9968 Banks and Finance

[quote=timwills;92895]If anyone has any questions about banks, payments, mortgages or finance please do not hesitate to ask them on the forum or to contact me directly.

After 23 years working in the city, Frankfurt and Paris I now live near Fermo with my family and work for Banca Mediolanum. The bank is now well known in Italy as the first to cut all mortgage spreads for existing and future customers. I am trying to build a business that helps English speakers get a better and cheaper service for their Italian banking needs.

I am very happy to make presentations, especially to groups of people where the more questions the merrier.[/quote]
Well Tim you might have opened a can-of-worms there! :bigergrin:

Perhaps I can be the first: I have a progetto trundling through the approval process, usual sort of thing. It should be approved in about 6 months'ish.

Once I have approval to build a modest house of around 250 m.q. can I get an Italian mortgage to finance the build? The progetto will be to rebuild a extant ruined farmhouse on 2 ha. of agricultural land. I am registered Imprenditore Agricolo & I have a partita IVA & residency. This property would be prima casa status

My other option would be to finance the build from u.k. equity. I wondered what my options are. Any special deals out there for farmers?

Grazie in anticipo

Okay you asked :bigergrin:

With the anti-terrorist. Anti-laundering laws. I need to get my ID certifiied. Who the hell can do that? I need it in English to :eeeek:

I have questions too:

Having received a small gift in cash from my wife's parents, we wanted to open an investment account with Unicreditbanca, where she has a current account. We were told however that the charges for the account would swallow up at least half of any interest that would accrue in a year, and also that they would have to pass the details to the tax authorities so that we would be subject to greater scrutiny than normal. We passed on it. Who would bother to invest in these circumstances?
Also, why is it that about 8 euros a month is paid to the state out of her current account?

Excellent. Thank you for the questions. I shall do my best, under the caveat that my knowledge is finite and anyone should seek not only a second opinion but also independent quotes.

In order:

[quote=chrisnotton;92911]Well Tim you might have opened a can-of-worms there! :bigergrin:

Once I have approval to build a modest house of around 250 m.q. can I get an Italian mortgage to finance the build? The progetto will be to rebuild a extant ruined farmhouse on 2 ha. of agricultural land. I am registered Imprenditore Agricolo & I have a partita IVA & residency. This property would be prima casa status
My other option would be to finance the build from u.k. equity. I wondered what my options are. Any special deals out there for farmers?
Grazie in anticipo[/quote]

Chris:
A bank will want to know what income you have to repay the mortgage. That will determine firstly if you can get a mortgage and secondly the 'spread' you pay (the premium over the standard bank interest rates).
Banks are in the business of reallocating capital (using savings to help development) and not property acquisition. At my bank we really do not want unhappy clients and it is hard to find anyone more unhappy than someone whose house has been repossessed. So the credit check process has to ensure the ability to repay.
If the initial check is OK we offer spreads of 0.80 - 1.09% over the 3 month floating rate.
I do not know any special deals for farmers but I highly recommend you check with other banks, especially your local Banca Credito Cooperativo (BCC) for their offers.
I personally financed my house from UK equity, but that was in the days of yore when there were 1.5 Euros to the pound. It is harder now.
Although there is no magic answer I hope this helps. Tim

[quote=NickZ;92924]Okay you asked :bigergrin:

With the anti-terrorist. Anti-laundering laws. I need to get my ID certifiied. Who the hell can do that? I need it in English to :eeeek:[/quote]

Nick - Presumably your ID is not one of the Purple passports that have been around for about 10 years, or the credit card style driving licences, both of which are EU standard and do not need translating.
If you really have to find a mother tongue who can do the translation (probably with you and a dictionary!) and who can go to your local Tribunale with you (our local one is in Fermo). Take all your ID's (especially their Carta D'Identita) and register the translation. You have to pay something like €7-10 to have it registered (which is really an self-certification exercise).
If this is not clear please say.
Best of luck.

