Banks and Fintech in Hungary: Where Expats Keep Their Money

The central bank's own calculator for the main conditions of every retail forint account sold in Hungary, so you can price your real usage before walking into a branch.

Good to know: The interface is in Hungarian, so a browser translation helps; the same MNB consumer pages set out the basic payment account rules and the free cash withdrawal declaration, which is the cheapest starting point if your usage is light.

Hungary's biggest retail bank and the default first account for most newcomers, with a full English retail site and internet and mobile banking available in English.

Good to know: OTP's English contact page says English assistance is available at dedicated branches with English-speaking staff and that you can book an appointment for it; its own site states that foreigners opening a retail current account need a valid passport or travel document, and the OTP Group serves nearly 16 million customers across the region.

One of the few big Hungarian banks with a genuine English product site covering accounts, cards, loans, savings and mobile banking.

Good to know: The full discount on minimum plusz needs both a monthly credit at the level of the net minimum wage and HUF 500,000 in savings at the bank; K&H itself warns that the information on its English website is not exhaustive, so check the Hungarian conditions list or ask in branch before signing.

The George account is one of the few packages whose own product page states in writing that both resident and non-resident natural persons can open it, which matters if you arrive before your address card does.

Good to know: The discounted fee needs at least HUF 100,000 credited monthly, an electronic statement, an email address on file and approvals through the George app rather than SMS, and the exact fee inside the HUF 390 to 990 band depends on the value of the electronic transactions you initiate; the public product pages are in Hungarian, so confirm English service with the branch.

The largest branch network in the country, 425 branches and 2.4 million retail and corporate customers as of the fourth quarter of 2025, with an English site at mbhbank.com.

Good to know: Check the name on your paperwork: MBH Bank Nyrt. started operating on 1 May 2023 out of a triple merger, with Budapest Bank absorbed into MKB Bank on 31 March 2022 and Takarekbank merging into MKB Bank on 1 May 2023, so old MKB, Budapest Bank and Takarek references still turn up; the Fix Nulla page also spells out the transaction duty, charging 0.45 percent capped at HUF 20,000 on the part of a transfer above HUF 50,000.

Runs an English-language site and is one of the banks that names its basic payment account offer publicly, citing Government Decree 262/2016 (VIII. 31.) as the legal basis.

Good to know: The Alapszamla can only be opened in a branch, and Raiffeisen publishes package fees in its conditions list rather than on the product pages, so ask for the Lakossagi bankszamla kondicios lista before you decide; the Yelloo student account it does price publicly is limited to customers between 14 and 26.

A full English retail site and a head office on Szabadsag ter in the V. district, handy if you want a large international group behind a Hungarian account.

Good to know: Package fees are not published on the product pages, so the Ikon, Bonus, Private Plus and student packages are effectively quote-based until you read the conditions list or ask the call centre; the bank's SWIFT code is BACXHUHB and its Hungarian bank code is 109.

Backed by Intesa Sanpaolo, with more than 420,000 customers and a fee schedule published in full, so you can see the transfer percentages before you open anything.

Good to know: The advertised online selfie account opening is not for most expats: CIB requires a card-format Hungarian ID card or driving licence plus an address card, birth in Hungary, a Hungarian permanent and mailing address and Hungarian tax residency only, so plan on a branch visit; the HUF 0 fee needs a monthly credit at the net minimum wage, which is net HUF 214,662 in 2026.

The digital-first Hungarian bank, and the entry-level Hello package is HUF 0 a month with no conditions at all, which is rare on this market.

Good to know: Read the selfie opening requirements before you count on it: Granit's own page asks for an NFC phone and a chipped new-type Hungarian personal ID card issued after 1 January 2016, and tells anyone without one to open through VideoBank instead, so most newcomers are on the video route rather than the 5 minute selfie; only two Budapest points of contact, the central branch at Vaci ut 17 (weekdays 8:30 to 16:30) and a cashless branch on the first floor of WestEnd City Center at 1062 Budapest, Vaci ut 1-3 (weekdays 10:00 to 18:00); companies can open online through the Digitalis Vallalati Bankfiok, with identification over Granit VideoBank on weekdays between 8:00 and 17:00.

The one bank on this page that publishes an English identification route: MagNet runs a VideoBank customer due diligence service in English for customers with foreign citizenship, and on the Nova, MagNext and Szimpatia packages you set your own account keeping fee anywhere between HUF 0 and HUF 1,000 a month.

Good to know: The English VideoBank session runs Monday to Thursday 8:00 to 17:00 and Friday 8:00 to 16:00 and still asks for a valid passport plus a plastic Hungarian ID card and a Hungarian address card, so it helps once you are registered, not on day one; a small network rather than a branch on every corner, with the head office and Kozossegi Haz at 1062 Budapest, Andrassy ut 98 and ATMs at Astoria, Balassi Balint utca, Bartok Bela ut and Ulloi ut; the 24/7 customer line is +36 1 428 8888, and the Alapszamla 2 list fee of HUF 1,454 is exactly the legal cap but the bank's own page says it is currently charged at HUF 0.

The fintech most expats in Budapest actually use, and it now has a real Hungarian branch: MNB's institution register lists Revolut Bank UAB Magyarorszagi Fioktelepe as an authorised bank branch at 1052 Budapest, Szervita ter 8, active since 1 November 2025, which is what makes a Hungarian account number possible.

Good to know: Treat the Hungarian account number as something to check rather than assume: the migration of existing Hungarian customers to the branch has been rolled out in waves, so open the app and look at the account details you actually hold before handing them to an employer or a landlord. Revolut's own Hungarian site and help centre returned an access block every time they were requested for this update, so nothing here is quoted from Revolut: the branch details come from the MNB register, and plan prices, fees and the qvik and instant transfer coverage should be confirmed in the app or with Revolut. Note also that the account sits with a Lithuanian bank operating here through a branch, so ask Revolut which deposit guarantee scheme covers you.

Gives you local Hungarian forint account details plus an IBAN alongside 40 currencies you can hold for free, which is why it is the standard tool for anyone paid from abroad.

Good to know: Wise states plainly on its HUF account page that the Wise account is not a bank account, and its help centre says Swift payments in currencies other than HUF cannot be received on the HUF details; on sending, its HUF transfer guide says payments are usually instant below HUF 20 million and take zero to one working day above that.