Moving To Italy

nevica

Hello,

I have a few questions. I currently have British bank account but am moving to Italy in 3 weeks.

I would like to have have an account/ credit card which does not charge for me using in Italy and have discovered the Santander (Nationwide) Zero account. How long does the application process and if this is too slow considering the three week time scale can anybody suggest anything else. I will eventually get myself an Italian bank account once settled in Italy but initially I don't want to pay any charges.

Nevica

Lansdowne

What do you mean by Santander (Nationwide)? Is this an offshore part of Santander UK? I doubt if they'd call an account 'Nationwide' because it would get confused with Nationwide Building Society,

Nationwide BS has the Flex Account which gives you a debit (not credit) card, be aware it's quicker to open in branch not online. Maybe someone else is aware of the "Zero account" you're talking about but if it's offshore it may take longer to open than a regular UK account. Or just stick with the account you already have and as you suggest, open an account in Italy.

benjus

I think you might be getting confused between the Nationwide Flexaccount and the Abbey Zero card (Abbey is owned by Santander).

The Nationwide Flexaccount is a current account which offers free card use in Europe and only charges 1% outside Europe.

The Abbey Zero card is a credit card which offers free card use worldwide. Unlike most credit cards it does not charge a cash advance fee for cash withdrawals. However, it DOES charge interest at high rates on cash withdrawals from the date of the transaction to the date the card is paid off.

So for Italy the Nationwide account is a better bet. I've opened two of these accounts - I think they both took less than three weeks to organize but you would need to get a move on!

Abbey is renowned for being chaotic and losing applications, so I wouldn't rely on them to get it done in 3 weeks.