joanna87

Hi, does anyone have any experience in closing a Poste Italiane bank account? I moved back to the UK but left my account open, thinking I might move back to Italy in a few months. However, now I've decided I'm not moving back any time soon, I'd like to close the account. I was told that I have to close the account in person, so I flew to Rome last month, only to be told by my bank that I have to make an appointment, there were no appointments available for the next 2 weeks. There's no online appointment booking system and the bank don't answer the phone. I tried at a couple of other branches in Rome and was also told they had no available appointments while I was there. I'd really like to close the account as I'm currently paying a monthly fee. Has anyone else tried to close a Poste Italiane account? Is it possible to close the account at a different branch to where I opened the account, or even close it by post? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Geordieborn

We closed an account a few months back by walking into our very small Posta, but significantly the account was based there i.e. the papers had been transferred there from the original branch we had opened the account. It took a lot of form filling and time... I suspect it could be very hard to do without going to your branch in person. But its worth try contacting them via their site here if you have not already done so. At the bottom of the page there is also their social media links which may well be worth trying to get their help.

philat98

What about this?
https://www.poste.it/resources/banco...a-chiusura.pdf

tpw21

joanna87

Thanks for this, The bank where I opened the account had no appointments for weeks and the cashiers weren't sure if I could close it at other branches. From what you're saying it sounds like it's better to keep trying at that branch if they are the only ones with my paperwork. I'll try and contact them through the site, and see if there's any other way to make an appointment. In terms of documents I need, if I complete the modulo and bring my passport, residency certificate, codice fiscale and bank card, is there anything else they could ask for? I don't want to go all that way and realise I'm missing a document. Thanks for your help.

joanna87

Ah! I wish I'd opened an account with UniCredit instead! Unfortunately they deduct the monthly fee directly from my account balance. Even when there's no money in it, it just goes into a negative balance

joanna87

Thanks, I completed this while I was in Italy and took it into the bank but they still insisted that I needed an appointment! Apparently it's not a quick process!

philat98

At the top of the document it says you can close the account by post by sending the form to Torino with a copy of your ID.

joanna87

Ah! I didn't see that! I will definitely give this a try. Thank you so much!

Jake.White

I had been led to believe that the Poste Italiane bank account was a slightly better one than most of the others but your story really doesn't surprise me....

Unicredit aren't much better I'm afraid. I had an account with them which I used for paying my electricity bill but they took so much out in monthly and transaction fees that on two occasions there wasn't enough left to pay the direct debit so ENEL cancelled it without telling me and then tried to cut me off for non payment. Sigh....Also at the beginning of my Italian experiences I had to ring the London Branch of Unicredit a couple of times for help and advice and on the third attempt I was told that my contact there had moved back to Italy and the London branch was closing. She hadn't and it didn't as it turns out - it's still there 15 years later but they just couldn't be bothered helping a customer out with some problems at the time...classic Italian customer service really....

I closed the Unicredit account after finding out what had happened from the ENEL man who came round to the house to cut me off, but only after jumping through some considerable sized hoops and with the patient help of an Italian friend. It had to be done at the branch which held the account and was a bit of a rigmarole involving further charges and my signing forms in quadruplicate. No appointment required though.

Anyway, good luck with it. You have my sympathy.