I must say that all in all banking is one of the things that I think Switzerland excels at (anyone who spends some time in complaints corner knows that I'm giving a compliment here).

I've been disappointed when dealing with banks in pretty much any English-speaking country you care to mention - especially when it comes to things like foreign currency transactions (i.e. rip-off). I know banking isn't cheap here and it is not without its problems, but on the whole I find it a very positive experience.

I've been with CS since I got here and its generally been trouble free. At least they had great internet banking years ago and issued an electronic secureID card from the start (unlike ZKB and the paper cross-off list), and they always understood what an IBAN number was, even for domestic transfers (again, unlike ZKB which up until recently seemed to absolutely clueless about what an IBAN was - ditto for the Post). But even though I might find a paper cross-off list primitive many banks in other countries have ABSOLUTELY NO FORM of two-factor authentication for their internet banking customers at all - or they charge them for the additional security which should be the banks problem in the first place.

And at least Switzerland doesn't entertain the idea of banking with cheques which gives them about a million bonus points in my mind! When I go to visit people in other countries I feel like I'm stepping back into the banking past. I remember an American friend telling me about how she used Yahoo's bill pay service. She said that if she pays online they actually print out a cheque and send it through the post to the other person. Once in the banking system the cheque gets sent back and forth in "normal" cheque processing before the amount is finally transferred electronically. She was almost embarassed to tell me - and so she should have been

So top marks to consumer banking in Switzerland.