Italian Money Vocabulary: Soldi, Banks, Currency Exchange

🔍 In short. This guide to italian money vocabulary walks you through the words Italians actually use at the bank counter, at the ATM, at the currency desk and in everyday talk about cash. You will see why Italians have three different words for money (soldi, denaro, quattrini), how to ask for a wire transfer in Italian, what to say when the bancomat swallows your card, and how to read the cambio board at a Genova exchange office without panicking. The italian money vocabulary covered here is solid B1 material: real banking sentences, idioms with soldi, and the polite phrasing you need at a counter.

You will also meet a short dialogue between a customer and a bank teller in a Genova branch, a cheat sheet with the most useful nouns and verbs, a mini-task to practise, and a quiz to test what you have learned. This is the same italian money vocabulary you will hear from a teller at Banca Carige, from a friend asking quanto costa?, or from a parent grumbling about italian money vocabulary on tax forms.

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Soldi, denaro, quattrini: three words for money

Sit at a kitchen table in Genova, listen to a family discuss the monthly budget, and you will hear all three words within five minutes. The grandfather says quattrini, the mother says soldi, the daughter writing a formal email to the landlord types denaro. Same concept, three different temperatures. Learning italian money vocabulary means learning register: that is the heart of italian money vocabulary, more than learning new nouns.

Soldi is the workhorse of italian money vocabulary, the neutral everyday word, the one you will use ninety percent of the time. The Treccani records colloquial expressions like come sei messo a soldi? (how are you doing for cash?) and se solo potessi avere un po’ dei tuoi soldi (if only I could have a little of your money). Italians say non ho soldi, mi servono soldi, spendi troppi soldi. The word always appears in the plural in this sense: un soldo in the singular only survives in the idiom sono rimasto senza un soldo (I am completely broke).

Denaro sits at the formal end of italian money vocabulary, slightly more abstract, and you will see it on contracts, in newspapers, in bank statements, in laws. Riciclaggio di denaro is money laundering. Trasferimento di denaro is the official label on a wire transfer form. A bank teller will ask vuole depositare del denaro? rather than vuole depositare dei soldi?, because she is in a professional register. Use denaro when you want to sound serious, written, slightly distant from the cash itself.

Quattrini is the most flavourful of the three options inside italian money vocabulary. It is older, slightly informal, and carries a faint smile. A grandparent saying non ho più un quattrino is being a little theatrical about being broke. Italian also has a swarm of regional slang words for money: grana and grano (cash, dough), palanche in the north, schei in the Veneto, sacchi when you mean a thousand of something. None of these belong in a bank conversation, but you will hear them among friends.

Pick the right register and your italian money vocabulary will sound native. Pick the wrong one and you will sound either bookish (using denaro with friends) or too casual (using quattrini at the bank counter).

• Quanti soldi hai in tasca?
  How much money do you have in your pocket?
• Vorrei depositare del denaro sul mio conto.
  I would like to deposit some money into my account.
• Mio nonno diceva sempre: senza un quattrino non si va lontano.
  My grandfather always said: without a penny you don’t get far.
• Sono rimasta senza un soldo dopo le vacanze a Lucca.
  I’m completely broke after the holidays in Lucca.

Cash, banconote and monete: handling physical money

Walk into a bakery in Bologna and ask if you can pay by card. The answer might surprise you: solo contanti, mi dispiace. Cash is still everywhere in Italy, especially for small purchases, and the italian money vocabulary for physical money is something you should know cold. I contanti means cash, always plural, with the article: it is the most everyday slice of italian money vocabulary you will use day to day. The expression pagare in contanti means to pay in cash, and you will see signs on tobacco shops, hairdressers, and small restaurants reading pagamenti solo in contanti.

The word contanti can sound oddly formal to English ears. It comes from the verb contare, to count: cash is what you actually count out. The opposite is pagamento elettronico or con carta, by card. If a shopkeeper asks contanti o carta?, she is asking you cash or card. A useful follow-up question if you only have notes: avete da cambiare un cinquanta? (can you break a fifty?). This is italian money vocabulary you will use every single day.

