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MONEY

The verdict: What are the best banks for foreigners in Italy?

Picking the right banking option in Italy can be hard, but The Local's readers have shared their experiences and advice to give you a head start.

Published: 14 February 2024 14:01 CET
Updated: 21 February 2024 10:42 CET
Pedestrians pass by a branch of Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome
Pedestrians pass by a branch of Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome in March 2005. Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP

If you’re planning on moving to Italy, opening a bank account will be one of the very first things you’ll have to do in the country.

Overseas accounts (especially those from outside the eurozone) are unlikely to cut it for everyday tasks like paying bills and taxes, receiving an Italian salary and taking out insurance as many Italian authorities require an account with an Italian IBAN number for these purposes.

Italy has a large number of banks to choose from, ranging from traditional Italian institutions to international banks to a host of online-only operators that have grown in popularity in recent years.

But Italian-only online information, confusing paperwork and a swarm of different offers can make it hard to find the right option, which is why we asked readers of The Local to share some of their best insider tips in a recent survey.

Traditional v online banking

If you’re looking to open an account in Italy, one of the very first decisions you’ll be faced with will be whether to opt for a traditional institution or a digital banking platform. 

Overall, around four in ten respondents indicated an online banking platform as the best option for foreigners in the country, with many pointing to low account fees, advantageous currency exchange rates and a far greater degree of flexibility compared to traditional institutions. 

READ ALSO: Which documents do I need to open an Italian bank account?

The majority of respondents however selected a traditional Italian bank as the best option, citing greater levels of trust in traditional institutions, the advantage of dealing with people face to face and, in some cases, the availability of specific services and information for foreign nationals. 

Traditional banks

Italy’s biggest private bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, was recommended by multiple readers as the best option for foreign nationals in the country.

Intesa San Carlo, Italy

People walk past the headquarters of Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo in Turin’s Piazza San Carlo in January 2017. Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

Iain Gosling, a UK national living in Pisa, Tuscany, highlighted the quality of their online services, saying: “The app is easy to use and it translates into English automatically. Online banking is easy. We maintain bank accounts in the UK and send funds to ISP, no problem.”

Another British national living in Pisa focused on the advantages of dealing with Italy’s largest bank, saying that “a lot of operations are done through ISP so the transaction fee is low” and the large number of branches across Italy makes it easy to “open an account quickly in person.”

Laura, a US-Italian citizen living in Ascoli Piceno, Marche, praised Intesa Sanpaolo for their customer service, saying staff were “patient and understanding” following a bad experience with another bank.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about opening a bank account in Italy

Besides Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit was also mentioned on multiple occasions within the survey, though opinions on Italy’s second-largest bank were mixed.

Stewart, an Australian national living in Umbria, said they “never had any problem paying bills or making transfers” even when out of the country, and the bank has “a pretty good website, including an English-language (sort of) option”.

But other readers had rather different experiences. Laura, from Ascoli Piceno, said her experience with UniCredit was “a nightmare” as “they couldn’t open the account correctly” and trying to solve the issue was “humiliating and impossible”. 

Cindy in Orte, Lazio, mentioned that UniCredit “arbitrarily raised checking account rates for foreigners who are not residents from 20€ annual to 120€ annual”, whilst another reader reported that “it took someone I know three months to open an account”.

Finally, two readers recommended BancoPosta – a branch of Italy’s Post Office offering basic financial services – based on low fees, presence in all major Italian towns, and easy sign-up procedures.

Online banking and transfer platforms

Wise (formerly TransferWise) was by far the most highly recommended digital platform within our survey.

A British reader in Tuscany hailed it for its “speedy transfers, good exchange rates, and prompt problem resolution”, highlighting the contrast with “slow, expensive and paper intensive” traditional banks.

Revolut

A close-up detail of a card from digital bank Revolut. Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Jenny Lantschner, a British-Italian national in Lucca, also pointed out Wise services’ speed, saying that it’s “very easy to use on a smartphone and will send funds within minutes”.

Besides Wise, several readers recommended Italian online bank Fineco, which they praised for easy account-opening procedures, efficient online operations and low fees. 

Lithuania-based Revolut was also recommended by some readers on the basis of “low cost, convenience, and near spot-market rates for currency exchange”, though others mentioned having problems with money transfers. 

For instance, Bob, an American national in Siracusa, Sicily said that “English, American, and Italian banks all refused to fund” his account.

Finally, Steve in Lombardy advised against opening accounts with Germany-based N26 as they “have been closing accounts in Italy and not giving back the money to customers”.

Though N26 is an active digital bank in Italy, it has been operating in a limited capacity for nearly two years following on-site inspections in late 2021 that revealed shortcomings in terms of security legislation and weaknesses in anti-laundering measures. 

Readers of The Local have recently reported having their accounts shut and being locked out of their funds for no apparent reason.

Member comments

  1. I would be interested if any American readers have been able to establish accounts with Italian banks. We have not been successful, largely because the banks don’t want to have to do all the reporting that US law calls for. We did manage to sset up an account with the Post Office, but only with the help of a good friend who is a native.

