Intesa Sanpaolo — Classic Card
Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. · Visa/Mastercard
Data verified on last change the sources
Worth it if you're an Intesa Sanpaolo account holder and often spend in foreign currency: the 1% FX fee is among the lowest on the market.
Avoid it if you want cashback or a zero fee: you pay €5/month (€60/year) with no perks included, and cash advances cost 4% (€2.50 minimum).
The Classic Card is Intesa Sanpaolo's entry credit card, reserved for account holders (My Key account) and available on the Visa or Mastercard network of your choice. It costs €5/month, i.e. an effective €60/year, with no issuance fee. It is a charge card: spending is debited in a single amount the following month, but purchases between €200 and €2,500 can be split into installments via the optional XME SpensieRata service (3 to 48 installments, TAN/APR variable by credit profile). The FX fee on foreign-currency spending is 1% (plus the network's conversion), among the lowest on the market; there is no cashback and cash advances cost 4% (minimum €2.50). The higher range includes Gold and Exclusive (up to €696/year for private clients).
Data & conditions
| Network | Visa/Mastercard |
|---|---|
| Card type | Charge |
| Backing | Unsecured |
| APR | Charge (pay in full) |
| Credit limit | €1,500–€3,000 |
| Issuing bank | Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. |
| Issuance fee | Free |
| Annual fee | €60/year |
| ATM withdrawal | 4% |
| FX markup | 0% |
| Cashback | Not disclosed |
| Contactless | Yes |
| Virtual card | Yes |
| KYC | Full |
| Privacy | 2/10 |
| Supported countries | EEA · 1+ countries |
| Funding / solidity | Primo gruppo bancario italiano · carta di credito consumer su circuito Visa/Mastercard |
| Regulator | Banca Centrale Europea / Banca d'Italia |
| Segment | B2C |
| Funding / solidity | Italy's largest banking group · consumer credit card on the Visa/Mastercard network |
| MiCA / License status | Banca (Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., vigilanza BCE/Banca d'Italia) Supervised bank (Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., ECB/Bank of Italy) |
Plans & pricing
Classic Card
- Price
- €5
- Issuance fee
- Free
- FX markup
- 2%
- ATM fee
- 4%
- ATM limit
- Anticipo contante 4%, min €2,50
- €5/month (an effective €60/year), no issuance fee
- Choice of Visa or Mastercard network
- Charge card, with optional XME SpensieRata installments (€200–€2,500, 3–48 terms)
- FX 1% (plus network conversion) · cash advance 4% (min €2.50)
- Requires an Intesa Sanpaolo (My Key) account · additional card €2/month
Intesa Sanpaolo's current entry product is called XME Credit Card (fee sheet no. 361): €5/month fee, 2% currency conversion (min €0.50), 4% cash advance (min €2.50), free physical card (personalised €10).
Exclusive
- Price
- €58
- Issuance fee
- Free
- FX markup
- 0%
- ATM fee
- 0%
- €58/month (€696/year), reserved for private clients
- Dedicated premium limit and services
- Same charge/installment repayment logic
Per fee sheet no. 801: 0% cash advance and no bank FX fee — the network's own conversion remains (Mastercard 0.15–1%, Visa up to 1%). €58/month fee (€696/year), reserved for private-banking clients.
Strengths
- 1% FX fee on foreign-currency spending, among the lowest on the market
- Charge card: no interest if you repay in full the following month
- Choice of Visa or Mastercard network and optional installments (XME SpensieRata)
- ECB-supervised bank issuer, full range up to Gold and Exclusive
- No notable sovereignty advantage documented.
Weaknesses
- €5/month fee (an effective €60/year) with no cashback or included perks
- Installment TAN/APR not published: variable by credit profile
- Expensive cash advances: 4% of the amount (minimum €2.50)
- Reserved for Intesa Sanpaolo account holders; additional card €2/month
- Traditional credit card: not self-custody — the account requires full KYC, a credit check, and can be closed or reported to credit bureaus by the issuer.
- Full KYC required: verified identity, zero pseudonymity.
- Funds can be frozen at the platform’s discretion.
- Subject to regulation (Supervised bank (Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., ECB/Bank of Italy)): reporting to authorities and freezes on order.
- FATF-aligned jurisdiction: strong cooperation with authorities.
Verdict
The Classic Card is the most balanced of the entry-level bank credit cards: the 1% FX fee is among the lowest around and is excellent for those who spend in foreign currency. The downside is the €60/year fee with no cashback or perks and installment TAN/APR that aren't published and must be checked case by case. Good as a charge card for Intesa account holders who travel; the rating stays average because you pay a fixed fee with no economic advantage in return.
