Close a bank account in Belgium: free, but not one click

Closing a bank account costs nothing in Belgium, except on a contract opened less than six months ago. The bank only keeps the fees for the period already started. What slows a closure down is almost always a negative balance, a linked credit card or an absent co-holder. Procedures checked on 24 October 2026.

Is closing a bank account free in Belgium?

Yes. Wikifin, the financial education website of the FSMA (the Belgian financial markets regulator), says so without reservation on its page updated on 17 February 2025: closing a current account or a savings account does not trigger any fee. The rule comes from the European Payment Services Directive, whose Article 55 makes termination free once the contract is six months old, and requires fees paid in advance to be refunded pro rata.

Two caveats. The bank first deducts the account fees for the current period, and most Belgian plans are billed monthly: €2.20 at ING Go (fees in force on 1 July 2026), €2 at BNP Paribas Fortis Easy Go (page read on 19 October 2026). Closing on the 3rd of the month therefore costs you, at worst, one month of account fees. Second, the free closure only covers the account itself. Keytrade, for example, keeps €9.95 per fund sold before the fifth year of a Keyplan, according to its closure form.

And sometimes the bank gets it wrong. An ING customer reported on Test-Achats' complaints platform (Test-Achats is the Belgian consumer association) on 16 April 2024 that she had been charged €1.50 in closure fees. Ask for the final statement in writing.

How long does it take to close an account?

One month at most, if your contract provides for notice, and often a few days. The specialised Belgian site Bankinglaw, updated on 18 October 2026, points out that the customer can terminate at any time and that the bank can only impose notice of one month at most. If you are switching banks, the interbank switching service closes the old account for you at the earliest on the tenth banking business day after you sign the form, as detailed in our article on bankswitching.

How do you close your account at KBC, ING, BNP Paribas Fortis, Belfius or Keytrade?

Each bank has its own channel, and only one still requires you to go in person. The table also shows the annual cost of the account, in other words what you keep paying until the closure is done.

KBC annual cost: this site's survey of 26 July 2026. BNP Paribas Fortis: €2 per month, product page read on 19 October 2026. Belfius does not publish an online closure procedure that could be consulted today.

At Belfius, plan for an appointment. A customer complained on Test-Achats in October 2025 that he could not close an account he had not used for years, with registered letters and powers of attorney refused; the bank closed it on 17 October 2025, pointing out that a branch visit remained necessary.

What can block the closure of an account?

The conditions published by KBC, ING and Keytrade converge on five points, which are also behind most closures that drag on:

• a negative balance, even a few cents, to be brought back to zero before any request;
• a credit card, a loan or a KBC Flex Budget attached to the account, to be settled and terminated separately, since bank switching does not transfer them;
• a blocked account, typically a rental deposit, which is only released with the landlord's agreement or a court decision;
• a co-holder who does not sign, since closing a joint account in principle requires everyone's agreement;
• securities in the portfolio: Keytrade sells the positions at market price, and transfers those it cannot sell to Unicef, with no recourse.

Do you need to send a bank account closure letter?

Rarely. The registered-letter template circulating on French websites answers a French procedure; in Belgium, the app, the form or the switching service are enough, and Belfius even refused registered letters in the case mentioned above. Just keep the bank's written confirmation.

What happens to an account you leave open without using it?

First, it costs money. A forgotten ING Go takes its €2.20 every month, or €26.40 a year, and a KBC Compte Base €30 a year. Leave €40 on an ING Go and it goes negative after nineteen months, without you touching anything. That is what happened to the ING customer mentioned above: she went back to CBC (Pure Online, €0 a year in this site's survey of 26 July 2026) without closing her account, found an overdraft of €50.51 and received a letter from the National Bank of Belgium in April 2024 about a credit-facility registration. Then, after five years with no transaction or contact, the law of 24 July 2008 classifies the account as dormant, as BNP Paribas Fortis summarises on its help page. The bank searches for the holder, charges search fees, and if nobody answers, transfers the assets to the Deposit and Consignment Office (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations).

The rule got stricter this year. According to a Belga dispatch carried by Paris Match Belgium on 27 August 2026, the limitation period for transferred assets has dropped from thirty to five years, and small amounts go straight to the Treasury: the threshold, previously €60, rose to €250 in September 2026. Some €500 million has reached the State this way.

Forgetting costs more than closing.

Does closing a savings account mean losing the loyalty bonus?

Yes, for any deposit held for less than twelve months. The loyalty bonus (prime de fidélité) is earned per full loyalty period, and a closure interrupts it. Before closing a regulated savings account, check the dates of your latest deposits: a few weeks of waiting can be worth more than the best rate elsewhere, a calculation we did to the day in the article on transferring a savings account to another bank.

Your situation, the steps to take

The last two cases have their own article: the blocked account after a death and the basic banking service, capped at €20.34 a year in 2026.

Before choosing where to land, our ranking of Belgian banks gives the annual cost of the current account bank by bank, and the which bank to choose page starts from your actual use. The full departure procedure, step by step, is in our guide to switching banks in Belgium.

Sources

• Wikifin (FSMA), Comment ouvrir et fermer un compte à vue ?: free closure, fees for the current period, explicit request, destroying the card, closure by the bank. Page updated on 17 February 2025, consulted on 24 October 2026.
• Bankinglaw.be, Rupture de la relation entre une banque et son client et clôture des comptes: termination at any time by the customer, notice of one month at most, two months' notice for the bank (Article VII.25 of the Code of Economic Law). Published on 29 September 2026, updated on 18 October 2026.
• EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services: Article 55, free termination after six months and pro rata refund of fees paid in advance.
• Paris Match Belgium (Belga), 500 millions d'euros appartenant aux Belges viennent d'atterrir dans les caisses de l'État: five years of inactivity, limitation period cut from thirty to five years, €250 threshold in September 2026, comptesdormants.be. 27 August 2026.
• Test-Achats, public complaint against ING, registration of an inactive account: overdraft of €50.51, closure fee of €1.50, letter from the NBB. 16 April 2024, ING reply of 11 June 2024.
• Test-Achats, public complaint against Belfius, account closure request: closure on 17 October 2025, branch visit required, Belfius reply of 24 November 2025.
• BNP Paribas Fortis, Comment clôturer un compte ? and Qu'est-ce qu'un compte dormant ?: closure channels, law of 24 July 2008. Consulted on 24 October 2026.
• KBC, KBC Mobile FAQ, payments: termination in the app, excluded accounts, products terminated with the account. Consulted on 24 October 2026.
• ING, Clôturer un compte à usage privé: Home'Bank and ING Banking app. Consulted on 24 October 2026. Fees: price list for private customers, in force on 1 July 2026.
• Keytrade Bank, account closure form: sending by post or email, debit balance to be settled, cards blocked, securities sold or transferred to Unicef, €9.95 per Keyplan fund. Consulted on 24 October 2026.
• Comparabel.be, Clôturer un compte ING: signature of all holders of a joint account, debit balance blocking closure. Updated on 10 August 2026.