Banconote are banknotes, the paper money. Una banconota da venti euro is a twenty-euro note. Inside the italian money vocabulary of paper bills, Italians distinguish between banconote di grosso taglio (large denominations, fifty and above) and banconote di piccolo taglio (small denominations, five to twenty). Many small shops refuse banconote da cinquanta or da cento because they cannot give change. Mi spiace, non ho da cambiare means sorry, I can’t make change for that.

Monete are coins, another small but essential piece of italian money vocabulary. Una moneta da un euro, una moneta da cinque centesimi. The smallest Italian coins are cinque centesimi, the largest are due euro. Italians often ask for change in small denominations at the start of the day, especially shopkeepers: mi può cambiare cinquanta euro in monete da uno? (can you give me change of fifty euros in one-euro coins?). The verb is spicciolare (to break into change) or simply cambiare, and the small change itself is called spiccioli: non ho spiccioli means I don’t have small change.

A useful piece of italian money vocabulary at the till: il resto. That is the change owed back to you after you have paid. Tenga il resto means keep the change. Mi dia il resto, per favore means please give me my change. Non mi ha dato il resto giusto means you didn’t give me the right change.

• Pago in contanti, accettate banconote da cinquanta?
  I’m paying cash, do you take fifty-euro notes?
• Mi può cambiare cento euro in monete da uno?
  Can you give me change of one hundred euros in one-euro coins?
• Non ho spiccioli, ho solo una banconota da venti.
  I have no small change, only a twenty-euro note.
• Mi scusi, mi ha dato cinque euro di resto in meno.
  Excuse me, you gave me five euros less in change.

Going to the bank: sportello, filiale, impiegato

An Italian bank is called una banca, with the feminine article. The branch is la filiale: la filiale di Genova, la filiale di Via XX Settembre. The counter where you do business with a person is lo sportello, literally a little door, one of the first words to learn in branch-related italian money vocabulary. The person who serves you there is l’impiegato di banca or l’impiegata di banca (bank clerk). When you walk in and there is a queue, you take a number from il distributore di numeri and wait until your number is called: numero centoventidue, sportello tre.

Italian banks have famously restricted opening hours, especially the counter service, and this fact is encoded in the italian money vocabulary itself. Most branches close around le tre e mezzo (3:30 PM) and reopen the next morning. Some larger filiali split the day: orario continuato means open all day, orario spezzato means split hours. If a friend tells you lo sportello chiude alle tre e mezzo, sbrigati, they are warning you that the counter window is about to close and you need to hurry.

The verbs are the next layer of italian money vocabulary. To open an account, Italians say aprire un conto corrente. To close one, chiudere un conto. To deposit, depositare or versare. To withdraw, prelevare. The act of withdrawing at a teller counter is un prelievo allo sportello; the act of withdrawing at an ATM is un prelievo al bancomat. A real customer might ask: buongiorno, vorrei prelevare cinquecento euro dal mio conto (good morning, I would like to withdraw five hundred euros from my account).

If you live in Italy long term, you will get to know the language of banking documents, an italian money vocabulary all of its own. The italian money vocabulary on a bank statement includes saldo (balance), operazioni (transactions), addebiti (debits), accrediti (credits), spese (fees), interessi (interest). The Treccani records this old usage from the Middle Ages: già nel Medioevo il vocabolo banco cominciò a essere usato in riferimento al prestito di denaro. The bank, in other words, was named after the bench the moneylender sat at. Some traces of that history survive: banco dei pegni is a pawnshop, Banco di Sicilia and Banco di Sardegna are the names of two old regional banks.

• Lo sportello chiude alle tre e mezzo, sbrigati.
  The counter closes at three thirty, hurry up.
• Costanza ha aperto un conto corrente alla filiale di Genova.
  Costanza opened a current account at the Genova branch.
• Vorrei prelevare trecento euro dal mio conto, per favore.
  I would like to withdraw three hundred euros from my account, please.
• Il saldo del mio conto è negativo di duecento euro.
  My account balance is two hundred euros in the red.

