Italy goes BOOM!

For Italian politics it looks like it will be the continuation of an interesting battle with the EU, games with the world financial markets and internal cat fighting between the various factions. 

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

If you have been following the news recently you will have seen recent wobbles in global stock markets.  A wobble in the best sense because they fell, rose, fell again and seem to have stabilized for the moment.  The main issue driving this volatility is the threat of inflation.  

IF IN DOUBT, DECLARE THE ACCOUNT

The start of 2018 presents an interesting challenge that I am not used to.  My quandary reminds me of my days at the school swimming pool. The water was always cold. The question was do I jump in and get it over with in one go or do I ease myself into the water gently and take it slower?

Bad Banks

If you are not already aware Banca Popolare di Vicenza missed its target to raise cash through a share sale recently and missed by a very long way indeed. 

Working with the right partners.....

At The Spectrum IFA group we put a lot of effort into making sure that we work with the right collaborative companies.  That means FX currency exchange firms(our preferred is Currencies Direct), accountants for expats in Italy (Studio Del Gaizo Picchioni), lawyers for expats in Italy (Studio Legale Internazionale Gaglione) and asset managers.

Our preferred asset managers are Rathbones UK and Tilney Best Invest.  They manage the majority of our clients money and they do a great job.  Our mandate for them, on behalf of our clients, is quite simple.  'Caution: Safety first, returns second'.

It is on that note that we like to see when they are making the right decisions to better their businesses and it is on that note that we are proud to announce that Tilney Best Invest are acquiring Ingenious Asset Management, a London based discretionary investment manager with over £1.8 billion worth of assets under management.

On completion Tilney Best Invest will be responsible for £11.2 billion worth of assets.

Size is important in this day and age.  It means security. We want to know that the firms that we partner with are secure for our clients and that they have a philosophy that closely matches ours.  To that end they must work within our strict rules regarding How we work at The Spectrum IFA Group.  (click to learn more). 

If you are not getting the best from your investments in these volatile markets then get in touch on gareth.horsfall@spectrum-ifa.com or call me on +39 3336492356

Withdrawal of UK personal tax allowance for NON UK residents.

I have been reading a lot recently regarding a proposal by the British government to remove the UK personal income tax allowance (£10000) for non UK resident landlords. 

Plug the leak: Those expensive bank accounts.

During the course of my many conversations, one particular issue comes up all too frequently and which I thought I just have to write about. It is something which has been on my radar for some time now. Now the time has come.

What am I talking about?
I am referring to basic bank accounts that expats use in Italy, those bank accounts which were probably set up when you first moved to Italy, either because the person who you were buying a house from suggested you open an account at the same branch to make life easier, or you were referred to the local branch because most people used it, or someone knew someone who could open you an account when you may not have even been a resident at the time. I am sure these reasons may sound familiar to some of you.

But unfortunately, you are more than likely being charged an extremely high amount of bank charges for little to no service.

Monte Pashi di Siena.  

nte Paschi di Siena keeps coming up as the worst culprit, by a long stretch, but yet, seemingly used most frequently by the expats I meet. The person I met last week was paying 34 euros a quarter for the bank account and then on 210 euro transfers to another Italian bank account (a simple bonifico) a commission of 4.50 eur. (2% commission PHEW!). 

I did not even get to see what they were paying for exchange rate conversions (the mind boggles) or transaction fees for taking money from the hole in the wall and other services.

I estimated the costs could be as high as 800 Eur a year.

But it is simply daylight robbery and too many of you could be getting ripped off (I have no better words for it I am afraid) because you think that 'it is just not worth the hassle  of changing' or 'they are all alike' or 'banking back home is much better'.

However, this is no longer the case. Italian banks have really started to compete for business in the last few years and there are options available.  If you are happy with internet banking, then even better.

I personally use 2 banks (personal and business). My personal account is Fineco. (who? I hear you say.). Fineco! (part of the Unicredit group). I am VERY satisifed with the service they offer. It is an exceptionally well operated online bank and even won the Global Finance Award for Best bank in Italy in 2013. It is 100% online. Now, I imagine that you might be thinking, online - Italy - errr, not sure, I need to keep an account where I can talk with someone if things go wrong. (My wife refuses to use the bank on that basis and she is Italian.  She is slowly being brought around to my thinking). But, for basic banking it operates very smoothly.   And I have emailed them many times and got reponses within 24 hours.

And the best part is, at the time of writing:

ZERO canone. In other words no monthly, quarterly, or annual charges just for having an account.
FREE withdrawals from ANY cash machine in the whole of Italy.
FREE credit card cash withdrawals from any Unicredit machines in Italy (and there are many).
ZERO cost bank transfers in Italy.

My other bank for the business is Banca Popolare del Commercio e dell'Industria. This does not mean much, but it is part of the larger UBI banca group network. 

 
I chose this account at a branch as it is business account and I need to speak with my bank Director from time to time, but otherwise I operate everything online.

I pay only 5 EUR a month for this account and 0.50 Eur to make bank transfers. I can also withdraw cash from the UBI Banca group bancomats for FREE. The account, in general, is more expensive than the Fineco account but it is a business account and it has to be expected.

However, there are other personal account options with similar cost structures to Fineco, such as Ingdirect, Webank, Chebanca or Hellobank.

A good comparison website is www.confrontaconti.it

My simple message is to pay some attention to your bank account in Italy if you have not done so for some time.  It is not difficult to change or use accounts, as in the past.  With basic Italian you can do it without problem.

You could be making huge savings just through changing bank accounts. They are as easy to operate as online bank accounts abroad and , if in this persons case, a saving of 800Eur a year can be made then I would think it is definitely worth it.  Any savings made can compensate for the increased taxes in recent years! 

Take some time and  have a look at your old bank statements to see what charges you are paying and compare this on the web link above to find out how much you 'could' be paying. 

If you would like to know more about this or any other financial planning issues regarding living in Italy as an expat then feel to contact me on gareth.horsfall@spectrum-ifa.com or on cell 3336492356