How banking works in Portugal
Your account is open — and now there is a whole system nobody told you about back home: Multibanco cash machines with the same menu at every bank, paying bills by entidade and referência numbers, transfers by phone number through MB Way, a monthly fee just for having an account. This guide explains how it all works, what it costs and how to bring the account fee down to zero; what protects your money if a bank goes bust, and up to how much; who supervises banks and where to complain about them; and how digital banks like Revolut and Wise differ from ordinary ones — where they are handier and where they will not be accepted. The sums and deadlines come from Banco de Portugal and the text of the European rules, and the real cases from conversations in community chats.
Multibanco is not your bank’s cash machine but a nationwide network
The first surprise: cash machines in Portugal look the same almost everywhere. The blue Multibanco sign, the same menu, the same order of buttons — at every bank. That is by design: cash machines and payment terminals are joined into a single national network run by the interbank company SIBS, and the banks simply connect to it.
This leads to things you would not expect. You can withdraw money with a Portuguese bank card at any other bank’s machine, and the network itself charges nothing for it. But there is a strict limit per transaction — €200, in multiples of ten. You can repeat the transaction one after another as long as the machine has cash and your card’s daily limit allows: that is how people take out a thousand or fifteen hundred.
Almost all everyday tasks are done through the same machine: paying bills by code, topping up your phone, paying the state, transfers, account statements. So the phrase “pay at Multibanco” in a letter from the school or the water company does not mean “go to some bank” but “pay at any cash machine or in your bank’s app”.
“I tried 5 different banks at several cash machines. Even though the banks are different, the cash machine interface is absolutely identical (it’s multibanco after all) and it won’t let you take out more than 200 at a time.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal14.07.2026
“Multibanco should give you 200 many times in a row. I took out 1000-1500 that way with a Georgian card. Try another cash machine, maybe that one ran out of money. And only Multibanco doesn’t have its own fee”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto25.07.2026
Cash: where to withdraw it, where to pay it in and where you will be stung by fees
You cannot pay cash into an account at every machine, only at those inside bank branches that can take money. You can pay into your own account or someone else’s — by account number. At weekends cash deposits are often switched off, and that is normal: nobody counts the money in the machine until Monday.
It is also worth remembering that not every cash machine is Multibanco. In tourist areas, at stations and airports there are Euronet and ATM Express machines: they give out more at a time, up to two thousand, but charge their own fee — about five euros per withdrawal. You also pay when you use a Portuguese card abroad: banks in Spain and Cyprus charge a fixed amount for withdrawals at their machines, from €2.50 to €2.80.
And a general rule for cards in any country: when a cash machine or terminal offers to “charge in your currency” and shows its own rate, say no. This is dynamic currency conversion — conversion at the machine owner’s rate, and it is always worse than your bank’s rate. The right answer is to pay in euros.
One more small thing that causes rows in cafés: a shop or café does not have to accept cards at all and is entitled to set a minimum amount for paying by card — usually three, five or ten euros. But they must say so in advance, somewhere visible: at the till, on the menu or at the entrance, not after you have finished your coffee.
“There’s no fee for that, you can pay into your own account or someone else’s. Only those machines are in bank branches, and at weekends the cash deposit option is usually switched off”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal20.08.2026
“Euronet lets you take out 2k at a time, with a fee of about 5 euros (for foreign banks, with pt banks it may not charge a fee)”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal14.07.2026
“I think Vladimir is wrong, and what you’re seeing has nothing to do with the bank that issued your card. Google Dynamic currency conversion, Gemini will explain in a nutshell what kind of evil it is, the wiki article is too detailed. 😀 In practice: if you refuse the conversion (the right option: always refuse), the transaction should go through without extra fees. If your transaction doesn’t go through, it’s either a glitch or evil squared.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal14.06.2026
Bills here are paid not with bank details but with entidade and referência numbers
A Portuguese bill for electricity, water, internet, a tax or a fee looks unfamiliar: instead of long bank details it has three numbers — entidade (who is being paid, five digits), referência (what exactly for, nine digits) and valor (the amount). You enter these three numbers at a cash machine or in your bank’s app under bill payments, and that is it: the system fills in the recipient itself and checks that the number has been typed correctly.
