Hi,

I have this card since I am here and now I have to update it for a second year. My question is, if this card is free or not. A friend of mine told me that this card is only free for the first year, but I cannot find this information in the sbb wesite.
Is that right and how much does it cost?


Thanks in advance!
H.

In SBB site says it is 135 chf.

hahahaha, sorry. I meant if I had to pay for the credit card function? Does the card cost the same in the second year when you use it like credit card?

I've heard that one can get it for free in perpetuum as long as one can provide evidence (annually) of having paid one's billag fees.

Although I might have dreamt that...

I got this. It's free. The halbtax part automatically renwes after the first year and the amount is charged to the card itself. Which, of course, you'll get a bill for and need to pay off.

What happens after two years I don't know. I assume another card is posted (as the two yer expiry date is written on it in rather big lettering) and again the halbtax renewal is automatically charged.

and just out of curiosity, how much credit you are granted?

The standard 1/2 tax for one year is CHF 165.00, the one with credit card CHF 135.00, i.e., it's 'free' for you, however, you obviously somehow make SBB and the credit card issuer CHF 30.00+ a year in profit …

Martin

http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and...visa-card.html

"Half-Fare travelcard with free Visa credit card or Visa prepaid card.
You can obtain the Half-Fare travelcard with Visa credit card for CHF 135 per year. You
save CHF 30 compared with the 1-year Half-Fare travelcard."


Per year: I assume that is a contract. If you purchase a credit function it will cost 135 and only 135. Not extra fees.
I read it again and it says:

" with free Visa credit card or Visa prepaid card"

can I ask whether you need to get registration done first before getting one or whether this card can only be bought by resident please?

you must present a B permit or C etc...

The SBB link to the Halbtax card with Visa Credit Card function is here in EN.

Attached PDF files in EN show that a permit is required.

The variant without the Credit Card function was purchaseable by those living abroad, including tourists - no permit was required.

I have a pre-paid one and I have only had L permits while being here.

May be a bit off topic but thought it best to post it here for peoples reference in the EF search functionality
A couple of points for your reference with regasrds to the credit card functionality
a) The credit limit is normally about 1000 to 1500 CHF based on your income details shared during registrations

b) The halb tax card automatically is renewed and a bill is charged to your Credit card. while this is very convinient for lazy bums like me should you plan to cancel / not renew your halb tax remember to give adequate notice (2 to 3 months atleast)

c) I have found the help line to be very friendly and helpful. I was once struggling to purchace a holiday deal online but was unable to due to limited credit. On calling the hotline they provided me with a temporary overdraft feature and educated me on the possibility of overdraft by paying the card earlier.
e.g. for a transaction of 2000 CHF, I would need to transfer 1000CHF to the credit card's account a day before making the transaction.
That way we get 1000 CHF (while I transferred) and 1000 CHF( from the credit limit on the card).

As I am not a big fan of credit cards and this being my very first credit card, I found the service for a "free" credit card quite good.

Hello, thank You for useful informations. My situation is that I have a simple PostFinance account but I would like to do some internet payments, and PostFinance's VISA seems quite expensive one. So this one allows me to pay anything on internet worldwide?
I am not interested in crediting function (I don't buy if I don't have cash for it) but I don't understand how it works. Do they have some simple internet banking, or how do You manage this account? I would like to put here & there some money to it, just for these internet payments, or to have it as a reserve on some foregin travels.
What about this L permit? Is it allowed as mentioned here or not?
Is there any other cheap possibility like that, without paying for visa card or account at all?

Thank you for the answers.

Also I will have to pay 135CHF again for the second year and nothing more for the credit card. That's OK.

Ask at the Coop and Migros Information, they both supply free credit cards.

You definitely do not need any permit for this. I arranged this card by showing my Ukrainian travel passport with entrance visa and my registration in Zurich and gave one photo of myself. I do not have a permit yet, as I only have an appointment in the Migrationsamt for the next Wednesday.

Could you please advice which number I should call, if I still did not receive my Halbtax card within two weeks?

I found the paid number on the page dedicated to Halbtax:

but I think there should be also some free of charge number for the questions like mine, as this is not my fault that they did not send me card in time (or maybe sent it to the wrong address).

Thanks.

Why not just go to the station and ask there ? They will have access to the same information as the people on the end of the phone line.

Not true - you just need a piece of official identity (i.e. a passport will suffice). I obtained mine before having my permit, and had it posted to my temporary address in Switzerland.

(Apologies - read further after posting and noticed a couple of people have already pointed this out.)