Postal passbook savings accounts are among the investment and savings products distributed by Poste Italiane.
Many Italians subscribe to postal passbooks to deposit their money to make it pay off over time and then use it for some important project.
Come me postal vouchers the savings books are also guaranteed by Cassa depositi e prestiti and, therefore, by the state. In fact, perhaps not everyone knows that this company is 85% owned by the Italian state, while the remaining percentage is privately owned.
Postal savings books: from 2023 there is a risk of losing all the money but here’s what to do to avoid it
The first Poste Italiane passbook was distributed in 1875 throughout the country. Since that year it has become the most loved and subscribed savings product by Italians. From 2021, the classic bearer passbooks have been replaced with “smart” passbooks. More modern and with new functions, with the Libretto Smart you can also manage your savings online: on poste.it, with the BancoPosta app and at ATMs with the Carta libretto.
Sometimes, however, it happens that once a little money has been signed and credited to the passbook, it is left in a drawer and forgotten. Much more happens than you imagine and that’s why Poste Italiane has communicated the extinction of some postal savings books on its website. This refers to the dormant booklets.
As Poste Italiane explains, “these are passbooks that have not been handled by the holder for 10 or more years, not subjected to procedures or operational blocks that prevent the handling of the sums and which have a balance exceeding 100 euros”. Therefore, books that have been open for some time and no longer used.
What should the saver do?
Usually, Poste Italiane sends a message to the passbook holder explaining how to reactivate the passbook. Simply go to a post office and make a transaction: withdrawal, deposit or balance check.
Savers, however, have a time limit to “reactivate” their passbook within which they risk losing money. In reality, the money contained in the passbook can always be repaid but with a more complex procedure. In fact, the sums will be transferred to the Consap Fund, a company owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance established with the 2006 Budget.
To avoid this transfer and, in fact, the extinction of the booklet by Poste Italiane, the holders by April 4, 2023 they will have to perform any operation to unlock it.
Poste has published a list of dormant passbooks on its website sorted by the identification number of the post office where they were opened.
Therefore, interested parties can consult the list on the following page: https://buonielibretti.poste.it/prodotti/libretti-dormienti.html.
