AliceCaroline

I didn't think anyone had lost money in Portugal from normal deposit accounts.
I know there was a scandal with dodgy investments, but aren't shares always a tad risky - in any country.

Red Eric

Actually, it's guaranteed by a Deposit Guarantee Sceme, which operates a fund - only in the event of that not having sufficient resources to cover the guarantee might the state be called upon to assist (but that isn't the only other recourse available).

With regard to payouts under the scheme, the EU Directive on the matter stipulates Here's the link to that and other questions about the EU Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes from the European Commission's website.
European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - Updated version of first memo published on 15 April 2014: Deposit Guarantee Schemes - Frequently Asked Questions

KateB8

You can, if you shop around, get a good rate of interest in Qatar; but there are risks and some people have been caught out having to leave the country and not being able to get their hands on their money.

Bottom line, I won't be putting all my eggs into one basket. A € account is my main option; but I will consider international banks.

KateB8

That's good to know Alice.

KateB8

Cool, I will seek them out.

KateB8

Does anyone Bank with NovoBanco; if so what are your experiences?

Loafing Along

Yes, excellent ! Good account manager at local branch, helpful, cheerful, signed off my recent "Proof of Life" for UK pensions dept with comment to me "Yes you look very much alive ".

Account opening easy.No noticeable charges ( odd Euro here or there ).
Excellent online site, english or portuguese, can manage absolutely everything without leaving home. Also good Android App.

If you want a credit card bit pathetic limits, but must admit have not bothered to ask for more ,suspect they would negotiate.

liveaboard

That's good information; I admit I haven't looked into the details.
So have depositors of failed Portuguese banks all [most] actually received their refunds? And if so, does the fund have anything left in case it happens again soon?

I'm not a person who denigrates this country very often; I chose to live here and I like Portugal a lot.
At the same time, some realities have to be acknowledged; regulation of banks and big business has been very poor.
I hope that improves in the near future.

Red Eric

I'm not sure how many times the deposit guarantee has been invoked - as far as I had remembered it hadn't been because all the cases I could recall had resulted in the bank being rescued by the state, which assumed the losses when the bank was resold at a pittance (this as opposed to letting the bank go bust and only paying out the guaranteed deposits).

In those cases, not only were the guaranteed deposits safeguarded but so were deposits above the guarantee limit.

There have been, of course, some widely-publicised cases of people losing money in bank rescues - most notably recently with BES, which was rescued and set up as the inspirationally named Novo Banco - but the money lost by those people was not held in guaranteed accounts (and of course there was a settlement offer which many of those have accepted as reasonable, given that their money was in at-risk investments, along with an ongoing dispute being waged by those who want back everything they lost by having money in shares or whatever). All the cash accounts covered by the guarantee (and again, even those above the guarantee limit) were transferred to Novo Banco and there was no interruption to the availability of those funds to the bank's clients.

The BES / Novo Banco affair arose because of alleged fraud and gross mismanagement, of course, not just through a weakness - the other most high profile of that nature that I remember was the Banco Privado Português and in that case (I found with a bit of googling) the bank was liquidated and the deposit guarantee invoked, although again, the loudest complaints came from those who were caught in a fraudelently administered investment scheme and whose money was therefore not covered by the guarantee.

I can't answer your question about the current state of the DGF and whether it's sufficiently healthy to pay out under whatever hypothetical circumstances - I could probably get somewhere with a bit of time and some googling. However, for my part I'm satisfied enough that it's run independently from the interests of the banks and that it's administered by a board which is answerable to the Bank of Portugal and ultimately to the EC and must therefore comply with national and Community law on all matters relating to such funds, including the levels of capitalisation. Plus, even if the fund couldn't cope the guarantee must still be honoured by some other method.

to that.

macliam

I agree - the biggest failure here is any real protection for the consumer, because the government is too busy bending backwards to please big business. When this failure is addressed, many of the other niggles will disappear.

Red Eric

I did and do agree with you on this and what follows is sheer whataboutery, of course, but there are plenty of other countries of which the same could be said - UK and Germany (to cite a couple of supoosed paragons of virtue) included.

KateB8

Thank you for the feedback. It's good to know that the account can be managed remotely on the internet.
Credit card, I'm not bothered about at the moment; only savings. 😌

KateB8

Good news, arrived in Lisbon last night...
Already have my NIF sorted...
and it was free of charge. 😄😎

AliceCaroline

Today we went to the Millennium bcp office in London to open an account.
It was quick and simple. I'd rung them the week before to check what paperwork to take with me and to make an appointment, but he said no appointment was needed and to just call in.

All he wanted to see were our passports for ID, driving licences for proof of address, fiscal numbers, P60s showing our NI numbers and a wage slip each.

He filled in the forms for us to join the Lagos branch that we'd chosen, and gave us a sealed envelope with a code.
In a few days we should receive an email with an account number and we can then activate the account for online banking and transfer money into it.
Their online site has an english language option, part of the reason we chose Millennium.

We were planning to open an account when in Portugal next, but thought this would be easier.

He showed us a document detailing this €100 000 deposit guarantee.

rollermum83

We recently got our fiscal no just passport and driving licence with UK address and paid the fee half an hour all done. Went to the bank opened account with fiscal no and UK address no problem.