The Post Office In Italy Is Easy To Manage With This Guide

The Post Office in Italy seem complicated, but it has been in service for more than 160 years providing postal service across Italy and this is your guide.

The Italian Postal Service (Poste Italiane) is more than just your typical post office. Their stated purpose is: “To grow responsibly thanks to the decisive contribution of its people for the sustainable success, innovation, digitization and social cohesion of the country”, which sounds a little different to me than the US Postal Service (USPS).

How Does The Post Office In Italy Function?

They have been in service for more than 160 years, since Italian Unification, and they are a network of approximately 12,800 post offices, 121,000 employees, and €586 billion of Total Financial Assets and 35 million customers, and provides an important contribution to the economic, social and productive fabric of the country. They are also listed on the Borsa di Milano, which is the Italian Stock Exchange. It is the largest company in the logistics sector in Italy and is a leader in the financial, insurance and payment services sector.

The Post Office In Italy – Mail Delivery

As you probably could guess from the name, the main function of Poste Italiane is providing universal postal service throughout Italy. At each branch, you can send or receive letters, telegrams and packages both domestically and internationally. You can also purchase physical stamps, expand your collection if philately is your thing or set up your online account to be able to ship letters and parcels from your home.

Postal Financial Services

The postal service in Italy includes more financial services that I would have expected. You can set up a bank account and have a credit or debit card, you can take a loan out from the Poste like you would from a bank in the US and you can even get your mortgage at the Poste. They also provide savings and investment opportunities, although they seem to me to be lower risk investments, which makes sense to me.

Imagine being able to walk into a post office in the US and ask them for a Mortgage. I shudder to think. What does seem more “On Brand” is that they also offer the ability to send money with services like MoneyGram and Western Union, among others.

Bill Payment And Recharging Cellular Plans

When you first move to Italy, you need to ask: “How do I pay my utilities?” and the most common way that was described to me is to go to the post office. There are many other ways, like online, pulled directly from your bank account or at a certain type of newsstand, but the Poste was by far the most popular. You walk in with your bill (bolletino) and they will walk you through the rest of the process.

You can also recharge your phone balance. I’m not talking about electrical recharging, rather your monetary balance. Cell phone plans here seem much more month-to-month than in the US, so initially, I had to go to a store every month to top up my balance, but this too can be done at the Post Office. The other situation is if you use up your minutes before the end of the month and you need to put more money on the phone to keep it functioning.

Postal Services – Insurance

When you consider the other financial services that the Post Office in Italy provides, insurance doesn’t seem so strange. They have a wide range of financial protection plans, which includes: insurance for driving, life and travel, loan and mortgage protection and individual pension plans.

Postal Services to Citizens

There are also what they call Services to Citizens (Servizi al Cittadino) that seem a little like quasi government services, like digital identities and signatures, passports sent directly to your home, permission to remain (Permesso di Soggiorno) and you can initiate the inheritance process there as well.

Business Services

If you are visiting Italy, you probably won’t need to worry about business services, but should you choose to move here, this might be helpful. The Poste Italiane segments their services by:

1. Professional and Small Businesses – This focuses on e-commerce sites, contractors (Partita IVA), Artisans and Condominium Administrators with services like digital signatures, small business loans and electronic post.
2. Medium to Large Business – The services here are more focused on direct mail marketing, managing supplemental health coverage, accepting credit cards and being a business partner. 
3. Public Administration – This relates to customs, collections and other services included in the Medium or Large businesses.

The Post Office In Italy Is On Social Media

Luckily, you can keep up with the happenings at the Post Office through their Instagram account. They also have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts as well. 

Raising The Bar With Poste Premium

With Poste Premium, the value of Poste Italiane finds a new, higher level thanks to the Premium Consultant assigned to your account. This person is dedicated to you and is able to provide personalized service to carry out your projects. This custom level of help is of course at a cost, but I guess if you are rich, even the post office wants to help you!

More Italian Government Services

If you enjoyed this article about the Post Office in Italy and you would like to learn more about the Italian government and related services, you should check out these articles as well:

• The Italian System of Government.
• How Is The Italian Government Elected By Its Citizens?
• Does Italy Have A King?
• Italian Citizenship Through Marriage (Jure Matrimonii).
• Italian Citizenship by Descent (a.k.a. Jure Sanguinis).
• Italian Citizenship By Birth Can Be A Complicated Process.
• Italian Citizenship Requirements Include These Documents.