Can anyone help me with a question, I'm trying to set up a bank account with an Italian bank in anticipation of when I hopefully get a job teaching English as a foreign language. I'm living in Rome at temporary accomadation with my landlady and was wondering if anyone knows whether this will be enough to serve as a correspondence address. When it comes to ID I have a passport with me but no birth certificate. Is it more usual for people to set up a bank account after they have received an offer of work? Any feedback would be gratefully recieved.

Jonathan,
In Roma you should be able to find a bank that will do this. I know the Banca Intesa has accounts for foreigners, the Postal bank might also. In our area we had to have our residenza before banks would talk to us about opening an account for anything other than transferring funds to buy a house.

If you can manage for the moment without one try. the costs of having a account here are far more than we are used to in the UK.
If you have to open an account here
it is always helpful if you can get an introduction to the bank manager by someone.

I got a Banca Intesa account that costs me like 8 euros every 3 months (super cheap i think), and I think the account type is called "zerotondo" or something to that effect. I opened my account in Rome and they guy (Aldo, Monte Sacro area branch) was super nice and helpful. I did NOT have a paying job, I was an intern at FAO... and they never asked me for any kind of documentation on my job. I am an Italian citizen though, and provided my passport and codice fiscale. So, not sure if this changes anything.

The 8.55 euro per quarter is a government tax. Every account holder in Italy must pay it.

Ok: the account must be free then. Pretty cheap account then, eh?

As someone has already mentioned, an intro or recommendation from someone is probably the way to go.Our bank Manager was introduced to us by the previous house owner and she has been an absolute star. We bought the house three years ago and she opened a foreigners account for us then, our correspondence address was the UK. Admittedly we didn't have any payments going straight from the bank on a regular basis but we had the Bancomat card which was useful, a cheque book and of course all our money transfers.All these things at a cost of course! When we moved here she advised us to set up an Italian acc too to deal with rent payments etc. and to enable us to apply for an Italian credit card. So thats what we did and it all seems to run pretty smoothly (if not cheaply!)

How did you go with finding work Jonathan? Are you teaching full-time now? Check in, if you have a chance! :-)

I don't know how common this is, but without Residenza, all I could get was a 'Conto Straniero' - essentially an account with no chequebook, but with a 'carta prepagata' that could be 'charged' from funds in your account.
Supremely irritating at first - but you get used to it. Passport and Codice Fiscale were all that was required.

But now, with shiny new Residenza, financial freedom looms !

If you're an Italian citizen you don't have to have residency in order to open a bank account... in fact the accounts are super easy to open and cheap.

Ruh-roh! I did not know you had to have residenza to open a bank account. The first thing we were going to do on 1 or 2 August was get a bank account in Pienza primarily to do two things:

1. Pay the landlord
and
2. Get an ariadsl internet account!!!!

I have been told we must get a bank account to do #2, and then it will take 25 days to get the internet account.

Will this be possible to do???

I think we'll probably open an account at MPS, but what the heck is a postal bank account? And why would one have an account at the post office rather than a bank?

Thanks
Claudia

quote:

Originally posted by jenna:
If you're an Italian citizen you don't have to have residency in order to open a bank account... in fact the accounts are super easy to open and cheap.

agreed, i opended mine at the BNL (Banca nazionale del lavoro).Just walked in and asked to speak to someone regarding opening an account. I showed only my passport and codice fiscale) no questions about me having a job.

it costs 35 odd euros per year and no other costs involved. ask for the revolution account.
It included an atm card with no national nor international withdrawal fees.

quote:

Originally posted by Italy or Bust!:
Ruh-roh! I did not know you had to have residenza to open a bank account. The first thing we were going to do on 1 or 2 August was get a bank account in Pienza primarily to do two things:

1. Pay the landlord
and
2. Get an ariadsl internet account!!!!

I have been told we must get a bank account to do #2, and then it will take 25 days to get the internet account.

Will this be possible to do???

I think we'll probably open an account at MPS, but what the heck is a postal bank account? And why would one have an account at the post office rather than a bank?

Thanks
Claudia

You can open a non-resident account at many banks. The fees may be more. Once you get residenza let the bank know and they'll convert the account to resident.

Bancaposte is a bank in the post office. See
http://www.poste.it/en/bancoposta/conti/current_account.shtml

quote:

You can open a non-resident account at many banks. The fees may be more. Once you get residenza let the bank know and they'll convert the account to resident.

I was only asked about citizenship, not residency, when I opened a Banca Intesa account in Rome. I pay 8.55 euros in taxes every 3 months, something which anyone pays resident or not. I am an Italian citizen, so maybe that makes a difference, but I have even checked with Banca Intesa in Torino and the oh so nice lady (she really was super helpful!) told me not to worry about transferring my bank account to Torino anytime soon since it will make almost no difference in terms of services available to me.

But the person who asked the question, Italy or Bust, is not an Italian citizen. And those of use who are not citizens have been asked for proof of residenza when applying for bank accounts in Italy.

I also have an account from a large bank here in Rome.

I am not an Italian citizen. I did not have residency at the time I opened the account.

The bank only only asked me for my codice fiscale, my passport, and a mailing address.

No proof of residency required in my case either.

I guess it just depends on the bank...

Yes, it varies by bank- if you'll read through some threads here quite a few folks have been given non-resident accounts.

quote:

But the person who asked the question, Italy or Bust, is not an Italian citizen

I did not notice that Italy or Bust is not a citizen...

She's coming over on an ER visa.

FYI. We opened up an account at Credito Cooperativo and they make no distinctions between stranieri and non-stranieri with regards to fees. At least for such services as wire transfers, transfers to other Italian banks (like....to pay our landlords), etc.