So it is almost impossible to send a payment to the wrong place, but it is easy to be late. A reference lasts for a limited time: for most bills about 48 hours from when it is issued, while public services can have their own deadline. Miss it and the payment will not go through — you need to log in to your account and generate a new number. With the tax office this is done through e-balcão on the Portal das Finanças: ask for a new referência or for payment details with an IBAN.
If you do not have a card or account yet, you can still pay the bill in cash. The Payshop and Pagaqui networks work in ordinary shops, tobacconists and shopping centres: you show the cashier the same three numbers and hand over the money. Payshop sometimes asks for a NIF (tax number) or a residence card; Pagaqui usually asks for nothing.
The second way to pay is débito direto, direct debit: the supplier takes the amount from your account itself on the day the bill is issued. You get a discount for this (EDP, for example, about 6% on electricity), but you will no longer see the bill with the numbers, and this direct debit is cancelled with the service provider, in your online account with them, not at the bank.
“Payshop.pt Pagaqui.pt In cash. Addresses on the websites. The terminals can be anywhere (cafés, shopping centres, launderettes, small kiosks) Referencia+entidade+valor You need three values Payshop asks for a nif on some payments, on others a citizen card. Pagaqui doesn’t ask for anything Most payments have to be made within 48 hours of the bill being issued.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkHigherEducationPortugal29.05.2026
“The bills have the details, you find shops with Payshop signs (usually any tobacconist or something like one), show these details to the person at the till (entity, amount and payment code) and hand over the money in cash.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkru_Portugal_pt03.08.2026
“There’s only one field to fill in - you enter the reference there and the system shows the recipient itself (and checks the number is correct) You can’t post photos here - otherwise I’d show you”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkru_Portugal_pt07.04.2026
How to pay taxes, contributions and fees if you have no Portuguese account
This is a dead end of its own that almost everyone waiting for their first local account runs into. Here you pay the state by entidade and referência numbers within the Multibanco network, and Wise, Nickel and N26 are not part of that network: you cannot pay a tax, a Segurança Social (social security) contribution or a fee with them using the payment number. Revolut with a Portuguese IBAN can pay by Multibanco codes, but its app has no automatic payment to the state by the 15-digit number — its support confirmed this in writing in January 2026 and suggested an ordinary transfer instead.
The tax office accepts transfers from a foreign account and sends out the details itself (May 2026): the recipient is the Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, its NIF is 600084779, the account is with the IGCP treasury, SWIFT code IGCPPTPL. In the payment reference you write your NIF (tax number) and the payment number — that is how the payment is identified, so take it from your own payment document on the Portal das Finanças, not from someone else’s message. For a SWIFT transfer the tax office asks for a bank letter confirming the account is yours: send it to dsrc-dga@at.gov.pt or through e-balcão (request Registo Contribuinte → Atividade → NIB/IBAN). Such a payment is allocated by hand and is not instant — pay a few days before the deadline, not on the last evening.
In cash you pay through Payshop and Pagaqui: locations are on payshop.pt and pagaqui.pt — tobacconists, kiosks, cafés, launderettes and shopping centres. You need the same three numbers — entidade, referência and the exact amount — and you usually have the same 48 hours. For some payments Payshop asks for a NIF or a residence card; Pagaqui asks for nothing (May 2026).
Since 7 February 2025, Segurança Social contributions can be paid by ordinary transfer: when you generate the payment document, the system creates a one-off virtual IBAN for it. You find it in your Segurança Social Direta account: Conta Corrente → Pagamentos à Segurança Social → Consultar valores a pagar e emitir documentos de pagamento. Direct debit of contributions from a digital bank card, on the other hand, has failed: in November 2024 a person with a Nickel card had no money taken, but late-payment interest built up, and the portal would no longer let them set up the direct debit again.