[quote=gradese;92926]I have questions too:

Having received a small gift in cash from my wife's parents, we wanted to open an investment account with Unicreditbanca, where she has a current account. We were told however that the charges for the account would swallow up at least half of any interest that would accrue in a year, and also that they would have to pass the details to the tax authorities so that we would be subject to greater scrutiny than normal. We passed on it. Who would bother to invest in these circumstances?
Also, why is it that about 8 euros a month is paid to the state out of her current account?[/quote]

My apologies for the filling up the forum by quoting the questions, but I want to try to answer them as best I can!

Gradese,
The cost of an Italian account is always an unpleasant shock. The costs are normally as follows:
1/ State tax of €34.20 p.a. (which is often taken out of the account as €8.55 quarterly)
2/ Monthly charge - between €5 and €9 per month
3/ Transaction charges for everything you can think of: direct debits, mortgage payments, ATMs for other banks, cheques, ! crediting large amounts to your account!!! and the biggest rip off I saw was for each line on your statement! This last one means that you pay a few cents every time you use your debit card - and even for the line on the statement with the charge for the lines on your statement!

It is worth checking offers from different banks. Presumably you want to keep your investment in cash. We offer two solutions at the moment:
- A current account that has no monthly charges, no transaction charges for normal banking operations (unlimited direct debits, cheques, bank transfers, etc) 36 free cash withdrawals from any ATM in Italy, free telephone banking centre, free internet, free SMS messages for credits, debits and when the account goes above or below a level defined by you (to stop the unsuspected overdraft). Plus for this year we pay 4.25% for monthly average balances over €3,000 on accounts that are 'active' (which I can define separately).
- We pay 5% for 2 year deposits, but if the interbank rate goes up during those 2 years we pay the higher rate!

In Italy, interest is taxed at 27%. Most of our customers opt to have it deducted at source.
I hope this helps. Tim

[quote=timwills;92933]Nick - Presumably your ID is not one of the Purple passports that have been around for about 10 years, or the credit card style driving licences, both of which are EU standard and do not need translating.
If you really have to find a mother tongue who can do the translation (probably with you and a dictionary!) and who can go to your local Tribunale with you (our local one is in Fermo). Take all your ID's (especially their Carta D'Identita) and register the translation. You have to pay something like €7-10 to have it registered (which is really an self-certification exercise).
If this is not clear please say.
Best of luck.[/quote]
Hi,

I need either my Italian ID card or passport photocopied and that certified to be a true copy. The problem is it's for an UK bank and they want the person to certified it in English.

I offered to mail them my ID card but they didn't like that idea :laughs:

[quote=NickZ;92954]Hi,

I need either my Italian ID card or passport photocopied and that certified to be a true copy. The problem is it's for an UK bank and they want the person to certified it in English.

I offered to mail them my ID card but they didn't like that idea :laughs:[/quote]

Our bank provided us with a very limited list of professional people they considered suitable to certify the copy and an extremely specific statement that had to be written. If you need these details let me know - it is a real pain when you are based out of the UK, but essentially if there is a professional English person near to you ask them. It cannot be a family member.

They gave me a list of acceptable people problem is I've never had to find an English speaker before. It's never been an issue and they are thin on the ground around here.

I should ask my local bank if somebody in the branch can do it.

I'd be interested to know what sort of 'guarantees' a depositor in an Italian bank has - how sure are they to get their money back in the event of a run on a bank? Are there any guarantees, and if there are, up to what value of deposit? Do any such guarantees apply to current and also cash deposit accounts? Is the situation the same across the Italian retail banking sector?

The guarantees in Italy are a lot stronger than in the UK.
Each deposit is guaranteed up to €100,000.
In the UK each depositor (note the difference) is guaranteed up to about €50,000.

I do not know the actual process of reclaiming money (it has not happened in Italy as far as I know for a long time).

Actually in the UK it is £30,000 (€37,500). In the US it is $100,000 (€62,500).

Sounds as if the major gloom-mongers might throw some cash at the European banks! (Is the €100,000 pan-European?)

[quote=tennaval;93022]

Does the Italian scheme carry on deducting monthly interest while you are waiting for your money?:wideeyed:[/quote]

If it is a deposit the interest should be credited to the account.... however monthly (and a host of other) fees would probably be debited, but getting the capital back would be a bigger concern than either.