NOVO BANCO Reviews 

We are currently stuck in Spain.

After a full day spent in Spain using our cards and accounts, all of a sudden our accounts and cards would not work.

After trying multiple numbers no one is able to help us and we need to contact them the following day only at 9 am.

This is not what you want to hear at 8pm at a fuel station with an empty car.

How can a bank block your access, bur not have a 24 hour line open to assist it's clients.

Six weeks ago, Novobanco blocked online access to my account with no prior notification. when I called them - I don't live in Portugal - they said I needed to update my personal data. I immediately sent them the required documents, but I'm still unable to access my account. I made several phone calls - minimum 30 minute wait before they pick up, send numerous e-mails, all in vain. Now they have stopped answering my e-mails altogether. When I called customer service, they told me to call my branch, but everytime I did, the phone was forwarded to customer service because no one at the branch picks up. I've been a Novobanco customer in good standing for years.

I reported a crime from one of their clients, who tried to scam me to them and they disregard it not even askimg for the evidence. The reiterate that „they have taken notice of the report“.
Either they are actually aiding scammers or do not care. Both scenarios are terrible for a bank.

Impossible as a business owner to contact my brunch.
the visual assistant is a complete nightmare. you can spend more than 60 min on phone and noon will know that you have contacted the Bank
This is one of the boggiest mistakes by Novobanco

Absolutely the worst. Impossible to get anything done. Clunky system and processes. Very outdated. Stay away.

Employees at the branch: very friendly, unfortunately this is mitigated by the fact that even the branch manager seems to have no executive decision making authority without corporate approval. Corporate level is either completely incompetent, indifferent or passive aggressive, but this may be due to the recent acquisition of Novobanco by a French banking conglomerate……. and a significant personell turnover. We have been trying to open a businesses account for the last 8 months and the experience has been truly Kafkaesque (Granted we have found an a more viable alternative in the interim, but wanted to see how far this would go as a cautionary tale to others) Once again, we can say only positive things about most of the branch employees, but they are hamstrung and unable to achieve anything through no fault of their own.

no service at all. I transferred my amount to this novobanco and it's already been more than 25 days but I haven't received and when I call the customer service I have to wait for more than 30min just to talk with an agent and they even can't solve the problem,they just said to wait and even don't know how many days to wait.should I wait for a year just to receive my own money? very bad 😔 very very disappointed I recommend to everyone not to open a account in this bank.

no service at all. I transferred my amount to this novobanco and it's already been more than 25 days but I haven't received and when I call the customer service I have to wait for more than 30min just to talk with an agent and they even can't solve the problem,they just said to wait and even don't know how many days to wait.should I wait for a year just to receive my own money? very bad 😔 very very disappointed I recommend to everyone not to open a account in this bank.

I am writing to formally express my deep dissatisfaction with the services and conduct of Novo Banco dos Açores Ponta Delgada. While the branch may present a professional image upon entering, my experience over the past six years has revealed serious deficiencies in professionalism, customer service, and the handling of client accounts.

My dealings with this institution began with what should have been a very simple request: the issuance of a new bank card on behalf of my father. Despite repeated follow-ups, this request was never fulfilled due to what I can only describe as negligence and incompetence. Following my father’s passing, my mother assumed control of the account. At that point, I provided all the necessary legal documentation prepared by a lawyer in Canada to facilitate either the transfer of funds to my mother’s Canadian account or the issuance of the long-delayed bank card. Again, Novo Banco failed to act in a timely or professional manner.

Tragically, my mother has since passed away as well. Rather than assisting with the settlement of her account, the bank has demanded yet more paperwork, further delaying the rightful transfer of funds. During a recent visit to the Açores, I addressed the matter directly at the branch. However, the staff displayed dismissiveness and a lack of professionalism, leaving me with no confidence in their ability—or willingness—to resolve the situation.

As a result, I have no choice but to proceed with legal action to recover the funds, along with associated legal costs. It is deeply disappointing that an institution entrusted with managing clients’ assets demonstrates such disregard for its responsibilities. I strongly caution other members of the Portuguese community in Canada and the United States to carefully consider their banking choices and to seek legal counsel if they encounter similar issues.

I sincerely hope that this matter will serve as a wake-up call for Novo Banco dos Açores to review its practices, improve its customer service standards, and treat clients with the respect and professionalism they deserve.

I opened a Novo Banco account in 2021 as part of Portugal’s Golden Visa program. For years, the account sat dormant, holding funds ready to deploy for when my visa was approved. In June 2025, when I was finally approved for my residency after a 43-month wait, I discovered my account had been frozen — with no warning, no prior request for documentation, and no communication whatsoever.

I was asked to send sensitive personal documents (including ID, US Tax returns and utility bills) to an unsecured email address — a clear data protection concern — yet even after complying immediately with the first request, I remained locked out for over six weeks. I incurred additional costs to make a government payment through a third party, all because Novo Banco failed to restore access in a timely manner..

To this day, I still do not have the ability to transfer funds or close the account. Every support interaction ends in a dead end, with shifting excuses and no accountability. I've had to escalate the matter to Banco de Portugal, CNPD, and the Livro de Reclamações platform.