Paying on government portals is a separate story: the fee for an application there has to be paid with a Portuguese card, and in the chats this is put briefly and with no alternatives (May 2026). The workaround is the same: generate the payment document and take it to Payshop or Pagaqui in cash — or ask someone who has a Portuguese card to pay: the payment is tied to the referência number, not to the account holder.
“The Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (AT) reminds us of this in its email newsletter. Besides the standard methods within the European SEPA payment system, it is also possible to make a payment via SWIFT. To do this you need to provide a letter issued by your bank confirming that you own the account. It can be sent to the email address [email] or through the online portal, choosing the following type of request.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes21.05.2026
“Always with a Portuguese card - of course. Like any payment through the portal. Referencia + amount Or at a Payshop point - or ask someone”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkHigherEducationPortugal29.05.2026
MB Way: transfers by phone number and withdrawals without a card
MB Way is an app on top of the same Multibanco network. In it your phone number is linked to your card, and from then on money is transferred by phone number, without bank details, in seconds. You also use it to pay in shops by QR code, pay bills by reference, create a virtual card for online shopping and withdraw cash without a card: the app gives you a code, and you type the code into a cash machine.
The limits for withdrawals by MB Way code are set out on the service’s website: in the Multibanco network — in multiples of ten, no more than €200 per transaction and €400 a day per card; in the ATM Express network — up to €500 per transaction and up to €1,000 a day. Together that is no more than €1,400 a day.
Transfer limits were raised in February 2025: up to €2,000 per transfer, and for incoming transfers €5,000 a month and no more than fifty transfers. But a bank is entitled to set its own, stricter limits: ActivoBank, for example, has its own monthly cap on outgoing transfers. It is worth checking your own limit in your bank’s app rather than finding out about it at the till.
An important point about responsibility: MB Way is made by a third-party company, but under Banco de Portugal rules it is still your bank — the one whose card is linked — that is responsible for the transaction being correct. So if money is taken wrongly, you go to your own bank, not to the app’s support.
“MB Way has raised transfer limits Good news for MB Way users — the system has significantly raised its transfer limits. You can now send up to 2000 euros per transaction instead of the previous 750 euros. A new monthly limit on incoming transfers has also been set — 5000 euros with a maximum of 50 transactions. Meanwhile the old limit of 2500 euros on the total of outgoing and incoming transfers per month is no longer mentioned on the MB Way website. There’s a catch: limits may vary depending on the bank.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkportugal_and_me06.02.2025
“don’t know about the new ones, but in July 2025 this cash machine / multibanco / ATM Express gave out 1000 euros (5 times 200 euros in a row) with codes from MB Way (from a caixa account) [link]”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal30.03.2026
Scammers live there too: texts with a reference and “give me back my transfer”
Since bills are paid by numbers and money is sent by phone number, this is exactly what scammers exploit. Two schemes come up all the time.
The first is a message about an urgent debt. A text arrives, supposedly from the energy company, the health ministry or the tax office: pay off your debt urgently or we will cut you off, with MB Way details or an entidade and referência pair alongside. The sender’s name in a text can easily be faked, so such a message can land in the same thread as the genuine ones. There is only one check: log in to the supplier’s online account or your bank’s app and see whether there is a charge there. A good sign of a fake is a message from a company whose services you do not use, or from one you already pay by direct debit.
The second is someone else’s money in your account. A stranger sends you a hundred or three hundred euros through MB Way, and a few minutes later the calls and messages start: give it back, it was a mistake. You must not send it back to the phone number given: the number can be relinked to another account in two minutes, and the money will go not to where it came from, and the transaction itself will later turn out to be part of someone else’s scheme. The right thing is not to reply, to tell your bank straight away and to report it to the police, and to return the money only to the IBAN the transfer came from, and only once you have a statement showing that number.
