Banking Facilities for UK to Italy

[Richtea]

A little bit of information sharing for our regular viewers:

New service to help take the sting out of owning property abroad

The web address above highlights a new online banking service offered to residents of the UK & Ireland (amongst other nations not US I'm afraid) for them to pay bills direct to Italy. Charges are 1.7% and can be actioned online rather than going into a bank or branch. It's offered by Ivobank. Might be useful if like me, it's a laborious task to get money converted into euro's and sent over or you need to get money over quick in the relevant currency. There are no transfer fees just an exchange rate.

Rich

[brynithel3]

Hi Richard

Thanks for that information. It should make it easier and cheaper to pay utility bills etc.

Some people are paying 150 + euros a year for this service. Annual transfers amounting to a thousand pounds would only cost £17. (1.7%) a considerable saving and being able to control it from your own desktop computer.

I haven't recieved my first utility bill, but do the bills give sufficient information to transfer funds? Secondly can you have these bills sent directly to the UK?

Ciao

John

[ENGJMAX]

Hi Guys
I was over last week and had our annual bill paying session at the Post Office. We have never found it worth our while to set up any regular bill paying system apart from the Enel electric bill which we pay by direct debit from our BNL account, we have a standard Non Resident 3.3kw supply
(15amps approx) The bill for Jan/Feb standing charge was 13.02 euro.

All our other bills we just pay at the post office at some time when we are over, as long as they are paid sometime within the year no one seems to worry.
To give you some idea of our costs for 2008/9
Our ICI bill to the comune was 161 euro same as last year
The bills included 51.33 for waste water for the year
rubbish collection was 64.84 for the year and we have submitted a water meter reading of 14 units for the year so I doubt that bill will be too much.

Whilst over I also paid my condominium fees, this was 334.13 down from last year when some refurbishment works were carried out. This bill is a very detailed break down of the cost to every apartment in my block with details of owner, size, who has paid what? and money`s still owing. The site is a complex very near the spar shop, we have no pool but do have a full time caretaker, and two ladies who clean the communal areas once a week.

The site has a meeting every year in August to which I always receive a written invitation, if I wish I can send a someone to act on my behalf.

Regards

John

[brynithel3]

Hi John

Thanks for that detailed breakdown. I have heard of some horrendous stories of people being late with payment of electric bills and having to pay a supplement on top of the bill and going through the process of having to have their electric reconnected, which on some occasions took several weeks to resolve.

I didn't realise that you could set up direct debit payments from your Italian bank account. I had always read on, this or perhaps another forum that this was not possible. If you can pay ENL by this method , why not ICI? It doesn't seem logical. You would expect local government to be more amenable to this sort of thing.

It sounds as though your complex is well establish and well run. I can only hope that ours will evolve into a similar system. The standing charge for the year will be about 78 euros for 3.3 Kw. It seems a little high but I suppose we stranieri will have to pay a little extra.

BNP's monthly charges can be a little high, thats why we closed our account, especially as we thought there was no chance of paying any bills by direct debit.

This new service might be the answer to my problems.

I wonder if we would be able to pay Italian bills from our Briish account( without any excessive charges) if we joined the euro. Could one do that from Eire?

Not that I want to get ourselves embroiled with the euro, far from it. The Brussels dictatorship is too remote and too corrupt for me.

Ciao

John

[Richtea]

To John,

I am one of those people who pay for the services (150 euros) of bill paying through an agency in Scalea (yes! that one!) and to be fair they are excellent and I've never had any problems through late payments or confusion. Well worth the money considering it costs between 7.50 and 15 euros per month for an Italian bank account. The bank service mentioned above will be ideal for me to actually send money to the agency direct and I expect it will be a godsend for our guys out there dealing with local companies/tradesmen for renovations etc. Second point, and it might defeat the object however, I am assured some items cannot be paid through an Italian bank account (local tax for instance).

Not sure on your bills question, might need to explore the parameters a bit of having an account although you can (as you can in the UK) state reference numbers when paying a bill to an Italian account. Now....whether the individual or company is able to translate the fact they've received money from you.....that's another question!

R

[ENGJMAX]

hi John

I think we probably could set up a debit, but as the bills come with a paying in slip for Banco Posta its not worth it, I just walked down to the Post Office on Sat morning, got a ticket, went to the desk, and paid the bills with cash, took me less than 15mins, and its only once a year. I saw the same person as I did last year and they remembered me, I came away very happy.

another life in Scalea experience! everybody seemed to know everybody, even me!!
I met a guy that had shown me round several properties 4 years ago.

regards

John