Bank account in Portugal: with your NIF at any bank, and the basic account of at most € 5 a year

Yes, as a Dutch national you open a Portuguese bank account as soon as you have a NIF — the government itself names the tax number as a condition for contracts and bank accounts — and your passport alongside it is in practice enough. What it costs is the question Dutch people do not ask because at home they are used to a few euros a month: Portuguese banks often charge monthly fees for an ordinary account. The find is in a brochure of the Banco de Portugal: every bank that takes deposits must offer a basic account, the serviços mínimos bancários, and may charge for it at most one per cent of the IAS a year — € 5.22 in 2025. The trap is that you have to ask for it yourself, and that you may have exactly this many other current accounts next to it: none.

May a bank refuse you because you have only just arrived?

No. Whoever legally lives in an EU country has, under the European rules, the right to a basic payment account, and a bank may not reject that application because you do not live in the country where the bank is established. The exceptions are narrow: you do not comply with the anti-money-laundering rules, or — in some countries — you already have a similar account with another bank in that same country. "You have only just got here" is not among them.

What the basic account must be able to do under those same rules: deposits, withdrawals, receiving and making payments, direct debits and card purchases. An annual fee is allowed, but it "should remain reasonable". Portugal has translated that reasonable into a figure.

What is in the Portuguese basic account, and what does it cost?

	Ordinary current account	Serviços mínimos bancários
Who offers it	any bank, on its own terms	compulsory: every bank that takes deposits from the public
Debit card	yes	yes, usable throughout the EU
Deposits, withdrawals, direct debits	yes	yes, without limit
Transfers within the same bank	yes	unlimited
Transfers to other banks	yes	unlimited at the cash machine; via home banking or the app 48 per calendar year (within Portugal and the EU)
Third-party payment apps (such as MB Way)	per tariff	5 transfers a month up to € 30 each without extra cost
Annual cost	per the bank's tariff, often monthly	at most 1% of the IAS: € 5.22 in 2025
Decision period	—	the bank opens, converts or refuses within 10 days

With the IAS of € 537.13 in 2026 the cap this year comes to just over € 5. What is not in it, and what a bank may charge for: savings accounts, transfers at the counter, transfers beyond the 48 a year via home banking, and transfers to accounts outside the EU. Whoever transfers to the Netherlands twice a month stays well within the limit.

Who may open it, and why does the counter sometimes refuse anyway?

The access condition is simple and hard: you have no other current account, or you have your only current account converted. On opening you sign a declaration that you have no other conta de depósito à ordem — an exception exists only for whoever is over 65 or has a permanent disability of 60% or more and shares the account. A Dutch account does not count as a Portuguese current account in that; it is about accounts in Portugal.

The bank may refuse the opening or conversion only on the grounds the brochure lists, such as refusing that declaration, or having another current account. It may not make the opening conditional on a minimum deposit or on taking additional products, and it must decide within ten days. If it refuses, it must tell you immediately, in writing and free of charge. That sentence from the brochure is your best argument at the counter: a clerk who says "we don't do that account" is saying something the Banco de Portugal contradicts.

Ask for it when opening, or have your account converted after a few months. Whoever opens a standard account in their first week with passport and NIF then pays every quarter fees that do not exist on a basic account. Converting is possible — the brochure regulates it literally — but then you have to go to the counter yourself, with the declaration that it is your only current account.

What do you bring, and in which order?

Your NIF and your passport; some banks also ask for proof of your address, and for that the rental contract or later your CRUE is the usual document. The order is half the work: without NIF no account, without account no energy contract in your name, and without a Portuguese IBAN no salary from a Portuguese employer.

Your Dutch account you keep in the meantime — that is where your M return, your pension and every refund arrive, and why you never cut that line is explained separately. In the roadmap for Portugal the bank account is a step in the registration phase, after the NIF and before the running contracts.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.4: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Portugal or go straight to step 4.4 in the open plan.