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LEV ATM, TRF MB WAY, C.DEB: Portuguese statement codes

A Portuguese statement is written for the bank's system, not for you, and it is written in Portuguese abbreviations even if you are not. This guide breaks down the anatomy of a line, translates the codes you will meet most often, and explains why the date printed there may not be the day you spent the money.

The anatomy of a line

A typical line has five parts:

8.06   8.06   COMPRA 4521 CONTINENTE MODELO CASC CONTACTLESS   14,61   534,83
 │      │      │                                                  │       │
 │      │      description                                    debit       balance
 │      value date
 posting date

Data de lançamento (posting date): the day the movement hit the account.
Data valor (value date): the day from which the money counts for interest. It can be earlier.
Descritivo (description): the operation type, the last digits of the card, and the merchant name, cut to the width of the field.
Débito or crédito: usually in separate columns, with no minus sign.
Saldo (balance): what was left in the account after this movement.

Dictionary of the most common codes

On the statement	What it means
`COMPRA 4521 NAME CONTACTLESS`	Card payment at a terminal. COMPRA means purchase. 4521 is the last digits of your card, not the merchant's. CONTACTLESS means you tapped rather than inserted.
`LEV ATM`	Cash withdrawal at an ATM. LEV is short for levantamento, withdrawal. Usually followed by the bank and the machine location.
`PAG BXVAL`	Low value payment (pagamento de baixo valor). In Portugal this is most often Via Verde motorway tolls, charged in small batches.
`TRF MB WAY P/ NAME`	An MB WAY transfer you sent to that person. P/ is short for para, meaning "to".
`TRF DE NAME`	A transfer received. If the name is one of your own accounts, such as a savings pot, this is your own money moving, not new income.
`TRF. P/O NAME`	An ordered transfer, usually scheduled or made at a branch.
`COM.MAN.CONTA`	Account maintenance fee charged by the bank. Normally shows the month it refers to.
`IMPOSTO SELO`	Stamp duty on banking fees. Almost always appears right after the fee that triggered it.
`TRANSFERENCIA - VENCIMENTO`	Your salary (vencimento). This is the credit that usually explains the jump in balance at month end.
`DD` or `DEB DIRECTO`	An authorised direct debit, typically water, electricity, telecoms or insurance.

Why merchant names are cut off

The description field has a fixed width, so the merchant name is truncated mid-word: MARQUES E BERNARDO .ALP, NATAS D OURO PAST SOV.N. The name shown is also not necessarily the shop name: it is the name registered on the payment terminal, which is often the owning company rather than the sign above the door.

So not recognising one of your own purchases is normal. Before assuming fraud, match the date and the amount against what you did that day.

Posting date and value date

When the two dates differ, it is almost always weekends and public holidays. A Saturday purchase can post on the Monday. For personal budgeting the posting date is the one that matters, because that is the one the balance follows. The value date only matters for interest.

One practical consequence: money spent on the last day of the month can appear on the next month's statement. If your monthly totals never match what you feel you spent, this is often why.

Checking that the statement adds up

Every statement carries an opening balance (saldo inicial) and a closing balance (saldo final). Add every credit to the opening balance, subtract every debit, and you must land exactly on the closing balance. If you do not, a line is missing, most likely at a page break.

Watch for A TRANSPORTAR and TRANSPORTE at the end and start of each page. Those are not movements, they are the balance carried across the page break. If you are adding things up by hand or in a spreadsheet, do not count them.

When the statement covers more than one account

Combined statements (extratos combinados) put your current account and other linked accounts, such as a savings pot, in a single PDF. Each account has its own opening balance, its own list of movements and its own closing balance.

This matters because transfers between your own accounts appear twice, once leaving one account and once arriving in the other. If you add everything together as if it were one account, those transfers inflate both the spending and the income of the month without you having spent or earned anything.

Focus reads these lines for you, splits the accounts and turns the codes into categories.

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