The title ionic compound, (C₇H₈N₃)₂[Ho₂(C₄H₅O₂)₈], is constructed from two almost identical independent centrosymmetric anionic dimers balanced by two independent 2-amino-1H-benzimidazol-3-ium (Habim⁺) cations. The asymmetric part of each dimer is made up of one Ho^III cation and four crotonate (crot or but-2-enoate) anions, two of them acting in a simple η²-chelating mode and the remaining two acting in two different μ₂:η² fashions, viz. purely bridging and bridging-chelating. Symmetry-related Ho^III cations are linked by two Ho-O-Ho and two Ho-O-C-O-Ho bridges which lead to rather short intracationic Ho⋯Ho distances [3.8418 (3) and 3.8246 (3) Å]. In addition to the obvious Coulombic interactions linking the cations and anions, the isolated [Ho₂(crot)₈]^2- and Habim⁺ ions are linked by a number of N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, in which all N-H groups of the cation are involved as donors and all (simple chelating) crot O atoms are involved as acceptors. These interactions result in compact two-dimensional structures parallel to (110), which are linked to each other by weaker π–π contacts between Habim⁺ benzene groups.