3051 Banks & Charges

[B][I]When are the Banks in Italy going to wake-up!
I have been living here in Italy for a couple of years and initially I had a bank account, the charges were crazy so I shut it and opened up a 'Posta Italia' current acount. While we use rather spasmodically....as you know everyone in Italy wants CASH! so at the moment there is only a small amount in it.
We have just had a call from Posta italia....can we pay some money into the account as there is not enough for their charges.
When we questioned that why do they charge when we have large amonts of money in it (which they lend out with interest) also when their is only a small amount in it, we were told that they do pay interest, which still does not cover their crazy charges....Phew got that of my chest.

I did read that a Dutch bank managed to buy an Italian bank recently so hopefully things might start changing

Closing this account also and doing cash
Brianm

Category
Cost of living - Utility Services

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/25/2006 - 16:23

My Banca Posta account is free?

It only costs on the transactions I use?

For main banking I use a commercial bank - and sure you pay for the service - but it IS personal service - unlike the Posta Banca

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 03/26/2006 - 04:23

I agree with BrianM, we are going to close our account soon and we will have to pay about £40 just to do that. We wanted to leave it open so that we could pay our finalised bills but it will cost us money to do that. Personally I think that if Italy opened up a little more and got rid of the old ways of dealing with things, there would be a lot more foreign investment and they would do a lot better.

We don't know how we are going to pay our final bills as once we are back in the Uk, we cannot close the bank account from there and they won't let us pay our bills from England. Would appreciate any ideas about this.

We have a Woolwich Building Society here and they are attached to Barclays (we have a Barclay account) but when we asked about it they said they were nothing to do with the English companies even though they had the company logos.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 04:32

You might be able to pay your final utility bills using a credit card, or online via a transfer from you UK bank. The Enel and Telecom sites are quite user friendly.

Banks are expensive here, but I have found them quite amenable! As a cheap (and sometimes slightly inconvenient) fairly comprehensive banking solution there is always Fineco, or other international internet setups. Seem pretty secure, but paying money in is not as simple as having a local branch.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 05:07

[QUOTE=Relaxed]You might be able to pay your final utility bills using a credit card, or online via a transfer from you UK bank. The Enel and Telecom sites are quite user friendly.

Banks are expensive here, but I have found them quite amenable! As a cheap (and sometimes slightly inconvenient) fairly comprehensive banking solution there is always Fineco, or other international internet setups. Seem pretty secure, but paying money in is not as simple as having a local branch.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for that, it is quite a good idea. Hopefully they will be prepared to send the bills to England and I can then pay them through bank transfer as I don't think they will take a credit card online. Its whether they will send them to an English address. I will let you know as it might come in handy for someone else in the future.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 05:18

If you register on the Enel and Telecom sites your bill will be accessible online. I took the option of never receiving a phone bill by post (saves me 37centesimi or so!!) Italgas probably have the same service, so that just leaves the water utility. All is possible!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 14:33

Hi, can you let me know which account it is.
Many thanks
Brianm

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 14:39

You can now apparently, pay Enel, water, telephone and some commune tax and rubbish collection online.
As to closing the account, I have been told by an Italian that you never close an account, the cost just mount up and then they shut the account and write it of....Us English are just to honest
Ciao

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/28/2006 - 01:36

Excellent idea to pay on line. Hopefully a printed out copy of paying will suffice as a receipt as I know how difficult they can be if they think you haven't paid. We have to be careful about everything as we will probably come back one day and my boyfriend will still be registered at his fathers address here. About 20 years ago he had a bike stolen from Verona and last year the police sent him a ticket for riding without a helmet on this bike. It was someone in Rome. When his father told them it had been stolen 20 years before they said he would either have to give them the paperwork or pay the fine. Luckily, knowing what they are like, they had the paperwork but still had to go to a lawyer to sort it out. Things will catch up sometime if you owe any money so I am not sure about letting the account run.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/28/2006 - 09:03

Hard to believe just how expensive bank charges are! However, the amlount of paperwork they send to tell you how much they have taken probably accounts for much of it, as well as half a dozen rain forests in South America!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/28/2006 - 14:01

I dunno - I like my commercial bank - I have internet banking - all my bills are paid automatically - I receive any Utility bill payments from them to my house in the UK - plus statements.

They have a limit that is specified - and my bank charges will not rise above that. Of course whilst I am in credit.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/28/2006 - 14:15

I love my (very costly) commercial bank here in Italy too!! The thing is, I can go in and stamp my foot, tell them they are completely wrong in telling me that I cannot "cash" an assegno circolare (bankers' draft) - suddenly they make it cashable (by means of a phone call to Sylvia at head office), and I trog along and get 40,000 Euros in my sweaty palm.
The moral of this is that the bank was right, and I was making an unreasonable demand (anti money laundering law passed a couple of months before, and of which I was not aware): nevertheless they delivered. Now that, I cannot see in a million years, happening at a branch of the Nat West!!
Basically, I suppose, you get what you pay for - as in all areas of life!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/30/2006 - 03:49

As I am not resident in Italy [holiday home only] I have my bank statements sent to an Italian friend who is resident. The Bank will take instuctions over the phone from my Italian friend to pay out monies from my account.

Whilst this sounds odd - it is very useful when sorting out 'glitches' in the system. Direct Debits not working the first couple of times etc]

Cannot see any UK bank allowing this to happen!