  2. Watch out with renting cars using online banks. I recently saw a couple walk away from a rental desk because the agency wouldn’t accept Wise credit cards. It doesn’t make sense to me, but they explained that the reason was because of an online bank.

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FAMILY

‘Not easy, but worth it’: The ups and downs of raising bilingual kids in Italy

Foreigners living and raising children in Italy often want them to become native speakers of at least two languages. We asked those who’ve done it to share their tips and experiences.

Published: 7 May 2024 16:39 CEST
‘Not easy, but worth it’: The ups and downs of raising bilingual kids in Italy

Foreign residents in Italy with children understandably spend a lot of time thinking about how to best make their offspring bilingual.

The Local asked parents in Italy about their experiences with raising children to speak more than one language, and many say they believe that raising their children to be bilingual or multilingual will give them advantages in life.

“When I was pregnant with my first son back in 2018, I read as many books as I could,” Stefanie Mellano, a freelance translator and UK national with Italian heritage tells The Local. 

Stefanie, who lives in Piedmont, said she flicked endlessly through the pages of ‘Bringing up a Bilingual Child’ by Rita Rosenback and ‘Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability’ by Adam Beck before her now five-year-old son was born.

She follows a method called ‘one parent one language’, also known as OPOL. She speaks in English and her partner in Italian. The two parents speak to one another in Italian however. 

“The books gave me great ideas and advice that I was raring to put into action,” she adds.

“Now the reality isn’t quite as easy as that, and I’ll tell you why.”

READ ALSO: ‘Kids are adored here’: What parenting in Italy is really like

Stefanie says dinnertime conversations are “funny”. Her partner understands what she is saying when she speaks in English to their son and he will contribute in Italian. Their son will mostly respond to them in Italian with a few words in English.

“When my son was younger, I was confident that he understood (and still does) everything I say, precisely because I never explain anything in Italian and I’ve always spoken English to him. He also would speak some English back to me. 

“That became more difficult once he started preschool and I would say that now the main challenge is getting him to speak English to me. 

“It’s hard trying to find a balance between letting him express himself and having him actually talk to me and tell me about his day or whatever he wants to talk about, and trying to get that out of him in English.

“However, we’ve always read books in English and when he started watching television, we made a rule that he could only watch it in English.”

READ ALSO: ‘Very underfunded, very strict’: What readers think of Italy’s schools

When asked if their efforts have been worth it, she answers a resounding ‘yes’, adding that her son switches to English completely when he goes abroad to visit family and friends in the UK. She adds that, when her partner goes away for work, her son speaks more English too. 

“He comes out with perfect sentences that make me want to cry with happiness,” she says.

Her biggest piece of advice is to never resort to the other language even if you are explaining something. 

Stefanie also has a one-year-old son. “He’s too little to speak yet, but he does wave when I ask him to say bye to daddy,” she says.

While Stefanie’s experience so far has been largely positive, the same cannot be said for Paru Agarwal, an interior designer who lives in Milan.

Paru got in touch via a post on Facebook group Mothers of Milan. Her native language is Hindi whilst her husband’s is Italian. 

She wanted to raise her children speaking English, Hindi and Italian, but the road was not easy. She suggested that she speak in Hindi to their first born, her husband speak in Italian, and that they speak to one another in English.

“He did not quite support my approach believing that it’s too confusing for the little baby. 

A father reading to his son in English. Photo by JOHANNES EISELE / AFP.

“In a very Italian environment surrounded by all Italians only around me, I tried my best speaking in Hindi with my daughter,” she says.

She said her in-laws made the transition in speaking both languages harder as they’d come over to help out and asked Paru to translate into Italian what she said to her daughter in Hindi. On the birth of their second child, the pair eventually decided to teach their children Italian and English first of all. 

“Today my kids are aged 8 and 7, and while their English is excellent and fluent, they need another year before their accent becomes neutral,” Paru says.

She also mentions she’s started sprinkling a bit of Hindi into their conversations too.

“In my experience of this, I’ve learnt not to listen to ignorance and do what you feel is best even if no one supports you,” she adds.

“I felt drained at first, but now things are looking better.”

READ MORE: ‘Being bilingual has made me a more creative writer’

For some parents, such as Francesca Grilli and her husband, raising their eight-year-old daughter to be bilingual in Italian and English makes sense in the global context.

Francesca, a managing director and partner of a technology firm, says speaking English will create an abundance of opportunities. Both she and her husband are Italian.

“We’ve travelled extensively and we have friends all over the world,” she tells The Local. 

“We believe our daughter shouldn’t feel excluded from conversations with our English speaking friends and their children.”

Francesca lived abroad for a period in her teens and focused on perfecting her English since. 

“We never followed a method with our child,” she mentioned. “We don’t want to force anything on her and we teach her English as another way of expressing herself rather than an achievement.”

“Overall, I see raising a child to be bilingual as something positive.”

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