This article on opening a bank account in Portugal covers what you need, which banks work for foreigners, why digital banks do not fully replace a Portuguese account, and how Multibanco and MB Way work.

Start this early. It takes longer than most new arrivals expect, and almost everything else waits on it.

Why you need a Portuguese account

You can live in Portugal with a foreign or digital bank account for a while. You cannot do these things without a Portuguese IBAN:

Sign most long-term rental contracts, because landlords require direct debit from a Portuguese account
Set up utilities in your name, since electricity, water and gas providers require a Portuguese IBAN for direct debit
Take a Portuguese mortgage, because the lender requires an account with them
Receive a Portuguese salary
Use MB Way, the domestic mobile payment system
Pay tax and social security by direct debit

Some of these have workarounds. Most do not, and the workarounds add friction to things you will do every month.

What you need to open one

Requirements are consistent across the major banks.

NIF. Non-negotiable. Get it first.
Passport or national ID card. Original, not a copy.
Proof of address. A recent utility bill, bank statement or rental contract. It can be a foreign address if you have not moved yet.
Proof of income or employment. An employment contract, recent payslips, a pension statement, or tax returns for the self-employed.
Portuguese phone number. Required by most banks for security codes and increasingly for MB Way activation.
Tax residency declaration. Under CRS reporting rules you declare where you are tax resident. Be accurate, because banks report this to tax authorities.

US citizens face an additional step. Under FATCA, banks must report accounts held by US persons to the IRS, and the compliance burden leads some Portuguese banks to decline US clients or to restrict which products they offer. This is not personal and it is not universal. Ask before you invest time in an application, and expect to try more than one bank.

Which bank

The main options for foreigners:

Millennium BCP. The largest private bank. Good English-language service in the cities and an established process for non-resident clients. Widely used by foreign buyers.

Novo Banco. Reasonable English support, competitive mortgage terms, and comfortable with non-resident applications.

Santander Portugal. Useful if you already bank with Santander elsewhere, though the accounts are not linked in the way people expect.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos. State-owned, the largest branch network in the country, and often the only bank in a small town. English support is thinner and the process is more traditional.

ActivoBank. Part of Millennium BCP, digital-first, and one of the few Portuguese banks with no monthly maintenance fee on its standard account. Worth considering if you do not need branch service.

Branches operate with a degree of independence. The same bank can quote different conditions and show a different appetite for foreign clients depending on which branch you walk into. If one branch is unhelpful, try another before writing off the bank.

What it costs

Portuguese current accounts carry a monthly maintenance fee, typically €5 to €15. This surprises people arriving from countries where current accounts are free.

The fee is often reduced or waived if you hold other products with the bank, direct your salary there, or maintain a minimum balance. Ask what the conditions are, because the advertised fee is frequently not what you end up paying.

Source: Published tariff schedules. Verified not yet verified.

Watch the preçário, the published tariff schedule every Portuguese bank must maintain. It lists every charge: transfers, card issuance, statements, cheques. It is dense, and it is where the real cost of an account sits.

Opening from abroad

Several Portuguese banks allow non-residents to open an account remotely, usually through a lawyer holding power of attorney, or through a video identification process.

This matters if you are buying property before you move, because the deposit and the purchase funds need somewhere to sit, and because the bank valuation and mortgage process assume a local account.

Remote opening takes longer and requires more documentation than doing it in person. Expect two to six weeks. Your lawyer will usually handle it alongside the NIF.

Digital banks

Revolut, Wise and N26 are heavily used in Portugal, including by long-term residents.

What they do well. No monthly fee. Excellent currency conversion, which matters if your income arrives in dollars, pounds or another non-euro currency. Fast setup. Good apps.

What they do not do. They do not connect to MB Way. Some landlords and utility providers reject non-Portuguese IBANs despite EU rules requiring acceptance, and arguing the point takes longer than opening a local account.

Revolut holds a Lithuanian banking licence and issues Lithuanian IBANs by default, though Portuguese IBANs are available. Wise is not a bank and does not offer deposit protection in the same form. N26 holds a German licence.

The practical outcome for most people is both: a Portuguese account for local obligations, a digital account for transfers and travel.

Multibanco

Portugal runs a domestic payment network with no direct equivalent elsewhere, and it is worth understanding early because it is how most bills get paid.

The ATMs do far more than dispense cash. You can pay tax, settle utility bills, top up a phone, buy transport tickets, pay social security, and handle almost any official charge.

Reference payments are the core of it. A Portuguese bill gives you three numbers: an entity code, a reference, and an amount. You enter them at an ATM or in your banking app and the payment reconciles automatically to the right account. There is no payee name to get wrong and no transfer to trace. Every tax guia arrives in this format, as do most invoices.

Once you have used it, the reference system is faster and more reliable than bank transfers. It is also the reason Portuguese businesses rarely ask for your IBAN.

MB Way

MB Way is the mobile layer on top of Multibanco. It links your phone number to your bank card and handles instant transfers between people, splitting a restaurant bill, contactless payment, and generating virtual card numbers for online purchases.

It is used constantly and informally. Tradespeople, market stalls, small businesses and friends all use it, and being without it makes you the person who has to find cash.

It requires a Portuguese bank account and a Portuguese phone number. Activation is done in your banking app or at an ATM.

Practical notes

Get a Portuguese phone number early. It gates MB Way and most bank security processes. Prepaid SIMs from MEO, NOS or Vodafone are cheap and available at any shopping centre.

Keep the account open if you leave. If you own property here you still owe IMI, condominium charges and utilities. Closing the account creates more problems than the monthly fee costs.

Set up direct debits. Portuguese utilities and tax can both be paid this way, and late payment penalties here are applied without much flexibility.

Register for the Chave Móvel Digital. The national digital identity connects to tax, social security and public services, and it removes a large number of in-person appointments from your life.