BillBullock

Be careful that you do not upset people with insulting remarks. I was referring to my past experience a few years' ago when I was considering opening an account with one of the earlier Portuguese internet banks. They insisted that I travel a great distance to present myself at their nearest branch. Banco Espirito Santo was charging me nothing at the time, so I decided not to change banks.

BillBullock

I have just looked at the Activo Bank website and the simple account looks attractive but I can see a disadvantage for those wanting to open a joint account. You both need to go to one of their offices and for those of us living in the Algarve, that means a trip to Lisbon as mentioned in an earlier post.

macliam

I bank online in the UK - and most of the time in Portugal. However, I have an account with Metro bank which required me to go to London to set up. This is entirely online (for me) except when there was a problem that could not be solved online or remotely and required me to make a 90-mile round trip to sort out. It was not an experience I am keen to repeat. My use of First Direct in the UK has now been impacted by the fact that HSBC, who provided a physical network as backup, have now pulled out of my local area..... not a problem as yet, but a potential issue for the future.

I am keen to escape the claws of the vampire banks in Portugal, but wary of potential issues and very aware of my location. Normally, this works against advice from those based in the Algarve, but in this case it's slightly different. If you have had no problems with Activo, fine. if you have a local branch, good for you. But recommending a bank whilst ignoring the fact that there are coverage issues is hardly helpful.

ricko

I initially received good service from ActivoBank, but it deteriorated over time (possibly due to larger number of customers).
I had two problems in the last year, and I made trips to the nearest office.
Despite spending a lot of time explaining the problem, on each occasion, the best they could offer was to phone customer services (which wasn't an option for me).
Recently, I was in the vicinity of an office, and decided to go in to ask about a minor problem that had been bugging me.
I received excellent service, and the problem was efficiently resolved.
So maybe service depends on the skills/experience of the representative that you get.