For international clients or Golden Visa applicants: I strongly urge you to avoid Novo Banco. Their service is unreliable, their internal communication is broken, and their handling of sensitive financial and personal data is deeply troubling. You deserve better.

I can use the money in my account only by paying with the debit card. I cannot see the account online or pay my rent by transfer. I cannot use the credit card. I have tried three times to resolve an issue that seems to be centered around my attempt to change my address and phone number. I have waited for hours and still cannot access any features of the website. I cannot make an appointment to resolve it. It appears I must continually wait for long periods in a waiting room with the possibility of once again, no resolution.

Worst bank ever. Incapable of giving online service properly. The matrix card is totally useless. No option to change the address in online or via app.
I have no access on matrix card that's why they blocked me using any of the online services.

Novo banco sacavem ,, Their staff is very bad and they are not happy with their work. If someone goes to the bank at 2 pm, they have to say, "Come tomorrow, the bank is closed."sacavem only ladies staff, staff behaviour is very bad ,Even if an immigrant speaks Portuguese with them, they ignore him and repeatedly insult him, saying that they don't understand.There was a slightly older lady sitting there, her behavior was very bad.I request whoever handles Portugal Novo Bank to suspend all the staff at Sacavem. The staff is very bad.

I do not appreciate to be spammed without consent. You scrape my email address from a database and then start spamming me. That is bad manners.

Very unhelpful customer service and general incompetence. You have to sort out your own issues, the bank branch staff wont help you. We were supposed to have our mortage with them, to set up the account we need to transfer €250. So we did. They hired some guy to evaluate the house to calculate how much mortage they would give us. The guy evaluated the house very low and was comparing the 5 bedroom house to 2 bedroom houses in the same area? So we didn't go with that mortage. Then we had to close the account. We called. They said to do it on the app. But they still didn't send us our pins so the account was not activated. So we went to a branch. The woman helping us was not at all helping. She said she couldn't access our accounts and that we had to call customer service. We did. Customer service told us to go to the bank. Then the woman is able to help us close the bank all of a sudden. She also gives us our pins in an envelope, which obviously we don't need. She says we will receive the €250 as a check in the mail after 2 months, because apparently our account was already closed automatically? Which is great because obviously we are getting a mortage because we are moving. She tells us she can't help us once more and that we need to call customer service. We do and she says that she will tell us when our funds become available to us and that we will be able to take the money out of an ATM if she manages to open the account again. Oh and btw, we apparently have to pay €300 for the house evaluation so this whole experience cost us a lot of money for a lot of grief. Absolute garbage bank. Please avoid.

I must admit all NOT customer service at Novo banco are horrible because the 2nd one I spoke to was very well minded and quick to answer my concern. But when you encountered the customer service who not only could not understand the simple thing you said, but also gaslighting you, it is BS. My issue was after I sold a stock through Novo Banco app today, I did not receive confirmation email as always, nor able to find the selling action appeared in "recent actions" in my portfolio, hence I called the line. It is a simple and straightforward question for me to ask and for anyone who works as customer service at a bank to understand, which is "Can you confirm if my selling of a stock through Novo Banco app, around XX time, is successful or no?" But the 1st customer service just could not get what I was asking but keep questioning me back"do you want to check how much money you have in the bank ? What exactly are you asking?" " Im only here to help you." After I repeated my request one more time, such person put me on hold and never came back. In AI era, people should learn to get job done better in case of elimination by machines.

service zero reward not proper tym money received

edit: 2 years on, the business tpa has been broken 4 times leading the business to lose money. The account manager suggested going in person to the counter to request the tpa to be fixed. hundreds of euros in lost revenue all because novobanco contracts the oldest models of tpa from unicre, has dodgy conditions on sign up - promising 0 in fees but actually hiding expensive mastercard and international fees in small lettering - and locking you into a 2 year payment terminal contract.

everytime something goes wrong they ask you to go to their physical counter. its ridiculous to think people have time to do this - and now that i have an account with millenium which has facilitated everything online I see novobanco is actually much worst, though it was app wise much better then montepio

initially the review was positive (see below) but it went downhill pretty fast.
Was the easiest to setup a business account with, and the only one that spoke english of the counters we tried (tried Santander and Montepio). The app is thousands times better then the Montepio one as well, really happy with the service.

Novo Banco is not transparent about costs, never. Even if you pay an amount due afterwards they always come with process costs or hidden interest/ taxes. The worst of it is not that they are crooks but just incompetent and unprofessional in general. They almost killed us financially by leaving out costs or procedures that cost money until they send you an invoice or just deduct money from your account. Will never do business with them again. Last example is wanting to close a businesscard, I fulfilled the debt on the card and afterwards I get an email stating an urgent payment is needed of a relatively small amount of 50 euro's to process the payment. But they do worse with a lot bigger amounts in my experience. Don't use them for anythin important, they will mess it up and you will be paying, the company is clueless

The customer service is excellent, especially in private banking. I am able to easily reach my assigned contact by WhatsApp and the response is always quick. It is easy to take an appointment in person when needed. I use them both for personal banking and for commerce. I highly recommend them.