Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Hi, just relocating to the Algarve and seems all the Banking information on the Forum is pretty old. Does anyone have advice for which Bank to set up with. My initial research has me leaning towards ActivoBank but any help would be much appreciated.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

We are with Millennium. Their online banking site has an english language version.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

They are probably much of a muchness but we are with Banco BPI. I have an account manager and he's always available over email or the phone. We set up with them because they provided us with the best mortgage offer. They are easy enough to use for our purposes: mortgage, a few direct debits, a few transfers, some ATM use and some cash withdrawals.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Hi AliceC
I'm with the same bank but have recently noticed I'm being charged for bank transfers to the sum of 1.04e a time, it never happened before but was wondering if you have same?

Tia

Ps have emailed account manager but no response

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

I'm with BPI;
They also have an English version for their internet banking, but some payment categories are missing; notably, payments to the state can only be done from the Portuguese version.
It's not hard to figure out, especially if you use the English one for a while first.

Last time I made a transfer [as opposed to an automatic payment or ATM withdrawal] was August. As of that time, there was no charge for it.

When I was overdrawn, a real live person from my local bank called me on my phone. These days, that's amazing.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Millennium. Yes, they do charge fees. but those fees are explicit and transparent. I am more than pleased with the service I have received from two local branches. And once you get the hang of it the website is pretty easy to use.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Not for me they're not
Sometimes I'm being charged for a transfer payment to someone else's account and sometimes there is no charge, and it only started happening about a month ago.
Going to have to go into the bank and get to the bottom of it.



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Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Started charging about a year ago for transfers, not for DD. Also of late a monthly charge for the pleasure of having an account with them plus the yearly card charge.

The chap we were dealing with in our local branch refused to believe me that my NatWest reward account in the UK paid me a percentage back on all my DDs. Had to show him an email from NatWest with what I had "earned" so far this year. Yes I realise NatWest take a £2.00 monthly charge for this account but on average I get about £8.00 back.

Can't see Millennium BCP adopting it any time soon!!

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

..and there are ways around some of the bank fees. We paid no monthly fee in the first year as we had a certain amount of savings, now we pay half the usual monthly fee as we pay monthly into a savings account. I think we switched as we applied for a credit card and it was free with the second option. Thinking about it that may not have been the best option long term :unsure:

The staff in our branch have always been very helpful.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Millenium BCP
I don't know any better, I have been with the bank for awhile having opened my account in London with lots of helpful assistance. Recently they took on a problem I had regarding a double charge with an outlet but have yet to receive an outcome. It helped that I could call the branch in London to explain my issue.
On a personal front they have been very good both the London and Portuguese branch. They even called me in the UK from Portugal to tell me that I could reduce my monthly charge by transferring Euro 100 PM to a savings account. This is the account mentioned by Alice.
On the negative side I have to rely on their "Token" to enter verification codes as texts to my UK mobile do not work. I haven't managed how to resolve this.
I transfer funds to Portugal via a Nat West account of theirs and it is always almost at commercial rates.
Just my two pennys worth, hope this helps.

Spig

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

I had the same problem in reverse for a while. My TSB online banking wouldn't accept my Portuguese phone number, finally got it all sorted though.

Once you move to Portugal Spiggle you'll no doubt get a Portuguese number and it will no longer be an issue :thumbup:

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Many phones these days will hold 2 sim cards; you can have a PT number and a UK number at the same time in the same phone.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

Millennium send texts to my UK number without issue for verification of transactions.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

We had the same problem with texts to UK mobile until we took the 0 out of the mobile number, now it works fine.

I.E. 0044 7763 ......

Miss the 0 before your number.

Re: Best Portuguese Bank Account ?
 

We use Bankinter ( Spanish) as it took over our Barclays bank in Lagos. I liked the idea of it being owned by a woman and that she had a very healthy situation there , unlike many of the bigger banks. We have very helpful and personal advice from the manager .He helped our YD with both the purchases of her apartments ...Barclays had stopped our credit and debit cards( gee thanks after 40 + years fo banking with them ) We had to open an account this summer with one of the few banks in the UK that will allow a non resident account, in order to access our British pensions that had been paid into Barclays in the UK.. ( No more )