Hello Everybody,

I am new in Switzerland, just got a job and I need to get a bank account/card now so my head is all around the question:

Which bank I should choose to apply for a bank card ( probably a simple debit card not a credit card!)
I would really like to get a card which I can use if I want to buy a flight ticket online or and top up my phone through the web and use my card in the shops here in Swiss.
The other thing is if I have to pay a fee after I got the card ,they take out some money monthly from my account ?

Just a simple card I was thinking of, like the Halifax easycash one in the UK.

Or the other thing is a Saving account, if there is a good one here.


Any advice would be welcome!

Thanks a lot,

Julia

I think all banks are likely to give you a debit card that you can use in shops etc. And get cash from ATMs.

There is no obvious good or bad bank. We went for Credit Suisse but many recommend the smaller kantonal banks. Depends what you need. When all is said and done there is not that much difference.

I asked for a credit card when I opened an account but they wouldn't do it straightaway. They wrote to me a year or so later asking if I wanted one but I didn't. When I bought my Halbtax card they gave me a Visa credit card and that has done the job ever since.

I've heard that PostFinance offers the simplest account, but you would have to check whether they offer all the facilities you need.

Which ever bank you opt for, check whether the card is Visa or maestro. If you intend to use the card abroad, be aware that less places abroad accept the latter.

Thank you for your answer!

Can you please tell me what is the difference between the Visa and Maestro card? ( I have never had Maestro card)

Thanks,
Julia

Thank you for your answer!

Have a nice day!!

Get this.

Costs CHF10.- a month, and you get a Maestro and a choice of two credit cards (Visa / Mastercard and an Amex)

You can open savings account etc at a later stage but you don't have to be tied up.

Maestro is a debit card and usually not accepted for transactions online.

Fact sheet: here

Well maybe I looked a bit dodgy, but as I said CS didn't give us credit cards immediately.

Did they tell you why?

I didn't ask for one straight away and opted for the very basic private account to start off with, I then realised it's better to pay for everything upfront rather than rack up charges etc along the way, this made sense specially so when I needed a credit card as most of these banks charge a fee or in the case of supermarket etc they waive the fee in the hope that you shop from them and hence pay more money in the long run.

10.- is the best offer to get maestro card? 120.- a year does not seem like deal to me

Read the factsheet before you make such comments.

There is CHF250 worth of charges that you save for starters, plus the annual CHF40.- fee for the maestro is waived, and you don't pay any fees for the credit cards. And you have some sort of accident insurance included with the credit card. And there are no fees when withdrawing cash from any cash machine in Switzerland as opposed to other accounts you get with the kantonal banks etc.

You can also just get the basic private account and pay for all these things seperately, I did that too and it was more than CHF120.- a year.

It wasn't t a big deal, to be honest, as we had UK credit cards plus the debit card.

I think they just said something bland about seeing how we operate our account before issuing a credit card. It didn't seem unreasonable to us. We had arrived in the country just a few days before, were living in temporary accommodation, had no salary paid in yet etc etc.

I find UBS very good, debit card, online banking, very easy to pay money into my UK bank account online and only costs 5CHF, was quick and easy to set up the account and I had the card, pin number, security machine for online use etc all within 5 days.
I certainly have no complaints with UBS.

I would recommend Credit Swiss

To be fair to Credit Suisse, your situation is not everybody's situation. We were issued a CS Maestro, Visa and American Express card all upon opening our account.

And we're American! Go figure.

I doubt you'll find a bank as bad as Halifax outside the UK...

I highly recommend PostFinance. You can get their "online set" that has no monthly/annual fees at all once your balance tops 7500CHF. This also includes an "e-deposito" savings account. The only down side is that their ATM/debit card (the Postcard) isn't accepted for purchases outside of Switzerland. However, it is accepted just about everywhere in Switzerland, and does work to withdraw cash at ATMs abroad.

Swiss Post Finance current account, CHF 3,-- per month, secure online banking, free of charge.

Swiss Post Finance savings account, free of charge. https://www.postfinance.ch/en/priv.html Available in English

Migros or Coop Visa credit card, free of charge. Migros or Coop Mastercard, free of charge. SBB Halb-Tax card, free pre-paid Visa credit card.

Fair enough, maybe different branches have different policies. Perhaps if we'd asked firmly they would have done so but it was more of a casual inquiry than anything as we had no great need for more cards. In fact, even when they did later offer us the Amex and Visa we didn't bother taking them.

Thats why im searching for a bank that offers maestro with low fees.

Ive heard people saying raiffeisen offers it and has the lowest fees around, anyone can confirm that?

On the whole the cantonal banks and Raiffeisen have relatively low fees. Raiffeisen banks have a pretty thin network and unless there's a branch not to far from where you either live or work, that might be trickier, though these days with e-banking and ATMs, you don't actually have to go into a bank branch too often these days.
I don't like the big Swiss banks, UBS, CS. In my opinion they're not interested in small accounts and their fees are excessive.
I would go for either the local cantonal bank or Postfinance - they all seem to publish their fees online these days on their websites. For credit cards, try Migros/Cumulus, which as others have said is free, though they charge higher commission on foreign transactions.