Using a bancomat: the Italian ATM word that is also a card

The word bancomat is one of the small curiosities of italian money vocabulary that catches every English speaker by surprise. In Italy bancomat means both the ATM (the machine in the wall) and the debit card you put into it. The brand became generic, the way Kleenex did for tissues. So when an Italian says pago col bancomat, they mean by debit card; when they say vado al bancomat, they mean to the ATM. Context tells you which one.

If you want to be more precise inside this slice of italian money vocabulary, the machine itself is also uno sportello automatico or uno sportello bancomat. The card is sometimes called una carta di debito. The PIN you type is il codice PIN, and the receipt that prints out is la ricevuta or lo scontrino. To insert your card you inserisci la carta; to take it back, you ritiri la carta. The classic Italian banking nightmare is il bancomat ha trattenuto la carta: the ATM has swallowed your card. You then have to call the bank to get it back, usually the next business day.

Italians use bancomat for everyday purchases, but cash is still preferred for small amounts, especially in southern Italy and in tourist areas, so be ready to flex your italian money vocabulary in both directions. Another essential entry in italian money vocabulary at the till is il POS, pronounced like the English word “pose”, the card reader on the counter. Avete il POS? means do you take cards? The answer in many small bars and bakeries, still in 2026, can be il POS è rotto (the card reader is broken), which is sometimes true and sometimes a polite excuse to insist on cash.

Withdrawing money at an ATM is fare un prelievo, a key phrase in cash-machine italian money vocabulary. You will see the verbs on the screen: seleziona l’importo (select the amount), conferma con il tasto OK (confirm with the OK button), ritira la carta (take your card back), ritira il denaro (take your money). Each bank sets a daily withdrawal limit, usually around 250 to 500 euros: il limite giornaliero di prelievo.

• Il bancomat ha trattenuto la mia carta, devo chiamare la banca.
  The ATM swallowed my card, I have to call the bank.
• Pago col bancomat, accettate carte di debito?
  I’m paying by debit card, do you take debit cards?
• Vado al bancomat a prelevare duecento euro per il fine settimana.
  I’m going to the ATM to withdraw two hundred euros for the weekend.
• Il limite giornaliero di prelievo è di duecentocinquanta euro.
  The daily withdrawal limit is two hundred and fifty euros.

Currency exchange: cambio valuta and commissions

If you arrive in Italy from a non-Euro country, you may need to change money, and a small subset of italian money vocabulary covers this scene. The italian money vocabulary for currency exchange is built around the noun il cambio (the exchange rate) and the verb cambiare (to change). A currency exchange office is un ufficio di cambio or un cambio valuta. At airports you will see counters labelled simply Cambio. The exchange rate of the day, in italian money vocabulary, is il cambio del giorno or il tasso di cambio.

The most useful sentence in exchange-desk italian money vocabulary is also one of the simplest: vorrei cambiare cento dollari in euro (I would like to change a hundred dollars into euros). To ask the rate, qual è il cambio dollaro-euro oggi? or a quanto sta il dollaro?. If the rate is unfavourable, an Italian will say il cambio è sfavorevole oggi; if it is good, il cambio è favorevole. The verb convenire covers the cost-benefit logic: oggi non conviene cambiare means today it doesn’t pay to change money.

Always ask about commissions, because they are the trap inside italian money vocabulary at the exchange counter. Le commissioni are the fees the exchange office charges. Quante sono le commissioni? is how you ask. The phrase le commissioni sono salate (the fees are salty) is a fixed idiom meaning the fees are steep. Airport cambio booths are famous for high commissions: as a rule, Italians avoid them and exchange money in town instead. A bank branch is usually cheaper, though slower; an ATM with a foreign card is often the best compromise.

If you need to send money home or receive money from abroad, italian money vocabulary uses bonifico for a bank wire transfer. Bonifico internazionale is an international transfer. Bonifico SEPA is a transfer within the European Union zone, usually free or very cheap. We will come back to bonifico in the banking culture section.

