After Your Portuguese Bank Account Is Opened: IBAN Document, First Login and Everyday Use

When your Portuguese bank account is opened through our bank account service, you receive a document with your IBAN and the access codes for the novobanco app. This page explains the numbers on that document, walks through the first login to the app, and answers the everyday questions clients ask once the account is open.

What you receive when the account is opened

The bank sends you a document with your IBAN and the access codes for the app. The numbers on the NIB/IBAN document have different purposes:

First login to the novobanco app

If you opened your account with us, we have sent the access codes to you by email. For the first login you need only three things:

1. The matrix card — your login is written on it.
2. The temporary password — a white paper with numbers on a grey background.
3. Your mobile phone — you receive an authorization code by SMS.

Here is how to get into your account through the app:

1. Download the official novobanco app. Install the official novobanco app on your phone, or use the login page on your PC.
2. Enter your login. You will find it on the green matrix card, in the bottom left corner: Nº de Adesão is your login.
3. Enter the temporary password. Chave de segurança, temporary password and PIN atual all mean the same code from the white paper.
4. Enter the SMS code. The authorization code arrives on the phone you submitted in our application form. If you do not receive the SMS, try the voice message option, check the network and that it is the same phone you gave in the application; otherwise, contact your bank manager.
5. Set your own password. Enter the temporary PIN once more, then set your own password twice.
6. Enter the matrix card codes. Be careful: just one digit from each coordinate — for example the first digit of A3, the third digit of B5, the second digit of G1.
7. Confirm with a second SMS code.
8. Switch the language to English. Well done!
9. Register the device. Set up the device you use for the app: you receive an SMS with a link that you copy and paste. You have only 3 attempts. If the SMS does not arrive, request a voice call instead — take pen and paper and put the phone on speaker.

While the account is being unlocked

Your account waits to be unlocked, which takes some time according to the bank’s compliance procedure. Your bank manager informs you by email when it is unlocked and helps with any questions you have. Before the unlocking, you can make only one money transfer to the account — for example when you need to show a balance for a visa application.

The documents for your account also arrive by email from novobanco. If you want to use your physical card, use the PIN that came with the card to access ATM services and to pay offline.

If you have questions about your bank account, contact your manager directly — their contacts are in the letter from the bank — or use novobanco’s contact page.

Limits, fees and everyday use

The bank sets daily limits for online transfers to other banks and to other novobanco accounts, for ATM withdrawals and for cash deposits, and it charges fees for some operations:

• A transfer above the daily online limit goes through your personal manager or at the branch counter (balcão).
• For a larger cash deposit at the branch, the bank asks for proof of where the money comes from — for example, a sale.
• Cash withdrawals at the counter have no fixed limit, but for a large amount you need to warn the bank in advance.
• You can also ask the bank to issue a check.

The amounts change with the bank’s price list, so ask your manager for the current limits and fees. The minimum deposit and the monthly cost of the account are in the account features on the service page.

Don’t have a Portuguese bank account yet? We can open it for you — see how the bank account service works.