“On the subject of scams - yesterday I got a text from EDP saying urgently pay off your debt or we’ll cut off your electricity in an hour, and mbway details, the only problem is that I have debito direto and Galp...)”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal16.03.2026
“they’re crooks, a hundred per cent. you can put any number or sender name you like when sending, if you’ve got the equipment. even if it’s not mbway but referencia and entidade, it’s still a scam”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal16.03.2026
A Portuguese IBAN: why people ask for it and when they cannot insist on it
A Portuguese account number starts with PT50. People ask for it everywhere: your employer — to pay your salary, Segurança Social — to pay benefits, the tax office — to refund an IRS overpayment, electricity and internet suppliers — to set up a direct debit, the insurer — to take the premium.
As a general rule, though, nobody may insist on an account specifically at a Portuguese bank. European Regulation 260/2012 has Article 9, “Acessibilidade para pagamento”: neither the payer nor the payee may specify which EU country the account must be in, as long as ordinary euro transfers and direct debits go through it. So employers and utility companies must accept a German or Lithuanian IBAN just as they accept a Portuguese one. In Portugal, Banco de Portugal oversees this rule — that is where to complain if an account from another EU country is refused.
But there are places where the rule does not help, and it is worth knowing them in advance. It does not cover MB Way: that needs a card from a Portuguese bank or a bank with a Portuguese IBAN. It does not cover terminals that accept only Multibanco. And it does not cover AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo, the migration agency): there they ask not for “an account in Portugal” but for means of subsistence, and different offices understand differently what to show.
Another reason to have a PT50 account specifically is tax reporting. An account with a Portuguese number does not have to be declared separately in your IRS return, but a foreign one (for example, an old Lithuanian Revolut account) does, even if it has nothing in it.
What people do when a foreign IBAN is refused. First, they show the European Commission’s page on IBAN discrimination and Banco de Portugal’s page on the same thing: in the chats people write that this is usually enough, and if the payment form simply will not accept a foreign IBAN, they complain to the regulator. There is also the European form at acceptmyiban.org. But it would be dishonest to promise that a complaint will work: not a single case of a supplier changing its mind after one turned up in the chats. So in real life people find other ways — they pay manually by bank transfer or a quarter in advance, or put the direct debit on a friend’s account and give them cash.
“💳📄 Revolut, prizes and ‘perks’: new traps have appeared in IRS‑2026 Filing of the IRS return (for 2025 income) starts on 1 April. There are few changes, but they are exactly where it’s easiest to make a mistake. Anything that isn’t a Portuguese bank, non-standard income and bonuses — now under close scrutiny. • If your IBAN starts with PT50 — that’s already a Portuguese licence. You don’t need to declare such a card in IRS. • If you have an old Lithuanian IBAN — the account is foreign. It must be entered in the annex, even if there’s nothing in it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkportugalpages01.04.2026
“Although there’s another catch - not everywhere (notaries and other government bodies, AIMA) accepts my Revolut debit card. But maybe that’s because I originally got it when it was an LT iban”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkru_Portugal_pt23.07.2026
“No, that’s the third way, I haven’t paid segurança like that. If you open a payment document on the segurança website, it shows several options, including iban, a referencia for multibanco (that’s the one you opened) and separately MB Way. There you need to enter your phone number registered with MB Way and then a request immediately comes into the Revolut app saying ‘someone wants XXX money from you’ and an ‘accept’ button.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal12.11.2025
“Usually a link to here is enough [link] or else a complaint to the Portuguese central bank (if foreign IBANs aren’t available in the payment form then the very best option is - [link]”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal27.09.2024
“We had médis the first year here, to pay for it we opened nickel as the only possible Portuguese bank option at the time) You can arrange with one of your friends or acquaintances, ask them to give their iban for debito direto, and pay them in cash, that’s exactly what the insurers recommended to us when we had no account) Or yes, email the insurer, ask for the bank details and pay several months in advance by transfer (I think there was a quarterly option), pay through the bank/papelaria”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto29.06.2026
Transfers: ten seconds, round the clock and a check on the recipient’s name
A euro transfer within Europe is now instant, and that is not a courtesy from the bank but an obligation. Under Regulation 2024/886, eurozone banks have had to receive instant transfers since 9 January 2025 and send them since 9 October 2025. The rules are strict: the money must reach the recipient’s account within ten seconds, round the clock, at weekends and on public holidays; if confirmation does not arrive within ten seconds, the sender’s bank must immediately return the amount to the account; and an instant transfer may not cost more than an ordinary one.
