.
> 
> Thanks!


I have been a customer of BES for about 15 years and never had a problem. It is probably a miss understanding??? Did the person you dell spoke proper English? Banks today offer you insurances for free in the first year, check it out properly. Never heard a story like that about that Bank
John999


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## RichardHenshall

We use BES.

I have no experience of them trying to sell us life insurance but our current account came with a linked deposit account into which any surplus over a set limit (originally 1000 €) is swept on a daily basis. When the current account balance drops below the same limit money is moved back in (rounded up to the nearest 100 €) to raise the balance again. Maybe that's what you've got.

Richard


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## MrBife

BES offer an account with two parts, one is the current account the other a deposit account. The biggest proportion of your money gets posted automatically into the deposit account and the balance stays in the current account. If you draw funds from the current account then they automatically move funds back.

You haven't taken the trouble to understand the services being provided. All Portuguese banks are much the same - a bit slow on service (especially at coffee time and lunch time !) but none of them go out to crook you.

I feel certain they are doing exactly what they thought you had asked them to do !


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## Jamesie

bershka said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I live in Lisbon now and I am posting this thread to ask if any of you had any good/bad experiences with Banco Espirito Santo (BES)?
> 
> I opened a bank account with BES at the end of last month and so far, it seems like this bank likes to mess around with my money.
> 
> First, they automatically signed me up for life insurance that I never asked, so I had to go to the bank account and cancel it immediately.
> 
> A day later, BES created a second account under my name and transferred 90% of my money from my main account into the second account. I never authorised them for the transfer.
> 
> I will stop by the bank on Monday why they did that and then I will transfer again the money to my main account.
> 
> I wonder if other banks like BCP Millenium or Santander Totta, etc. do this.
> 
> I have lived in England, Holland, Germany, United States, and Canada and this is the first time I have had such experience with a bank that is messing around a lot with my money without my authorisation.
> 
> Thanks!


Hi,
I had an account with BES for a couple of years and found their bank charges quite high. They also signed me up to health insurance without asking me, which was a bit strange. As Rob says they have a system of two accounts. One where you get interest and the other which is a day to day expense account. They should have asked you how much you want to keep in your day to day account.
I now bank with BPI. The charges are far less and I find them a very good bank to deal with.

Hope this helps.


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## notlongnow

As others have said, the money moving around is a "standard" thing which was explained to us when we opened our account with BES and is actually so the bulk of your money stays in a savings account - it is a bit disconcerting though when some of it disappears.

The fact they generated us a non-official fiscal number when we opened our account from the London branch which has caused us a few problems getting a PROPER fiscal number though, is another story 

B


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