Hi there,
When we moved to Porto in 2022, one of the first things I had to do was to open a bank account in Portugal. An acquaintance recommended ActivoBank as the best option, pointing out that it did not charge any maintenance fees, not for cards, not for anything.
As we did not need credit to buy the house, we decided to open the account at ActivoBank, plus we had a contact within the bank who facilitated the opening of the account from Spain. We only had to send the documentation online and then sign in person. All well and good up to that point, but we soon discovered that the bank’s operation left a lot to be desired.
ActivoBank’s archaic operation: A bank of the past?
Once we started using the account, we realized that ActivoBank’s system was anything but what we expected. The website and mobile app work slow, confusing and has nothing to do with what we are used to in banks in Spain.
The system is quite outdated, and even the simplest transactions become complicated and time-consuming.
Unexpected commissions when receiving money from abroad
As if this was not enough, Diego started to receive his salary from the United States in our ActivoBank account. And there came another unpleasant surprise: the bank charged very high commissions for currency exchange. Every time he received his salary in dollars, he was charged up to 500 euros just for the conversion to euros. This was obviously a huge waste of money, so Diego stopped using the account to receive his salary and opted for other alternatives.
How to withdraw cash from ActivoBank? An even bigger challenge
In 2025, when we needed to withdraw cash, we asked how we could do it. We were told that we could withdraw up to €3,000 a day without a problem and without fees or interest, but we soon discovered that it was not so easy.
The ATMs only allowed us to withdraw €400 per day and we had to make two withdrawals of €200.
When we finally managed to contact customer service, we were told that we could only withdraw the €3,000 from foreign ATMs, which was completely different from the information we were initially given.
But this was not true either, as the foreign ATMs charged very high commissions.
After making several complaints at Portal Queixa, I was finally told that the only ATM where I could withdraw the 3,000 euros a day without commission is from the Millenium network, and there are only a few ATMs in Porto.
So, after several calls, a lot of wasted time and several complaints, the customer service staff deigned to tell the truth.
The card retained in the ATM: where is the communication from the bank?
To top it off, when I tried to withdraw money from the ATM with my personal card, it gave me an error message and swallowed it. I never received any notification from the bank about it when the minimum is that an automatic message arrived
After making another complaint, I was informed by email that my account was inactive for not using it for a while. But, of course, a serious bank should have notified me in time. Instead, I found myself with a retained card and no immediate solution.
The final straw: more time wasted to get the card
The cumulus of frustrations came when I tried to access the ActivoBank website to request a new card after the teller kept mine. The page was not working, telling me that my password was incorrect (which was not true).
After wasting more time and filing more complaints, I finally managed to order the card again. It arrived without any problems, but the process made me lose hours of time, something that should be automatic in a modern bank.
Is it worth choosing ActivoBank?
In summary, my experience with ActivoBank was a mixture of misinformation, hidden fees and completely inefficient customer service. While the bank offers something that looks attractive (no maintenance fees), the reality is that the service is full of operational problems, misinformation and an outdated system that does not meet the quality standards of a modern euro bank.