Crédit Agricole — CartaConto
Crédit Agricole Italia S.p.A. · Mastercard
CartaConto is Crédit Agricole Italia's reloadable prepaid card with an Italian IBAN, on the Mastercard network. €0 issuance and a monthly fee of €0.50 up to age 28 / €1.00 over 28, waived in any month with at least one incoming credit: effectively free for regular users. The IBAN supports SEPA transfers, salary/pension crediting and direct debits. Being e-money it is NOT covered by the FITD: funds are protected through safeguarding (segregation), not by the up-to-€100,000 deposit guarantee. The currency conversion fee is a low 1.00% (plus the international network fee).
Data & conditions
| Network | Mastercard |
|---|---|
| Fund custody | Custodial (platform holds funds) |
| Issuance fee | Free |
| Annual fee | €12/year |
| Free ATM limit | Crédit Agricole Group ATMs in Italy and France €0; other banks in euro €2.10; non-euro €5.00; counter €2.50 |
| ATM withdrawal | Free |
| FX markup | 1% |
| Cashback | Not disclosed |
| Contactless | Yes |
| Virtual card | No |
| KYC | Full |
| Privacy | 3/10 |
| Supported countries | EEA · 1+ countries |
| Funding / solidity | Prepagata con IBAN di Crédit Agricole Italia S.p.A., gruppo Crédit Agricole |
| Regulator | Banca d'Italia · BCE (MVU) |
| Segment | B2C |
| Funding / solidity | Prepaid card with IBAN from Crédit Agricole Italia S.p.A., Crédit Agricole group |
| MiCA / License status | Licenza bancaria (Crédit Agricole Italia S.p.A., Albo delle Banche Banca d'Italia) Prepaid e-money card on IT banking licence (Bank of Italy) |
Plans & pricing
Strengths
- €0 issuance and waivable fee (one monthly credit is enough): a prepaid with Italian IBAN that is effectively free
- Full Italian IBAN: SEPA transfers, salary/pension crediting and direct debits
- Low FX fee (1.00%) and free withdrawals at Group ATMs in Italy and France
- Reduced fee of €0.50/month up to age 28 (also used as a student card in university agreements)
- No notable sovereignty advantage documented.
Weaknesses
- E-money: no FITD coverage, only fund safeguarding (no €100,000 deposit guarantee)
- Counter withdrawal €2.50, at other banks in euro €2.10 and in non-euro currency €5.00
- No cashback or points programme; €10,000 max balance and €3,000 max single top-up
- Custodial: the platform holds your funds and can freeze or lose them.
- Full KYC required: verified identity, zero pseudonymity.
- Subject to regulation (Prepaid e-money card on IT banking licence (Bank of Italy)): reporting to authorities and freezes on order.
- FATF-aligned jurisdiction: strong cooperation with authorities.
- Closed source: no way to verify what it does with wallet and data.
Verdict
CartaConto is a prepaid card with an Italian IBAN from a leading banking issuer, with a very good cost profile: €0 issuance, a fee waived with a single monthly credit, 1.00% FX and free withdrawals at Group ATMs in Italy and France. The protection limit is structural to the segment: as e-money it does not enjoy the FITD guarantee up to €100,000, only fund safeguarding. Rating 3.5/B: solid and cheap, held back by the lack of deposit guarantee and out-of-Group withdrawal fees.
Prepaid e-money on an Italian banking licence: custodial, full KYC, every operation tracked and the card suspendable or blockable by the bank on court order or for AML. No anonymity, no permissionless use: on the sovereignty lens it is the opposite of a self-custody tool.
Promp's editorial rating based on real fees and net annual cost. Promp reviews third-party products independently.
"Sovereignty" rating: score computed on privacy/anonymity (30%), fund control (20%), censorship resistance (20%), trustless/auditability (20%) and costs (10%). Same data, different weights.
Reputation
What happened to people who used Crédit Agricole — CartaConto, and what users say. External signals: they do not feed the promp.it rating.
Incidents & regulatory actions
History not verifiedWe have not yet completed the incident search for this service: no entries here does not mean no events.
Public reviews
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App Store ↗
4.6/5
118,326 reviews
"Crédit Agricole Italia" app (id 1502700297), Italian storefront, exact figure from the iTunes Lookup API. It covers the group's home-banking app, not the CartaConto product specifically.
Weighted average across 1 public review platform (118,326 reviews in total), weighted by volume. This is not our rating: it is those platforms’ average.
FAQ
How much does Crédit Agricole's CartaConto cost?
Issuance is free (€0). The fee is €0.50/month up to age 28 and €1.00/month over 28, but it is waived in any month with at least one incoming credit (top-up, transfer, salary). Currency conversion costs 1.00% plus the network fee.
Are funds on CartaConto protected by the FITD?
No. CartaConto is e-money, not a deposit account: it is not covered by the Italian Interbank Deposit Protection Fund (FITD) up to €100,000. Funds are protected via safeguarding (segregation) at the bank, a different mechanism from the deposit guarantee.
Sources
- Official service page IBAN Data verified on Jul 12, 2026