I would also like to know this, and I have searched extensively in the forum postings on this subject but not been able to find anything, so maybe it's something that you just have absolutely no chance of getting if you are still new enough in the country to actually need one...

I have been in Switzerland for four months, work for UBS through an agency (all of us newbies in my department are on initial 6-month contracts through recruitment agencies), earn a reasonable amount of money compared to what I'd guess is the "norm", but cannot get a credit card, even from UBS.

Or rather, I can get either a standard or gold card from UBS with credit limits of 5000F or 10000F respectively, but only by blocking that same amount of money in my bank account that I cannot touch for as long as I use the card, and having not so long ago paid out three months rent as deposit on my flat as well as other startup expenses of coming here, plus still having to pay a mortgage on my house back in the UK, that is somewhat beyond me at present.

I then applied for a Coop Supercard Plus (underwritten by Credit Suisse, and yes, I have read the other postings about the problems with Credit Suisse's credit card company), and - having chased them several times over the last few weeks because I have never once heard anything back from them, not even an acknowledgement - I find out today that I am being refused, even for a card with a 500F credit limit ("it's not the credit limit, it's the principle") because I only have an "L" Bewilligung and a "short-term" contract, not a permanent contract.

I wouldn't be so bothered about having a credit card, but for the fact that there are so many things here in Switzerland for which you can only pay by credit card, not by Maestro, yet they make it hellishly difficult to actually get a credit card. Until such point as I find a way through the tangled web, like Saharanz I am also getting hammered both ways on having to use my UK credit card to pay for everything for which I cannot pay by Maestro, and then come payday having to send Swiss francs back to the UK to pay off the card, paying international transfer and currency conversion charges yet again along the way.

So, all advice on how a relative newbie with a good job but not yet a "B" Bewilligung might get approved for a Swiss-based credit card would be VERY gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Martin Reed