• Vorrei cambiare duecento dollari in euro, qual è il cambio oggi?
  I would like to change two hundred dollars into euros, what’s the rate today?
• Le commissioni sul cambio valuta sono salate in aeroporto.
  The currency exchange fees are steep at the airport.
• Il tasso di cambio dollaro-euro oggi è sfavorevole, aspetto domani.
  The dollar-euro exchange rate is unfavourable today, I’ll wait until tomorrow.
• A quanto sta il dollaro? Non mi conviene cambiare adesso.
  What’s the dollar at? It doesn’t pay for me to change now.

Banking culture: conto corrente, bonifico, IBAN

Living in Italy means opening un conto corrente, a current account, and that opens the door to a whole new layer of italian money vocabulary. To do that, you need un documento d’identità (an ID), il codice fiscale (the Italian tax code, mandatory for any financial activity in Italy), and proof of residence or address. The bank gives you un libretto degli assegni (a chequebook, increasingly rare), una carta bancomat, and access to l’home banking or il banking online, which Italians say in English. Your account number on the European standard is called l’IBAN, twenty-seven characters long for Italian accounts.

Italians pay rent, utility bills, and salaries by bonifico bancario, the bank wire transfer, which is probably the single most used noun in adult italian money vocabulary. Faccio un bonifico means I’m doing a wire transfer; ho ricevuto un bonifico means I have received a wire transfer. To make one you need the recipient’s IBAN, the amount (l’importo), and a reason (la causale): for example causale: affitto mese di maggio 2026. SEPA bonifici inside the Eurozone are usually instant or take one working day; international bonifici outside the zone can take three to five working days.

A second instrument that lingers in italian money vocabulary, today mostly replaced by bonifici, is l’assegno, the cheque. Un assegno bancario is a personal cheque; un assegno circolare is a cashier’s cheque, used for high-value transactions like buying a car or a flat. To deposit a cheque, you versare un assegno. To cash it, incassare un assegno. Cheques are slowly disappearing from Italian daily life, but they still appear at notary offices and in real estate deals.

The italian money vocabulary around bills is also worth knowing, because it shows up in conversation almost weekly. Una bolletta is a utility bill (electricity, gas, water, internet). La rata is an instalment, on a loan or a long-term subscription. Il mutuo is a mortgage. Il prestito is a loan in general. Le tasse are taxes; la tassazione is taxation; il commercialista is the accountant who handles your taxes, a figure most self-employed Italians could not live without.

• Devo fare un bonifico a mio fratello a Trieste per il mutuo di casa.
  I have to do a wire transfer to my brother in Trieste for the house mortgage.
• Costanza ha aperto un conto corrente alla Banca Carige in Via Roma.
  Costanza opened a current account at Banca Carige on Via Roma.
• L’IBAN italiano comincia sempre con IT più due cifre di controllo.
  The Italian IBAN always starts with IT followed by two control digits.
• Ho versato un assegno circolare da diecimila euro per la caparra dell’appartamento.
  I deposited a cashier’s cheque for ten thousand euros as the deposit on the flat.

Money expressions Italians actually say

Italian is full of money idioms, the kind of phrases that do not appear in textbooks but pepper every real conversation, and they are an underrated corner of italian money vocabulary. Many idiomatic pieces of italian money vocabulary are tied to the older coin il soldo, which has long disappeared from physical circulation but lives on in fixed expressions. The Treccani records the still-current idiom è una filosofessa da quattro soldi: a cheap, second-rate philosopher. The same pattern is used for any low-quality product: un libro da quattro soldi, un cantante da quattro soldi. It’s the closest Italian gets to the English “two-bit”.

To say someone is very rich, italian money vocabulary offers several options: è pieno di soldi (he is full of money), nuota nell’oro (he swims in gold), or ha le tasche piene (his pockets are full). The opposite, being broke, has dozens of forms: non ho un soldo, sono al verde (literally I am at the green, said to come from green-bordered Tuscan ledgers when the page was empty), sono a secco (I am dry), non ho il becco di un quattrino (I don’t even have a penny’s beak, a poetic way of saying nothing).

