Bank account
 

Hi there

Does anyone have any suggestion on which bank to use for a very simple current account for a British national? Either online or with a branch in Bologna would work. Everything that we have tried so far seems to demand an Italian passport/ID number and phone number!

Many thanks

Re: And account
 

Where have you tried? Are you resident? Have you had a look at the likes of ING Direct? Big difference if you are resident or not.

Re: And account
 

You will need a codice fiscale to open a bank account. It is a prerequisite. You will need a phone number for online banking.

Re: Bank account
 

Thank you both. We have looked at ING and a couple of others I can’t remember but didn’t recognise. They require an Italian phone number and ING repeatedly said that the codice fiscale (which she has) is wrong even though it isn’t. I know a lot more research on the ground is required but I am asking on behalf of my teenage daughter who, as yet, doesn’t speak much Italian and it is taking longer than we hoped to get things sorted! She is non resident, although will be there for another eight months or so.

Re:Bank account
 

Sorry, I should have asked how you can identify a non resident account with the likes of ING when looking online?

Re: Bank account
 

I suspect that if she is going to be there for another 8 months or so, then she will be classed as resident.

Re: Bank account
 

Ah, OK. I thought it took a lot longer to be classed as resident. She hasn’t registered for residency yet as she doesn’t have a permanent address.

Re: Bank account
 

I believe it's 183 days to become tax resident

Re: And account
 

Id suggest unicredit - its a big bank and is used to foreigners. She wants a non resident account. Assuming she has a codice fiscale from the tax office and not from a website, she will be fine. She needs to take her CF with her - the original stamped version from the Agenzia dell'entrate. and her passport. As she is a youngster she will ge a cheaper account once she has her residency.

Re: And account
 

Cassa di Risparmio di Bolzano accepted us before we'd applied for residency but I suspect they won't be much use in Bologna.

Does your daughter have a middle name she doesn't always use? Or a hyphenated first name? If you don't enter it in exactly the same way as when she applied for the codice fiscale, it won't match. For example, I never use my middle name but entered it when applying for the CF, so I have to enter it on online forms so that everything matches.

Re: And account
 

Re tax code, I think Modicasa hit the nail on the head i.e. it needs to be an official issued CF. Wiki here gives a good idea of how it is made up, hence how you can run into problems giving details to places that then try to verify you CF themselves. George points out one of those and I found the caps "i" at the end of mine looked the same a a one "1" on my official document.

Re: Bank account
 

Thanks for all the replies! Turns out that she did use her middle name to register for her CF and that works! Looks like we may be getting closer!