I have been getting by fine using my debit cards making purchases in Switzerland, but like separating my purchases and would like to do that with a credit card(s).

I strongly dislike fees and so am trying to minimize them. Therefore, I am thinking about getting the Supercard Visa or MC from COOP, but is it better to have a Visa or a MasterCard in CH?

Now, living in Basel and making frequent trips to France/Germany, is there a better card to have for making purchases in Euros? I would like to avoid the "convenience fee" of 2-3% on the EUR purchase + whatever poor FX rate they will give me.

So, my question is can I get a Euro based CC here in CH? Any recommendations?

Thanks, Chris

Doesn't really matter IME. Most places accept both of them, if they accept credit cards at all.

Hi Chris

There're no good deals on credit cards here. When up front costs are lower, the processing fees will get you. I use a gold Visa from Post Finance, but have also have a MasterCard from a bank. Being amercan, am used to cards with no annual fees, and this can be achieved with the gold card from the post(you get a 1.5 percent credit on purchases in the first year, .75 percent thereafter).

If you are paid in Euros, a Euros denominated card could make sense, otherwise not.

Interested in knowing others experiences!

Jelmoli's posh gold coloured Visa card had no annual fee if you spend over CHF300/year. As are both Coop's and Migros'...

Hi harshbarger, while I would tend to agree with you, EURCHF is abnormally low and I guess that the SNB will soon 'correct' it back to its previous 1.50 unofficial target.

I already have a CHF and a EUR account with PostFinance, but their credit cards seem to be only denominated in CHF. Does anyone know if this isn't the case?

How do most CH people pay for gas or other sundries in Germany or France? Is everything done by cash or do people just accept the fees and move on?

Hey Chillax,

Just checked with Post Finance, they don't have a credit card in Euros. But what you can do, is get their Travel Cash Card in Euros. You can get up to 10,000...there's no admin fees, no annual fees and only a 1% commission (and the buy rate is 1.49 at this writing) http://www.postfinance.ch/pf/content...ash/offer.html

Of course, this is a debit card (and they willl hold your money, and pay you nothing for it, but this isn't so different from other swiss accounts, at least you won't have to pay them to keep your money) and you will pay a 1 Euro fee to buy items in store (not to buy gas however) and getting Euros from an ATM in Germany or France will cost you 3. But unlike a credit card, there's no annual fees!

I'm going to get the Halbtax Visa (although I expect to be rejected initially as I've only been in Switzerland two weeks and have no credit history here) - this has no annual fee. Well, apart from the 125Fr cost of the Halbtax, obviously!

Being from the UK I have a Nationwide account, and UK credit cards. My Nationwide cashcard and Visa don't charge any fees for using in Europe (inc. Switzerland) so at the moment I'm using those.

Once my Post Finance bank account is open, and I finally get paid in my new job, I'll transfer money from there to the Nationwide. If I understand correctly, it's very cheap or even free to transfer money from Post Finance to another European account provided I use a certain method (not sure yet - something to do with IBAN).

Hi Adrian,

Yeah, transferring money from PostFinance to my other accounts in the US is a breeze and they give pretty decent FX rates along with low admin costs. They are definitely my favorite local bank.

My existing credit cards are all US based and they aren't as generous as your Nationwide bank (apparently). I get an ok CHFUSD rate, but then get charged a 3% fee on top of that--so I only use them in emergencies.

The travel card that harshbarger recommended may be a good fix--but just wondering what other people do.

Thanks for keepin' the info flowin',
Chris

We have a Supercard Mastercard. It has no annual fee and is handled by Credit Suisse Swisscard and for overseas transactions we are are typically charged at wholesale exchange rate +1.5% which I have no complaints with at all. I find the Mastercard is accepted more widely than Visa e.g. local Coop only accepts Mastercard. Also earn Coop Superpoints on purchases.

The downsides:
- Prehistoric account management - you have to telephone a (albeit 24hr) call centre or wait for a printed statement to check transactions. No internet access and no plans to introduce it. This is particularly annoying with airline tickets which every time we've bought them on the card leave a block equalling the full ticket price on the card for 10 days after the purchase - i.e. it appears you are double charged for 10 days. This can be removed by calling the call centre but it is a hassle.
- Very low credit limit - CHF 1,500 in our case! Obviously this is dependent on individual circumstances but they seem to be very cautious! Not useful for much around these parts. Therefore we treat it like a free prepaid card with no reload fee and overpay when we need to make purchases in excess of this amount.

__________________
Expat In Switzerland website and FREE monthly e-newsletter containing articles on life in Switzerland & what's on events guide

Hi all

Cash is king. Today, Euros are 1.4725 CHf (x-rates.com). On that Travel Cash Card (in an earlier "reply", Post Finance issued), you will get an exchange rate of 1.49 + a 1% commission today, so 1.54 CH to add a Euro to it(plus a charge per use). I got some Euros out of my Post Account today at an ATM in Zurich and got a 1.5013 exchange rate. If you charged a Euro purchase today you would get an exchange rate of 1.492 + a processing fee of .9%...so you get back to a bit over 1.55. Take the money, leave your card at home!