The same rules brought in the recipient name check that you now see before confirming a transfer. The bank compares the name you entered with the IBAN holder and warns you if they do not match. By law the service is free. If the bank does the check wrongly and money goes to the wrong person because of it, getting it back is the bank’s problem.
A useful detail from the same rules: if you ask, the bank must let you set your own cap on instant transfers — per day or per transaction — and change it whenever you like. For anyone afraid their phone might fall into the wrong hands, this takes one minute in the app.
“⚡️ Instant transfers in the EU have become a reality Since 9 October all eurozone banks have been required to transfer money between accounts in under 10 seconds — round the clock and with no days off. This has become the biggest update to the European financial system.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkportugalpages14.10.2025
What it costs just to keep an account — and how to bring that fee down to zero
In Portugal you pay not for transactions but for the account itself: a comissão de manutenção de conta is taken every month or quarter, even if you have not used the account and it has nothing in it. The bank sets the amount itself, and the range is wide: at the big banks it is roughly five to ten euros a month.
The fee almost always comes in tiers, and that is the main thing to know. At Millennium BCP an account costs €8 a month if nothing is paid into it; €6 if a salary of €750 or more or a pension goes into it (or €7,500 sits in it); and €5 if both conditions are met. Other banks have their own terms, but the logic is the same: have your salary paid into the account and set up a few direct debits — and the fee drops, sometimes to zero. The terms are in the contract and in the preçário on the bank’s website; you can also ask at the branch to have them recalculated when, for example, you have started a job.
The second route is a bank that charges nothing for keeping the account at all. There are some: ActivoBank and Moey!, and also Banco Best and Banco BIG — those two have no monthly fee but do have an annual card fee, €20 and €15 respectively.
You do not need to compare all this on the banks’ websites: Banco de Portugal has a comparador de comissões — a table of all the country’s banks’ fees for the same services. The preçários are there too. It is the only way to see the real price of an account, not the one in the advert for a package.
“At Millennium there’s no fee for the card itself. There’s a fee for the account. If you don’t get a salary under an employment contract of 750€+ or a pension paid into it (or you can deposit 7500€), the fee is 8 euros a month. Otherwise, if it’s one of the things mentioned, it’s 6€ a month.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal03.07.2025
“If you get your salary paid into this account and set up a certain number of débito direto debits, the fee can come down and even drop to zero. Check the terms in the contract.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal20.01.2026
What a bank is not allowed to charge for
A bank may charge a fee only if it is written into your contract. Beyond that, the law expressly forbids several things, and these are exactly the cases worth arguing about.
Closing an account is free for an ordinary person and for a micro-enterprise — no fee may be charged for it at all. No money may be charged for copies of your documents or for a repeat account statement. No charge may be made for changing the account holder when the reason is divorce, the death of a spouse or a child coming of age. Some fees have a ceiling: for paying in coins — no more than 2% of the amount paid in; for handling an inheritance on a deceased person’s account — no more than 10% of the IAS (indexante dos apoios sociais, the index to which social benefits are linked), that is, €53.71 in 2026. A transfer to an e-money account may not cost more than an ordinary transfer.
A separate matter is the conta de serviços mínimos bancários, the basic bank account. It costs no more than 1% of the IAS a year, that is, €5.37 in 2026, and includes a card, the app and transfers. There is one condition: you must not have another current account. Banks do not like this account and try to open an ordinary one instead — this is covered in detail, along with refusals and complaints, in the guide on opening an account.
