Lorna at Vicenza

A heads up for all you nice people who, like me have still got a paper ID card. They will cease to be valid after 03 August 2026 even if yours expires at a later date. My own expires in October 2026 so will be invalid for a few months even if I keep it stuck in my purse and forget about it. This isn't just a whim of which Comune will apply different practices like they are known to do, or which stronza/stronzo you find at the front counter one day. It's a proper normativa/regolamento. I predict a huge rush of crazy, mad Italians all trying to get the new plastic card in 2026 so slowly, slowly, we should ask for ours now. Apparently we don't need to lose the old one, pretend it got eaten or scrumpled by the washing machine and do the denuncia at the police. We just go to the Comune and ask to make the change from paper to plastic. Plastic of course costs more than the old paper one and they want your index fingerprints. On the plus side, the Carta di Identità Elettronica should become the default bit of plastic for everyone and phase out the hated and failed SPID.
https://www.cartaidentita.interno.gov.it/.../normativ.../...%

philat98

Whats wrong with the SPID? I use it all the time.
The problem with the ID Card is that you need to buy a card reader. The SPID is for home use and the ID card is pushing folks back to the public offices and queues. A reliable card reader costs €50 and the SPID was free.

Lorna at Vicenza

The SPID was not free on all platforms. The Poste gave you it if you already had an account with them - and it wasn't that easy to sign in and get one. Other people paid things like Aruba and you're wrong about the CIE. You don't need a card reader. All Italian Gov and public websites ask you on their home page ----- how would you like to proceed? With SPID or CIE ?? My son was given a new CIE when he turned 18. He's never had a SPID but he's used the CIE on school websites, the 18 app bonus and the regione Veneto car bollo website to get a reminder when his bollo is due and that's a pain too because they ask for the CIE number and then a PIN and then something else or a scan of the card itself or a scan of a QR code. That effing 18 app bonus is so complicated even the teens who live on their phones give up. I think it was deliberate so that they decide not to even try and convert any virtual cash into a buono/voucher.

philat98

I'll give the ID card another go. I lost the pin and puk.

Lorna at Vicenza

And that's another thing. My 55 year old Italian friend just got the new CIE. She's not exactly tech savvy but nobody in the Comune told her that the pin and puk arrive later by post and she'd better not lose them. Nobody told her why she needs them. Nobody told her that her CIE works like a SPID but only with that extra data. She thought she'd just got a bit of plastic instead of paper.

daniel_t

Cheers Lorna for the heads-up! Now I finally understand what the PIN and the PUK of my ID card are for.

Lorna at Vicenza

tpw21

The CIE with my card just stopped working for no reason, so I ended up getting a free SPID with Poste (I don’t bank with them) - it’s much easier.