Please feel free to view our Forum, but you must either LOGIN or REGISTER to join in the conversation.
Anyone has experience in Millenium BCP Bank that if it is easy to downgrade to a regular account from Prestige Bank Account? Since bordr.io can only open Prestige Bank Account last year, just wanted to stop paying that 15.60 every month. Please share your view or recommend your favorite bank...Thank you.
I have prestige and only pay 5 euro a month. The amount depends on how much you have in the account, if you pay in a monthly income, have credit card etc.
https://ind.millenniumbcp.pt/en/Prestige/solutions/Pages/programa_prestige.aspx
@blaze451 Thank you for the reply, actually mine was just the amount to match D7 requirement, nothing more, and I don't have any cards, they charged me 5.20 for Q4 last year, then this year started with 15.60.
@zen Exact same thing happened to our account. When I inquired with our "acct. mgr." he just sent the policy line that says...to pay the previous lower rate we need to have minimum in acct. of €50k. Someone made a fee policy change at the turn of the new year it seems. When we finally land in PT, we'll do more research on a solution. Felt like a bait and switch, right?
@alleycat it has been those fees for some time. (see my previous link to fee table structure 3 posts up) They assume when you open a prestige account you will be meeting the required amounts so initially charge you the lower rate. Once it becomes obvious you are not meeting the requirements for the lower fee they then start to charge the higher fee. I was also the same a year ago, started low, got upped to higher amount due to insufficient funds, then when I increased the amount I held in account and also started sending a monthly income it dropped back down to the 5 euro fee again.
@blaze451 Thank you. So I just went to the nearest branch yesterday, waiting around a hour before office closing. It was quite quick, they called my account manager and I wrote an confirmation note to be approved, then after 10 days I can go back to the branch and start with normal account.
We downgraded, but the process was painful with many hours in the bank going through many many forms (I haven't practiced my signature so much since I was a teenager). We also couldn't have two cards anymore, which for us wasn't an issue as my wife tends to hold the purse strings. We also needed to come back a few weeks later to return the card... It was all possible and not an issue but lost valuable moments in my life in the process 😉
@genki Thank you for the reply. I was thinking it could be as complicated as opening it...So is any bank office ok or have to be in the one which the account was opened?
I recently figured out an additional advantage to having the Prestige account. When my wallet was lost and I needed to replace my debit card I realized that we had been going to the wrong branch for everything as it is for non-prestige members.
The prestige branch is just one block down and I was confused that the door was never open. You just have to press the bell and they will let you in. Saved me some time and if I had known over the past year plus would have saved me several hours if not an entire day.
Sticking with the prestige account for now.
@jonesdn2020 Nice to know, the branch manager just emailed me after the post, I guess my account was not active and I just topped up 500, that's why the bank contacted me to top up more...
I am not a fan of the Portuguese banks at all.
They are all bad in their own way with high fees either for account maintenance or other operations. The two best (where you will get your pants pulled down least) are Activo and Caixa Geral. However, still expect some fleecing. It is the way.
I am got annoyed with ActivoBank asking me too many questions about my entire life when i just wanted to change my address, so I recently moved away from Portuguese banks entirely. Many people told me it could not be done, or it was hard, but I set up all my Portuguese direct debits using Modulr and N26, without issues. Neither account charges me anything at all.
I wash my hands of the Portuguese banking system and it's high fees / slow service solutions. More people should do the same and vote with their feet. Perhaps then, the banking cartel here would wither and die.
If you must have a Portuguese account, then why not consider closing your existing bank account and moving to Caixa Geral or Activo? With Activo, you will have the same branch access (they are part of Millennium) without the account fees. Just be careful to check their charges for banking operations. They charge for things like receiving a wire, that most banks do not.