If the bank has taken too much, the money is refunded. The regulator checks charges, and for 2025 banks refunded customers €8.91 million: 8.24 million in fees taken unlawfully and 670 thousand in interest charged wrongly. Refunds go not only to those who complained but to all customers in the same situation.
“Besides Activobank, Banco Best and Banco BIG also have free account maintenance. But they have an annual card fee (20 and 15 euros a year respectively, at Banco Best only from the second year). At this central bank link there are all the current charges for the main services of every bank in Portugal: [link] You can choose a combination like the one in the screenshot, for example, that will be the cheapest account (not counting the basic one) and the cheapest card (the middle column has the name of the tariff for the account\card).”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal28.12.2025
“It’s not about the number of accounts, it’s about the conta de serviços mínimos, which has no maintenance fee. But only people who have no other accounts in European banks can open one.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto23.03.2025
“🏦💸 Banks in Portugal ordered to refund customers €8.91m for unlawful charges — fees, interest and hidden payments Banco de Portugal (BdP) has published a report for 2025: financial institutions were unlawfully taking money from customers’ accounts. The regulator made them return almost €9m. 📊 What the refund (€8.91m) was made up of: €8.24m — fees taken unlawfully €670k.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkportugalpages13.05.2026
Deposit guarantee: €100,000, but per person and per bank, not per account
If a bank cannot pay its depositors, the Fundo de Garantia de Depósitos — the deposit guarantee fund — pays for it. The limit is €100,000, and it is counted per depositor per bank, whether or not the person lives in Portugal. Two accounts at the same bank are added together, and there is still only one ceiling. On a joint account, however, the shares are treated as equal and the limit applies to each holder: from a two-person account with a balance of 300 thousand, two hundred is protected; with three people, all three hundred.
The guarantee covers money in current accounts and deposits, together with accrued interest. The payout deadlines are set by law: up to €10,000 within seven working days, the rest up to 100,000 within fifteen working days; in exceptional cases the fund may ask Banco de Portugal for another ten working days. Before you open an account, the bank must give you a formulário de informação ao depositante to sign — a form stating which fund is responsible for your money and up to what amount; after that it must repeat this on your statement and send it to you at least once a year.
Then there are two exceptions that confuse people. First: if the bank is a branch of a bank from another EU country, the fund of the country where it is registered pays. Revolut operates in Portugal as a branch of the Lithuanian Revolut Bank UAB, so the Lithuanian fund is responsible — also for €100,000, but if anything happens you will have to deal with Lithuania. Second: the guarantee is about deposits, not any money in an app. Money in e-money accounts and money invested in funds is not covered. At Trade Republic, for example, part of the balance sits in partner banks and is protected by their guarantee, while part automatically goes into a money market fund, where there is no deposit guarantee and there is market risk. This is written in its own terms, and it is not small print for the sake of nitpicking: the promised interest rate depends on exactly that part of the balance.
“The deposit guarantee fund (Fundo de Garantia de Depósitos) guarantees repayment of each depositor’s entire cash balance at each credit institution up to 100,000 euros. I’ll note separately that for a joint account the hundred-thousand limit applies to each titular, that is, from a joint account for two with a balance of 300 thousand you’ll be able to save two hundred, and for three – all three hundred.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal30.08.2024
Who supervises banks and where to complain about them
Banks, payment institutions and everything to do with accounts, cards, transfers and loans are supervised by Banco de Portugal. Insurance is not its area: that is handled by the ASF (Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões). Investments and brokerage services — by the CMVM (Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários). This matters in practice: if you were sold insurance in your bank’s app or lost money in an investment account, a complaint to Banco de Portugal will go to the wrong place.
There are two ways to complain about a bank, and you can use both. The first is the livro de reclamações, the complaints book: a paper one at the branch and an online one at livroreclamacoes.pt. The second is directly to Banco de Portugal, through the Portal do Cliente Bancário; you can also follow the status of your complaint there. Both are free, and the bank replies within 15 working days.
