a_grz_vr

I will be moving to Italy again early next year. I plan to open an Italian bank account soon after my arrival. Upon arrival, I want to transfer my money from my UK NatWest account to an Italian account.

Rumours are going around and I'm now convinced that the value of the British pound could fall. I worked very hard to put together my savings, and I don’t want to sit back and let my hard work evaporate before my eyes.

Thus, moving my money before Brexit has become a priority. One of the obstacles however is that I’ve never had an Italian bank account. I don’t know how it works.

I’ve heard it can be hard opening a bank account in the UK for a foreign national. I live in a multi-cultural city and have heard many stories about the difficulties in opening a UK bank account.

I looked on the UNICREDIT or INTESA SAN PAOLO website (I can’t remember which, possibly both) and the required documents were as follows: identity document and codice fiscale.

It sounds too easy. Is that really all you need? Compared to the stories I hear about opening an account in this country, it sounds too easy.

Of course I will contact them, and get a friend to contact them, too…I’m writing on here to get an additional viewpoint…I don’t trust just one source!

So, if any of you have opened an Italian bank account, can you tell me which documents you needed? Which banks did you open the account with?

I'll only need a very simple account. First of all, to transfer my money from the UK to Italy. Then for my wages to get paid into once I have a job in Italy. Then of course to take it out from the cash-point. That's about it.

I already moved to Italy years ago, but I didn’t ever open an account. I did however obtain a codice fiscale, and I have of course an ID document.

Some of you may tell me that I should stop worrying about the Brexit-related rumours. The thing is I can't. It's still possibility to take into consideration, and I have to protect my hard-earned money. Maybe these rumours are just there to scare everyone and encourage them to rebel against the changes, and the pound's value won't decrease at all. I don't know. What I do know is that I want to act now rather than not only to regret it later.

Thank you for your time!

Lorna at Vicenza

A codice fiscale never expires. ID cards however do have an expiry date. Have you checked yours?

modicasa

mike101

And for the transfer of funds you'll be using one of the specialized companies such as Worldfirst, and not doing a BACS transfer from your UK acc. to the new Italian account.

Geordieborn

Good advice from Mike, but shop around and check the cost using your actual amount against a few companies.. There are lots of them around, this compare site gives a few I know of and they vary according to your needs/amount.

a_grz_vr

Hello, thanks for the reply. Yes, my passport is quite new actually!

a_grz_vr

Hello, thanks for the reply. I have just been in contact with a UNICREDIT consultant via chat and, although not being that helpful, did confirm what you're saying about the documentation. She also mentioned resident and non resident accounts. I'll go into this in more detail in a separate message. She left me with quite a lot of unanswered questions and closed the chat in my face, so I need some more help here

a_grz_vr

Hello, thanks for the reply.

How come you suggest using transferring funds in this way?

Shortly before posting my question, I phoned NatWest and they told me I could easily transfer money to an Italian bank account via online banking. They said it can take as little as 1 working day (£30 service), or up to 5 days (£10 service), and you need to use your card reader.

So doing it through my bank is a possibility.

Are you suggesting that specialised company because it's a better way of doing it? How come it's a better way? I've never done this so I'm curious.

Thanks for your time

a_grz_vr

Thanks for the link

Geordieborn

Because the likes of CurrencyFair would cost only €3 and their rate is likely to be a lot better. Others quoted here may suit you depending on the amount...

Serrano

I think we need to be clear on two very different things which are usually connected but not necessarily so. There is the exchange of Sterling into Euros, and there is the transfer of the subsequent funds to Italy (or to somewhere accessible from Italy). Both have their costs.

The OP made it clear that their primary concern was exchange rates, in my opinion rightly so (but I'm not excluding the possibility they may have modified their priorities during the course of this thread) and this is the first part of the process - and where the difference in cost can be large..For this part there is little doubt that the major banks offer a, shall we say, sub-optimum deal. Credit cards even worse. And the organisations listed on the site referenced by Geordiborn are pretty much the best.

As for the second part, It is usual (but far from essential) to use the same organisation to transfer the funds from the UK to Italy. This part has real costs to the provider that will be passed on with an add-on, in full without add-on, in part or not at all to the customer. But in any case, the variation of these costs will be dwarfed by the differences in costs of the first part (exchange). I use one of the operators rfecommended on the site, they charge €3 for a transfer which typically takes 24 hours. There is a vast range of options here including keeping the funds in the UK in a Euro-denominated account - which may not be a bad idea, although usually difficult to set up.

It would probably help a bit if the OP would be prepared to give some indication of how much they are thinking about - £100 - £1000 - £10,000 -£50,000 - £100,000 - £250,000 etc. Because the more money the more you have to gain (i.e. not lose) in the Exchange.

Geordieborn

Serrano reminded me of what we did when buying here and although a long time ago, I think they are correct to suggest looking at a UK Euro account. Something we never envisaged doing in our life time was open an off-shore account, but we did with Lloyds as they were paying 1-2% interest above GBP accounts at the time and it allowed us to drip feed euro into it when the rate was good. Not too sure this will be the case these days. Serrano is also correct regards the amount involved, if above the FSCS limit(s) here I would certainly be more cautious who I used.

modicasa

For me using a currency exchange company - such as Foremost or Smart or Currencies Direct, saves a fortune for two reasons. Firstly they give a better rate than your local bank, because their volumes are higher and secondly they give you a spot rate which is valid for 3 or more days, so even if sterling plummets five minutes after your call, you dont lose money. Most banks send the money when it suits them, not you - and currency companies dont charge you for the privilege - its their only job.

Margaret M

Take a look at Currency Fair - they only charge €3 per transaction, quite a bit less than your bank, and I am pretty sure you will get a better exchange rate too. My concern would be trusting too much money in an Italian bank, with the current state of most of them. Personally, we only transfer enough at a time to get us through about a month.

Oops, should have read to the end. Other people beat me to it.

Capo Boi