5624 BancoPosta account

Hi Susanna

I agree that the Banco Posta accounts are great, and we were lucky that we only made one trip to the post office to open it, we were fore warned with what we would require, but with our lack of understanding of Italian we have not managed to open the Online banking part, this would be very useful to us with paying bill ect, ect, Can you tell use where we may find an idiots guide to do this or any help for that matter.
Your help would be very much appreciated.

Many Thanks

Darren & Tracy

Hi

Is the Banco Posta account available to non residents? Whilst I am staying here for good (hopefully) I am presently living in the motorhome and so could use the UK address?

Russell

[B]Russell:[/B] you don't need to have residence - just go to the PO with your codice fiscale and your passport.

[B]Darren and Tracy:[/B] you need to request online banking when you open the account so if you didn't do so at the time, you'll need to return and register for it and provide an email address. I think the series of visits I mentioned are all to do with online banking, the setting up of which is conducted with great security and takes a little while, but it's worth persevering. You will first be sent a letter giving you the account number and IBAN and inviting you to go to the PO with the letter to make your first deposit. Next step is an email confirming your registration and giving you a user name and ID number. Then a telegram will arrive with your codice di attivazione. Log in to [url]www.poste.it[/url] with your user name and password and insert the code as requested. You will then have access to online banking and can check your balance and see transactions, but all functions will not yet be available. The final piece of the puzzle is your codice dispositivo which arrives by mail in a security envelope. It is a ten digit/letter code which is essential for full use of online banking - you will be asked to enter four of these digits/letters whenever you pay bills, transfer money, reload your phone etc.
In parallel to the above process, you will be sent a Postamat card (in addition to the functions previously described, you can use it to withdraw cash from any Cirrus/Maestro machine, pay for goods in stores with the Maestro logo, check your balance or transactions at the Postamat machine, pay autostrada tolls, reload your phone). You need to go to the PO with the card to have it activated, then wait for the PIN number to arrive by post in a security envelope before you can use it.
Having done all of this, you can then do almost everything (except deposit money) while seated at your computer. Even with limited Italian, the online banking shouldn't prove too difficult. Go to [url]http://www.poste.it[/url], click on BancaPosta online, then bookmark the log in page that appears so that you can go directly to the page whenever you want to use the service. Log in then click on [B]Lista movimenti [/B]to see your transactions and balance. Other functions are accessed from the blue banner on the left of the screen. [B]Bolletini[/B] to pay bills - preprinted payment slips e.g. Telecom or ENEL that have 896 or 674 in the bottom right corner and generic forms with 123 in the bottom right corner.
[B]Ricariche telefoniche[/B] to reload your phone
[B]Postagiro[/B] to transfer money to another PO account
[B]Bonifici[/B] to transfer money to an account in Italy (ordinario) or overseas (estero)
[B]Vaglia[/B] to send a postal order to someone who does not have a bank account (they cash it at any post office)
There are more functions but I'll stop here as the above are the most used, I would imagine.
In case you are wondering, I am not in the employ of the PO PR department, but having commented favourably on the service at my post office, I did receive my reward when I turned up the following week to withdraw €5000 on and discovered that it was pension payment day, and began to fear that I would have qualified for a pension myself in the time it would take to reach the counter. One of the banking consultants spotted me, asked what I needed to do, then beckoned me into the consultancy room and disappeared for a while, reappeared with the €5000 in his pocket and processed the withdrawal behind the closed door, so that I was able to depart not much older than when I arrived.
Hope this helps.

Susanna

Many thanks for the information, your explination is very easy to follow, even for a dummy like me.:)

Darren

[QUOTE=Susanna Francesca]Transfers to my account from the US and UK work well and there's no charge for receiving the funds. [/QUOTE]

Susanna, can I ask whether you have transferred funds from, say, a sterling account to your euro account with the banca posta? If so, do you know who sets the exchange rate? I assume that it would be the remitting bank, but I'm not sure - can you throw any light on this at all?

Many thanks
Tricia

I did a transfer via Tipanet from my UK internet bank to my Bancoposta Account. It took so long this end that I would have been better off going to the hole in the wall everyday and getting E250 out, and being Nationwide would have got a better rate. Beware this, although I'm not sure if it applies to all transfer methods.

Banco Posta is in the [B]eurogiro[/B] network. A eurogiro takes between 3 and 5 days to arrive. The transfer cost is £7.50 in the UK and receiving I think is €3. The UK bank on the eurogiro circuit is Alliance and Leicester they will send in euros for you from their international department. Arrangements are made over the telephone and often go the same day if arranged before 11.00am. I do not know if they will do this if you do not have a current account with them. It is easy to open one and use it as a conduit for this purpose only. Although you do have to accept their rate of exchange the transfer fee is very low. Now that the IBAN is so well established it may now be possible to send other kinds of transfers eg SWIFT from a UK bank who will send in euros at a higher cost. Nationwide will certainly do international transfers to italian bank accounts from a branch office. You will have to make an appointment and when the arrangement is made prove identity with a passport (which is checked by the branch manager) for this service.