A credit card is a credit line, not custody of funds: there is neither self-custody nor a user balance. It remains a fully tracked and censorable instrument — full KYC, an Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. issuer (ECB-supervised bank) that profiles transactions and can suspend the line at its discretion. On the sovereignty lens it is the opposite of trustless tools: no anonymity, no censorship resistance.
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 Intesa Sanpaolo — Classic Card, and what users say. External signals: they do not feed the promp.it rating.
Incidents & regulatory actions
Notable incidentsDocumented events with consequences still open. Each entry carries a source and a date.
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Data breach Severe ● open
A bank employee accessed the banking data of 3,573 customers without cause for over two years: the Italian data protection authority issued a EUR 31.8 million fine (decision no. 208 of 26 March 2026), whose enforceability was later suspended on an interim basis by the Court of Turin
Between 21 February 2022 and 24 April 2024 an employee at one of the bank's branches consulted the banking information of 3,573 customers with no professional reason, in more than 6,600 separate accesses; politically exposed persons were among the profiles consulted. For over two years the bank's internal controls flagged nothing. The Italian data protection authority (Garante) found the technical and organisational measures inadequate overall — an operating model that let staff query the entire customer base with no restriction and no reinforced controls on the most exposed profiles — and also faulted the incomplete and late breach notification and the notice to affected customers, which came only after the authority's order of 5 November 2024. By decision no. 208 of 26 March 2026 the Garante imposed an administrative fine of EUR 31.8 million, among the largest ever issued in Italy and the largest in the banking sector. The bank challenged it: on 13 July 2026 the Court of Turin suspended the decision's enforceability on an interim basis, and the Garante accordingly removed the document from its website for the time being; the opposition proceedings are pending. The distinction matters: the fine is not final, the data breach is — the authority itself established it back in November 2024, when it ordered the bank to inform the customers involved.
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Regulatory action Severe ● open
The data of some 2.4 million customers was profiled without an adequate legal basis to pick who would be moved to subsidiary Isybank: a EUR 17.6 million fine from the Italian data protection authority (decision no. 163 of 12 March 2026), now under a pending court challenge
Between 2023 and 2024 Intesa Sanpaolo selected which customers to move to its wholly owned subsidiary Isybank by combining preset criteria: age no higher than 65, regular use of digital channels over the past year, no investment products and financial resources below a given threshold. The Italian data protection authority (Garante) established that this profiling was carried out without an adequate legal basis and that customers could not reasonably have expected it: the notices were mostly filed in the archive section of the Intesa Sanpaolo app, in the middle of the summer holidays, with no prominent alert (push notification or SMS) signalling what was at stake. The move meant a unilateral change of contract: a new IBAN and digital-only banking, with no branch access. The proceeding began with numerous complaints from account holders. By decision no. 163 of 12 March 2026 the Garante fined Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. EUR 17,628,000. Isybank S.p.A., the subsidiary that received the accounts, was not separately sanctioned. The decision has been temporarily removed from the authority's website under art. 5 of legislative decree 150/2011 because the challenge against it is pending before the courts. The distinction matters: the fine is not final, but the unlawfulness of the processing was established by the authority.
↗ source
verified on
Public reviews
-
Google Play ↗
4.5/5
1,020,794 reviews
Same app, Android version (package com.latuabancaperandroid). Exact count from the structured data: 1,020,794, where the visible label reads "1M". Same caveat: this is the mobile banking app, not the Classic Card.
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App Store ↗
4.6/5
769,899 reviews
Rating of the «Intesa Sanpaolo Mobile» app (Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A.), not of the Classic Card: it is the group's retail mobile banking app, so the score covers login, transfers and support, not the credit card. Other group apps (isybank, Inbiz, Insurance) were excluded.
Weighted average across 2 public review platforms (1,790,693 reviews in total), weighted by volume. This is not our rating: it is those platforms’ average.
FAQ
How much does the Intesa Sanpaolo Classic Card cost?
€5 per month, an effective €60 per year, with no issuance fee. The additional card costs €2/month. The higher range goes up to the Exclusive (€58/month, €696/year, reserved for private clients).
Is it a charge or revolving card?
It is a charge card: spending is debited in a single amount the following month. You can, however, split purchases between €200 and €2,500 with the optional XME SpensieRata service (3–48 installments); TAN and APR depend on your credit profile and are shown at activation.
How much does spending abroad cost?
The Intesa Sanpaolo fee on spending and withdrawals in currencies other than the euro is 1% (plus the international network's conversion). Cash advances cost 4% (minimum €2.50).
Sources
- Official service page FX markup · ATM fees Data verified on Jul 22, 2026
Update history
- Costs added from the fee sheets (upd. 30/06/2026): on the entry card (now named XME Credit Card) 2% currency conversion and 4% cash advance min €2.50; on Exclusive 0% cash advance and no bank FX fee (the network's own remains).