A bank account can cost very little, and in some cases nothing

A current account is what you need to be paid your salary, to pay rent and bills, to send money home. What almost nobody does, and what is worth a few dozen euros a year, is compare the cost before opening one.

The good news is that the cost of an account comes down to three items, not thirty. Understand these three and you can read any offer.

1. The annual fee (canone)

This is what you pay just to have the account, no matter how much you use it. It is charged monthly or yearly.

Many banks waive the fee under certain conditions: if your salary is paid into the account, if the account is online-only, if you are under a certain age. These conditions are real, but read them: a fee waived «with salary credit» becomes payable again in the month the salary does not arrive.

2. Stamp duty: € 34.20 a year, but not always

This is a state tax, not bank income: no bank can remove it. For an individual it is € 34.20 a year.

But it is not due if the average balance of the account does not exceed € 5,000. The average balance is not what you have today: it is the average across the year — daily balances added up and divided by 365. If your salary comes in and goes out within the month, that average stays low.

Watch one trap: if you hold several accounts or savings books with the same bank and in the same name, they are counted together for that calculation.

3. Transactions

Every transfer, every withdrawal at another bank's cash machine, every card can carry a price. Individually these are small amounts — a transfer may cost a few euros — but this is where money goes unnoticed if you make many transactions.

Count yours: how many transfers a month, how often you withdraw cash, whether bills are paid from the account. An account with a high fee and free transactions can cost less than a free account where every transfer is charged.

The document that makes comparison possible

Here is something almost nobody knows and is worth knowing: the bank is obliged to give you, before you sign, the Documento informativo sulle spese (fee information document).

Inside is the Indicatore dei Costi Complessivi (ICC): the indicative annual cost of the account, calculated on standard usage profiles (young people, families, pensioners, with more or fewer transactions). It exists for exactly one purpose: putting two offers side by side.

The layout of that document is the same for every bank in the European Union, so you can compare line by line. Ask for it at the branch or download it from the website, for two or three banks, before you decide.

The conto di base, and when it is free

There is an account designed for people who only need the essentials: the conto di base (basic account). It has a single fee covering a set number of transactions, and allows what actually matters: receiving a salary or pension, making transfers, having a debit card (bancomat).

Two cases where it costs less than anything else:

• with an ISEE (the Italian means-test indicator) below € 11,600 you pay neither the fee nor stamp duty;
• with a gross pension up to € 18,000 a year you pay stamp duty only.

We covered the basic account in full in The conto di base: the account that costs little or nothing, including how to ask for it and what to do if the bank resists.

Three things to check before signing

• Is the fee waived «subject to conditions»? Ask which condition, and what happens in a month when it is not met.
• How much is a transfer abroad? If you send money home this is the heaviest item, and it is not in the fee. We wrote about it in Sending money home: what it really costs.
• Is a card included, and at what price? A debit card usually is; a credit card almost never.

Switching bank is free, and the bank does it for you

If you find something better you do not have to close and reopen on your own: there is a switching procedure between banks, at no cost to you. You ask the new bank, which moves your incoming payments and standing charges.

If the account you have no longer suits you, that is the route: compare with the fee information document first, then ask for the switch.

If something does not add up

If the bank charges items you do not recognise, the first step is a written complaint to the bank itself. If no answer comes, or it does not convince you, you can turn to the Arbitro Bancario Finanziario, a way of resolving disputes without going to court. A consumer association or a municipal desk will help you write it.