I'm coming from a country where online bank accounts are free, hell where banks even pay you for every transaction (wire transfer, ATM, etc.) as a thank you for using their service rather then another bank.

Coming to Switzerland is another matter ... It seems all banks charge for opening, managing, withdrawing, cards fees, etc.

The only thing I need is an online bank where I can wire CHF into, do CHF wire transfers within Switzerland, and with a maestro card can take CHF out of ATM's.

I am sure like in so many EU countries there are banks in Switzerland offering this basic service for free just in order to have your cash to play with. Which banks in Switzerland offer such free service?

postfinance.

Best is the Post Office so long as you can keep something like 20K CHF in your account

it is actually 25000 CHF - not looking to move my money to Switzerland though. There must be banks offering this without strings attached?

Cost me like CHF4 a month for far far less than 25K...PF is the cheapest as a transaction account.

with their current "we're sorry we've made so many mistakes, please stay with us" tone, UBS would be an option to look into. They are desperate for clients, so you could probably figure something out.

Just as a transaction account you could look into the online only offerings of the canton banks and Axa - they have free web banking, free transactions, but no free Maestro card and/or ATM service.

Still looking for a bank that does offer free online banking with free Maestro/ATM card. I'm sure Switzerland is not retarded compared to Europe when it comes to bank offerings ...

What they said (PostFinance is available at the Post office) — except I don't think the total is as high as 20K (I think it's 7500).

http://www.postfinance.ch/pf/content...ine/offer.html

It always strikes me odd to pay a bank for them to have your money in an account. I mean, they use it to make their profit ...

Thoroughly researched and, well, totally free banking service seems to be non existent in Switzerland for the moment, but, for anyone out there looking for the lowest cost bank account ...

Some of the cantonal banks - BCV, BCN, BCG - offer an online account totally free of charge, just the ATM card costs 30 CHF and free 1st year, so change account the year after ;-)

Look at the online solution offered by Axa, which is free to a certain extend, withdrawals cost though.

Then there are banks that ask you to place a minimum amount on a ridiculously low interest rate bank account in order to have free service (Post) or ask you to buy into the bank (Raiffeisen).

I'm sure there could be others, but in the meantime, hope this helps.

Bank Coop accounts are free for a) people under 25, b) those having more than 10,000 in the account at all times, c) those with a Bank Coop mortgage. You can withdraw money with your Maestro card (have to pay 30 francs per year for the card) for free from any ATM in Switzerland, and transactions on Online-Banking are all free as well.

http://www.bankcoop.ch/index/privatk...rivatkonto.htm

Hi, I use www.money-net.ch, the online account of the Berner Kantonalbank. I opened it by mail when I was still living in Germany, pay 20CHF / yr for my ATM card and can take money for free out of every CH machine except Postfinance and UBS. No other costs for running the account and no rules for minimum amount in it.

USB are, I believe, offering free banking for the first year (including free Maestro and credit cards). Banking is also free except for cards if you keep CHF 10k of assets with them or have a mortgage with them

Couldn't find a way to edit my earlier post with the new info contributed, so here it is again. We're looking for an as low cost bank account as possible (basic banking service, online, ATM).

BCGE - offer an online account totally free of charge, just the ATM card costs 20 CHF and free 1st year

BCBE do not offer an online account free of charge, but, have a separate service http://www.money-net.ch/ (thanks mgosia) online account totally free of charge, just the ATM card costs 20 CHF and free 1st year

BCV and BCN - offer an online account totally free of charge, just the ATM card costs 30 CHF and free 1st year

Axa offer a free online account with a free ATM card, ATM withdrawals cost though.

Then there are banks that ask you to place a minimum amount on a ridiculously low interest rate bank account in order to have free service (Post) or ask you to buy into the bank (Raiffeisen) or other services (COOP, thanks el7777) or free for the first year only (UBS, thanks eng_ch).

Do as the Swiss do. Typical middle class Swiss seem to have their bank accounts at either Postfinance or Raiffeisen Bank (unless they have a mortgage at one of the cantonal or the prime banks such as UBS, CS). Raiffeisen Bank gets rave reviews by my Swiss work colleagues because they offer free service (money x-change, etc) where other banks would typically charge small fees. They also offer free online banking (no strings attached) and charge 30 CHF / year for the maestro card. (German price conditions).

The part that attracts my Swiss colleagues (probably not us): By becoming a "member" of the Raiffeisen bank cooperative, one gets a small bank interest bonus and discounts on specifc events and excursions (on top of the half-fare discount from SBB).

Drawback? They only offer services in German, French and Italian language.

Believe me, I've looked and it simply doesn't exist. You pay at least for your Maestro.

I find the banks here pretty good. No worse than Canada at least.

I bank with postfinance, and am happy. Their e-finance offer seems to have fairly minimal charges, and if you are comfortable with the whole internet banking, their system can be used fully in English. Makes it pretty easy.

I've been looking for the same thing and I was wondring if the user who started this post had found something good.

My criteria are:
1. needs to be administrable onlie
2. free banking
3. would much prefer if it had an english website

I don't now if the banks meet your criteria - you may want to simply check with them on their web sites.

I can only speak from my experience, which is, I currently use use Axa (better interest on savins) and BCN (free ATM card). I have used BCV in the past, but they stopped offering a free account, so I canceled with them. I tried opening with BCBE (money-net), but they never sent me my account opening papers. I then received account statements, and in January I had to pay 0.8something. I requested explanations several times, and never received replies, but received a fee cancelation statement. I requested confirmation that the account be closed and explanation why I had an account since I never received codes or anything. Never received a reply there. So in my experience, BCBE/money-net is a horrible bank, unworthy of the term "bank".

Hope this helps.

thanks for the reply... I might give AXA a try then... and you say it's completely free and can be managed online entirely?

You get what you pay for in Europe, fly by night get rich quick schemes usually don't last very long.

Postfinance charges SFr 3 per month for unlimited transactions, overnight on working days, i.e. Give an order Friday at 11 pm and it is paid on Monday morning. An order on Monday evening, is paid on Tuesday morning.

Postfinance actually use the chip and pin. Top rated for security by consumer associations here. Many banks in the world still use the insecure magnetic strip. Postfinance has one shareholder, the Swiss government.