When something is overpriced, italian money vocabulary uses costa un occhio della testa (it costs an eye out of your head) or costa una fortuna. A real bargain is un affare or un’occasione. Spending too much, in italian money vocabulary, is scialacquare or sperperare, two strong verbs that suggest waste. The miser, the person who saves obsessively, is un tirchio or uno spilorcio: both words are slightly affectionate, used among friends rather than as insults.

One last useful expression: fare due conti, literally “to do two calculations”, meaning to do the math, to figure out if you can afford something. A friend says devo fare due conti prima di partire: I need to do the math before I leave. It is the standard piece of italian money vocabulary for everyday budgeting talk.

• Quella borsa costa un occhio della testa, non posso permettermela.
  That bag costs an arm and a leg, I can’t afford it.
• Sono al verde, mi presti venti euro fino a giovedì?
  I’m broke, can you lend me twenty euros until Thursday?
• Il fratello di Massimo nuota nell’oro da quando ha venduto l’azienda.
  Massimo’s brother has been swimming in money since he sold the company.
• Devo fare due conti prima di prenotare il volo per Catania.
  I need to do the math before I book the flight to Catania.

Mistakes English speakers make with italian money vocabulary

The first mistake in italian money vocabulary is using soldo in the singular. English speakers, used to “money” as singular, try to translate it as il soldo. Italians don’t: it’s always i soldi, plural. The singular survives only in idioms like senza un soldo. If you say ho un soldo, an Italian will think you mean one coin of a now-defunct unit, not “I have money”.

The second mistake in italian money vocabulary is the false friend contante (singular) vs contanti (plural). The plural contanti is by far the more common form: pago in contanti. The singular il contante exists but is used in formal banking texts rather than in speech. Stick with the plural.

The third mistake in italian money vocabulary is treating bancomat as only the machine. As we saw, the word covers both the ATM and the debit card. When an Italian says pago col bancomat, they don’t mean they are paying at an ATM, they mean they are paying with their debit card. Listen for the preposition: al bancomat (at the ATM) vs col bancomat (with the card).

The fourth mistake in italian money vocabulary is mixing up cambio and resto. Cambio is the exchange rate or the act of exchanging one currency for another; resto is the change you get back after a purchase. Asking the cashier mi dia il cambio instead of mi dia il resto will get you a confused look. Asking the exchange office qual è il resto? instead of qual è il cambio? will get you a smile and possibly a correction.

The fifth mistake is over-using denaro. English speakers reach for it because it feels like a direct translation of “money”, but in spoken Italian denaro sounds bookish, like an accountant reading from a form. Use soldi in conversation and reserve denaro for written or formal contexts. Your italian money vocabulary will instantly sound more natural, more italian, and far less like italian money vocabulary picked up from a phrasebook.

Cheat sheet

Italian	English	Register / use
i soldi	money	neutral, everyday
il denaro	money	formal, written
i quattrini	money, cash	informal, slightly old
i contanti	cash	neutral, used in shops
la banconota	banknote	neutral
la moneta	coin	neutral
gli spiccioli	small change	spoken
il resto	change back after a purchase	spoken, at the till
la banca	bank (institution)	neutral
la filiale	branch	neutral
lo sportello	counter	neutral, at the bank
il bancomat	ATM or debit card	neutral, both meanings
il POS	card reader on the counter	neutral
il prelievo	withdrawal	banking term
il versamento	deposit	banking term
il bonifico	wire transfer	banking, very common
l’IBAN	IBAN account number	banking
il conto corrente	current account	banking
il saldo	account balance	banking
l’assegno	cheque	banking, less common now
il cambio	exchange rate	neutral
il cambio valuta	currency exchange	neutral
le commissioni	fees	banking
la bolletta	utility bill	everyday
il mutuo	mortgage	banking

Dialogue at a Genova bank branch

Costanza walks into a Banca Carige branch in Genova, near the old port. She moved to Italy from Argentina six months ago and is finally setting up her finances properly. Massimo, the bank teller at sportello tre, has been working there for eight years and has seen every kind of customer.

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Frequently asked questions

These questions about italian money vocabulary come from real conversations among Italian learners on language forums. Some of the register information here is documented in the Treccani vocabolario entry on soldo and the vocabolario entry on denaro.

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