We are at the initial Preapproval stage of the process. The Portuguese bank we have our account in, is now threatening to close our account/move us to a lower tier if we donât deposit EUR 50,000, as well making some additional investments, monthly deposits etc.
It feels like pressure tactics to me, since they sent us a printed letter that took ages to reach rather than an email, so we have less than 2 weeks to decide.
Despite us repeatedly asking them via email, they have been extremely vague on what exactly will be required from us to maintain the current account. The woman who answered the email said that even depositing the money wonât guarantee that we get to keep the account - she mentioned that there are âmany requirements from the place to analyze and accept your accountâ but refused to state what they were.
We have heard that we MUST maintain the same account throughout the process. Does anyone know if this is true? Did anyone else have to deposit additional funds/make additional investments to keep their account open? Or has anyone changed banks during the process without it adversely impacting their process? Also, any other bank related stories - good or bad?
This does sound like a bit of a pressure tactique. From my experience, the banks have a minimum limit above which you will receive better banking relationships (you will get a personalised banker assigned) and reduced monthly maintenance fees. I was never aware of the need to maintain such a high minimum balance, which for many Portuguese would be quite a challenge.
I do have a rather precarious situation with my bank (Novobanco), but it has to do with EU sanctions imposed on Russian nationals. Even though I am a U.S. citizen and have left former U.S.S.R. over 45 years ago, the bank still blindly applies the EU directives and blocks my account for incoming deposits. I too would like to consider switching to a different bank, but I might be stuck with Novobanco for the foreseeable future (or unforeseeable one, depending how you interpret the current timelines of GV process).
Whatâs your GV path, RE or smth else?
On the RE path you only need a one-time bank declaration on the initial transfer of monies to purchase RE. Then you can ditch your bank straight after that
On the funds route, I suppose you need to maintain your bank within which you have the fund, but then again - with your current regular account you can do whatever you like at any time.
You obviously need to maintain at least one PT-based bank account to be able to pay SEF/AIMA fees from there.
Are you pretty sure about this? I remember that I had to submit declaration from the bank at the time of my application and at the time of my bio appointment. Can I be sure they wonât ask for the same document again at the time of final approval, renewals, or citizenship application?
My dear friend. It is not just about sanction against Russia. As you already know where I come from, the portuguese banks still want to block my account.
MBCP: my fund is coupled through Millennium. They sent email to me informing that they wanted to close my account and I needed to withdraw all cash out asap. I spoke with lawyers. After months of negociation, we had a meeting at the bank with my lawyer, myself and two BCP managers. All of sudden, they said I needed to keep quiet and should not send or receive big amount. According to them, it is illegal to close my account because my fund Is thru the bank. Hence I stay active like a zombie. Not death but in dangerous situation. Recently, BCP asked me to top up 50k (very similar situation as already posted above) to maintain my prestige account. Yeah, âprestigeâ of BCP seems like deepest sh$t Iâve ever been. I said no, i will be happy to be lowered from prestige to non-prestige. After that I have not received anything from them for 3 months. I still receive bank statement monthly and still being prestige. How proud I am!!!
Novo Banco: I also have an account with Novo Banco. I have not received any threat from them. However, when I ask them about my account receving big incoming amount. Their reply is very vague. I asked again to evaluate all papers works (source of money, amount to send, âŠ). If it is OK, then I will send. They refused. They only analise once the incoming amount arrives. Therefore it is their tactics to trap people. Whatâs wrong avoiding doing due diligente in advance??? Easy answer. To trap and block peopleâs accounts. Iâve read FB (but cannot find the post now) that one German guy was 100% blocked by NovoBanco and one Irish guy was refused to open bank account by NB.
We are living in the period of âde-bankingâ. Banks love de-bank people. Govt, through their banks, wants to show the power.
Yes, but it was the same declaration, wasnât it?
You donât need multiple declarations on the same single event that happened only once. Itâs not like declaration about ongoing maintenance of the funds, that of course is required at every renewal etc.
For RE renewal the evidence of maintaining your GV investment is your up-to-date Certidao de Registo Predial which is luckily very easy to obtain online for 15 eur or so.
