Banking and paying in Croatia: an account with your OIB, a basic account as a right, and the bank as key to e-Građani

Can you open a bank account in Croatia when you have only just moved there? Yes, and the key is not your residence status but your OIB, the personal identification number every bank asks for first. What it costs differs per bank: monthly fees are customary in Croatia, and the Croatian National Bank therefore publishes what an ordinary payment account should contain. The find at the source is a right: every consumer legally resident in the EU may open a basic account in euro at the large Croatian banks, and a bank may not refuse it because you have only lived there briefly. The pitfall is the order: whoever stands at the counter without an OIB goes home without an account, and whoever goes renting without an account has no direct debit for the rent and the utilities.

What do you need?

What	Where you get it	How long it takes
OIB	the tax authority (Porezna uprava): at the counter, or by email to OIB@porezna-uprava.hr with the form and a scan of your identity document	by email within 8 days; at the counter often the same day
Identity document	your Dutch passport or ID card	—
Proof of address or residence	the registration certificate from MUP, or your lease	see the article on registration
Login credential for e-Građani	your internet banking often already counts as a credential; otherwise a free mToken	after the account is opened

The OIB need not be applied for in Croatia: the tax authority assigns it as soon as there is a reason to track you, and "at the request of a foreigner" is such a reason. Send the form and a scan of your identity document by email, with your telephone number and the nearest tax office; the authority handles foreigners' applications as a priority within eight days and tells you when you can collect the certificate. How the OIB fits in the rest of the chain is in the article on the OIB and registration.

What is a basic account, and when may a bank refuse?

A basic account (osnovni račun) is a payment account in euro with the standard services: opening, operating and closing, placing funds, cash withdrawals, direct debits, paying by card including online, and credit transfers with standing orders, at counters, terminals and via internet banking. An overdraft is not permitted on it. In Croatia every bank whose total assets for the previous year exceeded € 1,990,842,126.22 must offer it; in practice those are the large banks. For vulnerable groups, such as recipients of a guaranteed minimum allowance or a jobseeker's allowance, banks charge a lower monthly fee.

A bank may refuse a basic account if you do not comply with the rules against money laundering and terrorist financing, and in some EU countries if you already have a similar account with another bank in that country. What is not allowed: refusing because you do not live in the bank's country. An annual fee the bank may charge, but it should remain reasonable.

An ordinary account is not the same as a basic account. Banks first offer their own packages, with monthly fees that differ per bank. Whoever only needs the standard services and gets a refusal or an expensive package asks explicitly for the osnovni račun. That is the product the right hangs on; a package with card, insurance and credit facility is not.

Euro, SEPA and your Dutch account

Croatia is in the euro area: the basic account is an account in euro, and that applies to every ordinary payment account. So your Dutch account remains perfectly usable for Dutch matters, and a Croatian IBAN works in the Netherlands as well as a Dutch one; how you keep the Dutch account and your DigiD is in the article on bank account and DigiD. What you do want on a Croatian account: the rent, the utilities, the dopunsko premium of HZZO and your salary, because a Croatian employer pays to a Croatian number.

The bank as key to the government

The account opens more than payments. EU citizens with a temporary or permanent stay use the government portal e-Građani just like Croats, and gov.hr says it literally: whoever has internet banking probably already has a valid login credential without knowing it. With that credential you file the PPMV declaration for your car, read your messages from the government in the user inbox, and see for example when your car registration expires. If you have no bank that counts as a credential, request a free mToken; it gives access to the significant security level most e-services require. Activate the user inbox straight away: the government sends there the letters that would otherwise lie at your Dutch address. The order of OIB, home, registration and bank is at /kroatie.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.6: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Croatia or go straight to step 4.6 in the open plan.