Today we headed out to open our first Maltese bank account, well the plan was to open it today, but this is Malta! We should have known it would not be as easy as going into the branch and getting an account opened.
There are two main banks here in Malta, HSBC Malta and the BOV (Bank of Valletta). HSBC seem to have a lot more branches and we have been told that the customer service is better, we therefore chose them. The actual completing of all the forms process was relatively easy and straight forward. Having an account though is a whole different kettle of fish.
They advised us that we should have an account in about two months! This is where we needed to grab any reserves of patience we had left (after the ID Card’s). Can you imagine going into a UK bank to open a basic account and once completing the forms they tell you that you needed to wait two months, there would be an uproar, but hey this isn’t the UK.
On the plus side, we have timed it quite well arriving here in Malta. From January this year Malta has changed their currency over to the Euro. Before it was the Maltese Lira with a few shops accepting the new Euro currency. This makes things a bit easier for us as we are used to the Euro from our time living in Spain.
Hopefully with a little patience and probably luck, we will have an account soon……