It is also worth knowing in advance what a complaint does not get you. The regulator checks whether the bank behaved correctly and can make it return what it took unlawfully, but it does not award damages and does not make the bank open an account for you. For money, you go to court or to out-of-court dispute resolution. Before complaining, it helps to gather a few simple things: a statement showing the charge, a copy of the contract and the preçário from the bank’s website for the date in question.
“Same thing happened to me at Santander. (I have a residence permit). I wrote about them in the complaints book (the portal), they sent a reply along the lines of - we have the right not to open it. So these complaints don’t really work. At Caixa it was also a pile of documents, I spent a pile of money on certified translations, in the end when there was nothing left to ask me for and I’d provided everything, they started digging into where my husband’s money came from many years ago. Anyway, it dragged on for ages and I just got fed up. At Novobanco they opened an account, sent a card, but didn’t activate the account. They said, we don’t want you as our customer. And yet they took the deposit.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal08.07.2026
Ordinary banks and digital ones: where they are handier and where they will not be accepted
Digital banks in Portugal are no longer a fallback. Since October 2025 Revolut has been issuing Portuguese IBANs and is connected to MB Way: transfers by phone number, QR code payments, withdrawals by code and payments by reference all work. Legally it is a branch of a Lithuanian bank, entered in the Banco de Portugal register under number 3560. Since July 2026 Trade Republic has also offered a Portuguese IBAN and charges nothing for keeping the account.
Wise and N26 work differently. Wise is not a bank but a payment institution with a Belgian licence, operating in Portugal under European law: its transfers and currency exchange are cheap, but there is no deposit guarantee on that money. N26 is a German bank with a German IBAN and the German guarantee.
Where digital accounts stumble. A terminal that accepts only Multibanco will not take a Visa or Mastercard — such terminals are found in small businesses and government offices, and the same goes for ordinary Portuguese credit cards. Portuguese Revolut has no credit cards, while car hire firms want a credit card specifically for the deposit and often refuse digital bank cards. A digital bank’s debit card is sometimes not accepted at a notary or in government offices. In the chats this is often put more strongly than it really is: MB Way itself has worked at Revolut since autumn 2025, and what does not work is specifically the plastic card where a terminal accepts only Multibanco. Checks on the source of funds at digital banks are stricter and come out of the blue: people describe how, after being moved to a Portuguese IBAN, a full document check landed straight away, and incoming MB Way transfers were queued for approval.
Hence the simple conclusion most people reach: keep two accounts. An ordinary Portuguese one — for your salary, rent, utility bills, taxes and anything where you need a person at a branch. A digital one — for travel, currency exchange and quick transfers. Then a blocked card or a drawn-out check in one place does not leave you without money everywhere at once.
“Portugal has its own payment system (like visa/mastercard) — multibanco. Revolut in practice can’t do it, even though it promised to. Payment terminals in shops (and especially government offices) may only support that. Credit cards, which car hire places take. Portuguese Revolut doesn’t have credit cards yet, and hire firms explicitly refuse to take a deposit from neobanks. Physical banks are usually much less jumpy about AML, Revolut is hysterical. For someone on a red passport it’s better to open everything you can, just in case.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal12.08.2026
“Revolut really does issue Portuguese IBANs now and they’ve got MBWay too now, so there’s less and less point in the very slow local banks”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal29.10.2025
“today Revolut moved me to a PT IBAN, all the mb way features and payment by referencia appeared. The old LT IBAN is still available too”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal16.10.2025
What it costs, according to community conversations
| Millennium BCP account, per month | €8 with nothing paid in, €6 with a salary of €750 or more or a pension, €5 with both | source |
| Novo Banco account, per month | about €10 | source |
| card at Banco Best and Banco BIG, per year | €20 and €15, with free account maintenance | source |
| cash withdrawal at a Euronet machine | about €5 per transaction, up to €2,000 at a time | source |
| withdrawal with a Portuguese card abroad | €2.80 in Spain, €2.50 in Cyprus | source |
Where people most often trip up
- The account fee is taken even if you have not used the account and it has nothing in it: it is for having the account, not for transactions.