Does anyone know if there are any difficulties getting a banca poste account as a non-EU non-resident? I just tried to open a conto corrents account at the local Unicredit. I was refused because my Permesso di Soggiorno was expired. ( I was granted a 30 day one back in November to get my CF.) Now I have a valid Codice Fiscale and own a house but the bank in our nearest town wouldn't accept me without a new PS. When I said I'd been told I could not have a permanent PS they said that would be ok as long as it was valid at the moment I was opening the account. The non-resident account they'd let me have seemed very limited and has higher charges than resident accounts. I'm wondering if a Poste account would be easier. Am also mulling whether a bank account is really necessary at all.

[QUOTE=Susanna Francesca][B]Russell:[/B] you don't need to have residence - just go to the PO with your codice fiscale and your passport.[/QUOTE]

Are you sure you don't also need to take some form of proof of address such as a recent utility bill etc with you to open this account? My codice fiscale (paper document version rather than plastic card) has an address on it, but it was my address 12 years ago.

Apologies for delay in replying.
My PO assured me that passport and codice fiscale were the only requirements. I do have residence and did not have to show utility bills. A friend who does not yet have residence opened an account without problems.
I think the PO account is generally an easier and less expensive option for foreigners.
Transfers to my PO account from various UK banks have reached me within five days at most. One arrived today that was sent yesterday! There's no charge my end to receive the payments, and I pay €1 to make transfers from my account to any overseas account. Someone recently refused to pay her bank's £35 charge for making the transfer and sent me a bank draft instead because it cost 'only' £10. However, the bank draft was refused by the small local PO when I tried to deposit it. The larger PO staff handled it with suspicion but eventually made the deposit. When I couldn't see the deposit in my account via online banking five days later, I called in to enquire and was told that it would take a very long time for it to be credited to the account! So if you want money transferred to a PO account within a short time, don't opt for a bank draft.
Tricia - I don't know anything about what the exchange rate is - sorry - I use this method because it works well and just hope that the rate is reasonable.
If you don't want to have a credit card, or if you want one for specific purchases without paying high fees, or if you want a card just for online purchases - the Carta PostePay prepagata is useful. The card can be purchased for €5 by anyone, account holder at the PO or not, document and CF required. You then pay funds onto the card, which is given to you with a card number and a PIN but no name printed on it. You can use it anywhere that Visa cards are accepted. You can top up its credit online from your PO account, or in cash over the counter. You can use it for online bill payment and various other useful functions. Full details on the PO website or on leaflets in the post office. I presume that transactions using the card would be refused if the credit was insufficient, which would make it less attractive to thieves, and less of a risk if lost.
Neil - why not go to the Ufficio delle Entrate and ask for a codice fiscale card? It's free and is a useful ID document. It arrives by post a few weeks following your request. The card itself does not carry your address although perhaps it is encoded.

[QUOTE=Susanna Francesca]
Neil - why not go to the Ufficio delle Entrate and ask for a codice fiscale card? It's free and is a useful ID document. It arrives by post a few weeks following your request. The card itself does not carry your address although perhaps it is encoded.[/QUOTE]

I should have done really but I never got around to it and I have never had any problems using the temporary card. I applied when I was living in Naples - I was given the temporary paper/card version - and then the plastic card went walkies in the postal system!

I don't think the official codice fiscale has address details encoded onto it. The codice fiscale number itself is auto-generated (at birth if you are Italian) from your name, date of birth and place of birth, and so your address is irrelevant.

I am just surprised you can still open an Italian bank account without proof of address. I have opened four or five accounts in years gone by without proof of address, but I thought things would be more strict now as they are in the UK. I guess it shows how ID cards will not offer extra security when they are introduced in the UK.

Hello there

Just to ask, are you resident or non-resident I will be non-resident and unsure if I would qualify for a Banco Posta account as much as I would like one.

Regards

I am resident, but the PO assured me that non-residents could open an account by showing just their passport and codice fiscale. Try it out and let us know how you get on!

when i opened my bancoposte account they refused to open an account without my passport, PDS and residency Certificate.

this was quite a few years ago so things have probably changed since then.

[COLOR=blue][COLOR=black]quote susan[/COLOR] "There's no charge my end to receive the payments, and I pay €1 to make transfers from my account to any overseas account."[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue][/COLOR]
i did a transfer just 2 days ago to a foreign account and the charges are:

€1.50 BANCO POSTA CHARGE
€7.50 COMMISION CHARGE

there are two options when doing the online transfer. you pay all charges or part charges. you will always pay the €1.50 banco posta charge then you decide who pays the commision charge. (you or the receiving account) there is also a small commision charge for converting from euro to pounds but i belive this is included in the commision charge.

Since my original post, I have made a transfer to a New Zealand account and there was indeed a charge of 1.50 + 7.50. But transfers to my own UK Barclays account attract a charge of €1 in the BancoPosta account, no charge (amazingly) in the Barclays account. It's important to use the IBAN to avoid a charge from Barclays, according to their website.

well...if it helps anyone...I am a non-EU citizen and a non-resident and I had no problem opening a BancoPosta account...however...when I was there, they told me to sign up for online banking when I got home online...ok...my fault...I should have read up on it before I was over and learned it needed to be done while in italy! (thanks to this board for that info.!) now...they aare telling me they cannot give online access to non-residents. huh? that dosen't make since...went to the website and coulnd't find anything saaying that...but I feel clueless!! thought I would be able to get that running so I could pay my ICI online (!). Has anyone else had that problem?? thanks!