Costs, licensing, consumer protection Privacy, self-custody, censorship resistance

Intesa Sanpaolo — Carta Superflash

Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. · Mastercard

3.1/5 1.1/5
FX markup 2%

Data verified on last change the sources

Worth it if you want a prepaid card with an IBAN from a leading issuer for SEPA transfers and direct debits, with free withdrawals and top-ups at Intesa Sanpaolo ATMs.

Avoid it if a €26.90/year fee on a prepaid card weighs on you, or you consider the lack of FITD guarantee up to €100,000 (only safeguarding) a dealbreaker.

Carta Superflash is Intesa Sanpaolo's reloadable prepaid card with an IBAN, on the Mastercard network. It is still marketed in 2026 (live product page, updated Information Sheet no. 272) and sits alongside the bank's XME family (the XME Debit Card is the debit card on XME Conto; Superflash is the prepaid-with-IBAN). The IBAN supports SEPA transfers and direct debits. The fee is high for the segment: €26.90/year. 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. Foreign-currency payments carry a 2% fee (minimum €0.50), plus the Mastercard network fee.

65
Transparency: Medium
65/100 · see methodology
65
Data exposure: Medium
65/100 · lower is better for sovereignty · methodology

Data & conditions

Network Mastercard
Fund custody Custodial (platform holds funds)
Issuance fee Free
Annual fee €27/year
Free ATM limit Intesa Sanpaolo ATMs €0; other SEPA banks €2; extra-SEPA €5; max €500/day
ATM withdrawal Free
FX markup 2%
Cashback Not disclosed
Contactless Yes
Virtual card No
KYC Full
Privacy 3/10
Supported countries EEA · 1+ countries
Funding / solidity Prepagata con IBAN di Intesa Sanpaolo, prima banca italiana · affianca la famiglia XME
Regulator Banca d'Italia · BCE (MVU)
Segment B2C
Funding / solidityPrepaid card with IBAN from Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank · alongside the XME family
MiCA / License status Licenza bancaria (Albo Banche n. 5361) Prepaid e-money card on IT banking licence (Bank of Italy)

Plans & pricing

Strengths

  • Prepaid with IBAN from a leading issuer: SEPA transfers and direct debits
  • Free withdrawals and top-ups at Intesa Sanpaolo ATMs, contactless and mobile payments
  • Still active in 2026 (updated Information Sheet no. 272), contrary to the belief that it was discontinued
  • Full app management, wide Group branch and ATM network
  • No notable sovereignty advantage documented.

Weaknesses

  • High fee for a prepaid card: €26.90/year
  • E-money: no FITD coverage, only fund safeguarding (no €100,000 deposit guarantee)
  • 2% FX fee (min €0.50) on top of the Mastercard fee; other-bank withdrawals €2 (SEPA) / €5 (abroad); no cashback; €10,000 max balance
  • 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

C D ★ 3.1/5 ★ 1.1/5

Carta Superflash is a prepaid card with an IBAN from a leading issuer, still on catalogue in 2026, with free withdrawals and top-ups at Group ATMs. The real limit is cost: a €26.90/year fee is high for a prepaid card, on top of 2% FX and no cashback. Like all prepaid cards it is e-money, so without FITD guarantee up to €100,000, only fund safeguarding. Rating 3.1/C: a solid, reliable product, but penalised by its high fee versus free (or near-free) prepaid cards with IBAN.

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.

Privacy & anonymity 30% 1.1
Fund control 20% 1.3
Censorship resistance 20% 1.4
Trustless / auditability 20% 0.0
Costs 10% 2.2

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 — Carta Superflash, and what users say. External signals: they do not feed the promp.it rating.

Incidents & regulatory actions

Notable incidents

Documented events with consequences still open. Each entry carries a source and a date.

  1. 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.

    ↗ source
  2. 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

4.5/5 1,777,841 reviews
  • Google Play ↗ 4.5/5 1,007,961 reviews

    Ratings for the “Intesa Sanpaolo Mobile” app (Italian store), NOT for the Superflash card. The count is the exact sum of the rating histogram on the page (5★ 722,722 · 4★ 168,918 · 3★ 46,195 · 2★ 16,268 · 1★ 53,858); the resulting weighted average is 4.48, consistent with the rounded 4.5 shown by the store.

  • App Store ↗ 4.6/5 769,880 reviews

    Ratings for the “Intesa Sanpaolo Mobile” app (Italian storefront), NOT for the Superflash card: they measure the banking app experience, not the card product. Exact figure from Apple's lookup API.

Weighted average across 2 public review platforms (1,777,841 reviews in total), weighted by volume. This is not our rating: it is those platforms’ average.

FAQ

How much does Carta Superflash cost?

The fee is €26.90/year. Withdrawals and top-ups at Intesa Sanpaolo ATMs are free; foreign-currency purchases carry a 2% fee (minimum €0.50) plus the Mastercard network fee. There is no cashback.

Are funds on Carta Superflash protected by the FITD?

No. Carta Superflash 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

Update history

  1. Costs added from the fee sheet (upd. 30/06/2026): 2% currency conversion (min €0.50) and €2 SEPA / €5 non-SEPA withdrawals outside the Group. FX previously showed as free.

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