- A bank may charge a fee only if it is written into the contract. A new line on your statement — ask to be shown where it is written, and for the preçário on the date of the charge.
- The deposit guarantee is counted per person and per bank, not per account: two of your accounts at the same bank are added together and share one ceiling — €100,000.
- For a branch of a bank from another EU country, the fund of its home country is responsible: for Revolut that is the Lithuanian fund, not the Portuguese one.
- Money in e-money accounts and money invested in funds is not a deposit: the 100,000-euro guarantee does not cover it. Check exactly what you have been given, especially if interest on the balance is promised.
- A reference does not last long — usually about 48 hours. Missed it — generate a new one in your online account; the old payment will not go through.
- An MB Way transfer is instant and cannot be reversed. Check the recipient’s phone number before sending, not after.
- Someone else’s money that arrives “by mistake” is returned only to the IBAN it came from, and after talking to your bank. A phone number can be relinked to another account in a couple of minutes.
- A text about an urgent debt with MB Way details or an entidade and referência is almost always fake: any sender name can be put in a text. Check for the charge in your online account.
- A terminal that accepts only Multibanco will not take a digital bank card. In small cafés and government offices, have cash or a Portuguese bank card.
- Direct debit is cancelled with the service provider, not at the bank. If you cancel a card and forget about the débito direto, the bill will not be paid and late-payment interest will follow.
- “Charge in your currency” at a cash machine or terminal is always a bad deal. Pay and withdraw in euros.
- Under the European rule, nobody may insist on an account specifically at a Portuguese bank for your salary, rent or insurance. But this has nothing to do with AIMA: there they ask for means of subsistence, not which country the account is in.
How it went for people
Fifteen euros sent to the wrong number
A stallholder at a market dictated her phone number for an MB Way transfer with a mistake in it. An unfamiliar foreign name came up in the app; the customer asked whether that was definitely the right number, was told “yes, yes, that’s it”, and sent €15 to a stranger. The app shows the recipient’s name before sending — and that is the only check there is.
A hundred euros from a stranger, followed by a demand to give it back
€100 from an unknown sender arrived in an account through MB Way. The woman only noticed the transfer a week later, and in those same days she started getting messages and calls from unknown numbers. The scheme is well known: the person is asked to return the money to a different account, which the callers name themselves. She blocked the numbers and went to the bank to sort it out, so that they knew about the transfer and cancelled it.
Three hundred euros, threats and a refund only to the same IBAN
On a Saturday evening someone transferred €300 to a person, and ten minutes later calls and threatening messages began: give it back, the money isn’t yours. He went to the police to report it; a call came in right in front of the officer, who spoke to the callers and told him not to answer any more. He did return the money, but only after he had got a statement with the sender’s account number, and only to that IBAN: through MB Way a phone number can be relinked to another account in a couple of minutes, and a “refund” by number would have gone to the scammers.
A wrong reference on a water bill
The water company in Porto sent a bill with the referência number printed wrongly. The bank would not accept the payment and kept sending error messages, and the person got worried. In the company’s chat they replied calmly: we know we sent the wrong number, and were waiting for you to ask for the right one. They gave a new one — and the payment went through.
A Portuguese IBAN, followed by a full document check
A digital bank customer was moved to a Portuguese IBAN, and a few days later a letter arrived about a full document check with a two-week deadline. Then a top-up by transfer from his own account at another bank was rejected, and in the support chat a bot said it had been decided to close the account; a real employee said it was a mistake — but the next day an official letter about the closure arrived. An expensive plan does not save you from a check.
A reference for exchanging a driving licence only works after a day
A person applied to exchange their driving licence through the website of the IMT road authority. The payment number appeared straight away, but the cash machine would not accept it: it could only be paid a day after the application, and the new licence arrived by post about a month later. It cost €27.
Retold in our own words from messages in open chats. The link leads to the full original message.