Hi there - I'm looking to open 2 bank accounts, one for Eur and one for CHF. Also looking for a bank where these sort of transfers aren't too expensive to do. We've still got some money coming in from Ireland, and also need to able to move money easily back into Eur for when we head home / have the mortgage to pay etc.

Anyone any experience with this - having 2 accounts (1 in EUR, 1 in CHF) with a bank? Thinking UBS, CS or Postfinance. Any suggestions?

PS - would be our first A/C in Switzerland

Cheers
G

I believe the fees at Postbank are the least.

There are many times when I have to send money home, and Postbank
has lower fees for transfers.

Earlier I was with CS, but I have no experience with UBS.

PostFinance. Just moved from UBS as I was fed up with their fees. If you have more than a certain amount in total in all your accounts (7k I think but best to check) then there are no fees at all.

Having said that, if you want to regularly transfer money between different currencies, don't use any bank. A dedicated ForEx account is well worth the hassle. I use FX Global Transfer (linked to oanda.com) and have found it very efficient and saved a lot of money.

If you perfer low monthly fees, PostFinance is a good choice. I just say goodbye to UBS because of the fees (15chf per month even if you have 10k with them, 25chf if you don't have). With Post, if you have 7.5k, you pay nothing.

The advantage of UBS is them give you free Credit card included in that price, Post insists annual fee for their credit card.

i have no idea about fees as hubby does all that, but we are with CS and have a CHF, EURO and GBP account.

Postfinance

http://www.postfinance.ch/

One doesn't have to take a credit card from Postfinance. Both Coop (Swisscard) and Migros (GE Money) offer credit cards branded by them without yearly fees.

And you can get a Visa with your Halbtax (you save some money too, as the Halbtax is cheaper when merged with the Visa credit card, but there'sno online banking access so it all feels a bit old fashioned).

Anyone knows how it is with non-Swiss exposure if/when things in Euroland go really unpleasant.

We are thinking of moving money out of CS as we guess they are more exposed than other CH banks (apart from USB?) _and_ are too big to save.

Prime candidates are PostBank and Kantonalbank BL.

Of course we can deposit some in dull Denmark :-)

Moved from UBS to PostFinanace several months ago, to save CHF15/month (for partner account) and to get higher intrest.

Since I have some EURO to deposit, I went to Post again today, upgraded to Plus Set (need CHF25000 total assets), which you get free access to EURO, and free ATM all over the world.

On the credit card issue, I use the SBB Half Price Visa.

I have Post Finance, excellent service. CHF 3,-- per month.

Get your free VISA and MasterCard credit cards at the Coop. Get your pre-paid VISA card with the Half-fare card at SBB.

Why pay more?