I agree, it is a general situation not only related to the RU exposed individuals.
Quick sum up from my recent research:
MBCP has become a pain since around Q4 2023. They randomly block incoming transactions, sending people to compliance, or to complete KYC or both, but whatever you do the outcome is again random, i.e. release, return or indefinite âanalysisâ.
Novobanco is on top of the âbad guysâ list. They block accounts altogether or restrict heavily. RU or non-RU people does not matter to them, they can block anyone, because âpowerâ
Caixa Geral de Depositos, government bank⊠do I need to say more? I am in the process of opening an account with them. On my 3rd month waiting since the applicationâŠ
Activobank, sounds free and âmodernâ, but in practice impossible to open via the app or via âtelechamadaâ. I had one good report from someone applying at the branch, but they donât have branches where I live so Iâll give it a pass. And by the way, they are owned by MBCP which does not bode well.
BPI, Spanish bank, some positive reviews in another thread here, also I personally had a very pleasant experience with them so far, they have like a 3-tier system of regular, Premier and Private bank accounts, which makes a bit of difference I guess.
Santander, another Spanish entity, but have very poor reviews online similarly to MBCP or CGD. I have not tried them myself but heard mixed feedback. So letâs put them in the middle of our ranking together with Activo.
Seconded re BPI - no minimum balance, and I seem to pay fees of a few euros a year if that. Very friendly, no hassle. Of course, theyâre making fees on the investment in BPI Portugal I have with their fund arm, so fair enough.
Fwiw generally bison has been good, and they offer a debit card now. Careful if you buy a house through them given my problem with them not providing a certified check, but for day to day stuff it seems fine
WRT Activo, I find them very easy and helpful to deal with. I use them for basic banking and have done multiple large transactions through them and they have been unfailingly polite and helpful over the phone. The only thing being that you have to already have residency and apply in a branch and have a PT number so that SMS etc works and so they can efficiently phone you, or so goes my experience; others might differ. They achieve low operational costs through being mostly online and that dictates a lot of how they operate.
They canât hold your fund units so they are probably not relevant to this discussion anyway.
I second this Bison recommendation. I have accounts with BCP and Bison, both set up four years ago when Portuguese banks were a little easier on foreign customers (eg. no EUR 50,000 deposit required)
BCP was recommended for daily banking but we needed Bison for custodianship of fund shares as BCP refused. Bison was recommended by our VC fund and has been very responsive and helpful.
BCP has been a total pain on compliance requests, provides inconsistent customer service, and often gives contradictory advice, especially if you are trying to do anything from outside the country (but I think we escaped some of the horror experiences above). We paid for Prestige but they didnât even assign us a personal banking contact for months. Weâve only kept it open because closing it would create another round of paperwork chaos.
Just note Bison is a small investment bank, not a full service retail bank, although do now at least have a virtual debit card you can use on Apple/Google Pay.
I donât know if you need to maintain the same account throughout the approval process. Donât trust answers on here, you need legal advice for that. You could always open a Bison account as backup right now, so at least if BCP shuts you down unexpectedly you are not left without a local account at any point, and your lawyer can point to that if AIMA makes a fuss. We were able to do that remotely with Bison. If you want an email contact, DM me.
Thanks for sharing everyone, and really appreciate all the inputs! So sorry to hear about the bad experiences, but at least we know that weâre not the only ones frustrated with our bank
We are on the RE path, but I guess we will stick with MBCP for now - hopefully the time will come when we can ditch them and move to one of the ârelatively betterâ ones mentioned here, like BPI or Bison.
An update in case this can help anyone in the future.
BCP has closed our account, even though we transferred an additional EU50,000 to them. No reason was given for this unprofessional behavior. Luckily we were prepared for the worst, thanks to the feedback from folks here!
As per our agency/lawyers handling the GV process, it does not affect our process, as we are on the RE path. Only time will tell.
We are now in the process of setting up an account with Bison and transferring funds there.
Until we get our residency cards, most local banks are not an option for us, so we will just have to wait, and pay through our noses, and suffer in silence ⊠except for sharing and ranting on this forum - for which I am eternally grateful!
