Opening a bank account in Greece

Hi Julien,
           Did you open a bank account , any problems ? , I have made some enquires , if you are an EU resident it seems a simple operation , you choose the bank , take some ID with you passport etc and fill out the forms. If you are a non-EU resident it appears more difficult.
You have to visit the bank in person , I have tried to open bank account over the internet but couldn't. Please keep me update of your progress with this , I will be doing the same very soon.

I was looking at the National Bank of Greece , you have to be a careful witch one you choose if you live outside Athens ,availability of ATM's  may be a problem.

Good Luck

Regards,
Paul T.

Hi and welcome on board Paul T!

Thanks for helping

Regards
Armand

Hi Julien,

It's not a problem if you're an EU citizen, but what you will find that helps is to take your passport as Paul_T says, your lease for where you live, an AFM (Tax Number - if you have one) and a telephone number. The bank (Alpha Bank in our case) opened the account quickly enough, but getting AM cards and on-line banking required a land-line phone number - they wouldn't do it with a mobile number. Funnily enough our address was not so important!

Best advice is that you go along and talk to the bank and ask their requirements.

We found the staff at Alpha Bank to have a very good level of English, whereas those at other banks didn't and weren't that helpful. Just our experience. Now we have full facilities, ATM cards, on-line banking, international transfers on-line etc, and are very happy with the service.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your contribution BenMore!

Harmonie.

I think that an American opening a new account now in Greece would be asked to sign a w-9 form, at least in some banks, due to FATCA.