Hello,

I am looking for advice in choosing the right bank for my needs.
I am coming from the UK where there are virtually no bank fees and I never spent a single penny in the 6 years I've lived there.

I use Wise for currency exchange, Revolut for EUR payments, and Monzo for GBP payments.

My overall strategy will be to rely on two main banks in Switzerland.

- a physical bank, known trustworthy institution where I can have a saving account for my emergency fund, and an account where I can receive my salary payments.

it must have no maintenance fee, no fees on spending with a debit card, and a low fee for cash withdrawal in Switzerland.

- a digital bank where I transfer the remaining of my monthly salary (minus savings deduction) to pay bills, rent, online and everyday shopping.

it must have no maintenance fee, no fee on bank transfer (Swiss to Swiss) and no fee/low fee for debit card spending.

For the digital bank options, I have already looked at Neon and Yuh, which look promising.

Regarding the physical bank, that's a bit more complex as there seem to be many hidden fees.

Would appreciate any advice

What is a physical bank !?

If Lloyds or HSBC goes bust tomorrow, only 85k of your savings are protected by government FCSC scheme, same as Revolut. The rest is gone, no one will ever pay you anything back.

Not sure how this works in Swiss tho

Well, first you need to get out of your UK headset and into a Swiss one. I doubt you'll find any "physical" bank that doesn't have a monthly fee of some kind here; negative interest has been the norm for several years and banks are now clawing back because of that. That said I don't pay any fees for using my debit card or moving amounts from one account to another with a different bank. No fees for cash withdrawals either unless I'm getting Euros from my CHF account. Apart from the monthly fee I only pay for one cross border transfer I do each month.

And which bank is that?

We don’t pay fees at the UBS, but we do have investments and two mortgages with them.

With negative interest rates, the banks don’t actually want your money. They want your business.

UBS

What the? Why is the forum not accepting capital letters?

And now it is. More

This may help:
https://www.moneyland.ch/en/savings-accounts-comparison

https://www.moneyland.ch/en/savingsaccount/list

If all that is desired is a simple no fee savings account check out Bank CLER
https://www.moneyland.ch/en/bank-cle...avings-account

To be honest I disagree with all of that. From the "Swiss mindset" to the using a Swiss bank to do a cross border transfer (eek that's expensive....)

Migros bank doesn't have fees iirc if you keep a minimum balance of 7500 francs.

Though why you need a separate "physical" bank I have no idea. Neons deposits are held by a "physical" bank - Hypothekar bank lenzburg, and are guaranteed to 100,000 CHF. Not only is their no charge, but also the card is 0 fx, so decent for cross border shopping.

Then use Amex cashback for purchases, revolut / transferwise for transfering money (revolut premium if you transfer a lot), and Degiro or interactive brokers for investing and you have a pretty optimal setup.

Curve is good for withdrawing money (Euros or CHF) at negative fx if you still have a decent uk (or Eu) cashback card.

Doesn’t CS X offer all of what the OP is looking for in one place?

Interesting, can you tell me more about this point and why would you recommend it?

Can you tell us why we should give you financial advice for free?

1) Why use all of these as they all provide a very similar service at very similar rates.


Unless you are changing millions, the difference on exchange rates is so insignificant it's really not worth bothering with or spending time on it !


2) For Swiss banks, all charge a fee for account holding although you can get this removed if you keep a certain amount in your account (varies by bank) or you use their investment services or have a mortgage with them.


Cantonal banks tend to be cheapest and most flexible, CS / UBS are really not very interested in you, unless you're name is Jeff Bezos.

Blogs thepoorswiss and mustachianpost both have analyses of best banking and card options in Switzerland .

Sure - it's a 0 fee credit card which comes with an Amex giving 1% cashback and a MasterCard or visa giving iirc 0.2% cashback (might be 0.25%).

Is it free in CH ? I pay 120 something a year for a gold one in the UK

I can confirm this Amex doesn’t have an annual fee. It is blue and has «cashback» written on it

If you want a gold or platinum coloured one with another brand to show off your status, you will pay

Interesting, thx.

How long do you get to pay the monthly balance, something like 20-30 days?

My last statement was 20 August. Payment due 11 September