Bank CIC free account

Looking for a cheap and independent alternative to CS, I found that CIC bank is offering a free bank account fully managed and opened online.

Any one having experience with CIC bank and eventually this specific product?

How does the online interface look like?

Fee for client relationship per quarter: CHF 25

pure savings account relationships (savings accounts or investment accounts), 3a retirement accounts and vested benefits accounts, as well as pure investment accounts in connection with real estate financing are not subject to the client relationship fee.

Or you mean
CIC ON service offering:
First personal or current account free, each additional one CHF 2 per month

That looks okay actually, unless they force you to take a credit card.

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I meant the CIC ON. I made a mistake with the link.

What do you think about this one?

Is CIC a Swiss or foreigner bank? Linked with CS?

Both :sweat_smile:

Bank CIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel. The French financial group Crédit Mutuel is one of the best capitalised banks in the world with 8.1 million members. Around 83 000 employees serve more than 34 million customers worldwide.

Why would be they?

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You never know in today’s crazy world…

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Oh. Remind me when the world was comfortable and not crazy last time? I mean after you have turned 12 years old.

The comfort in the world is something that we create for ourselves and our close people. Also by working, earning, investing and achieving the financial independence.

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Did you check their CDS? I read quite a few french banks have CDS at similar level to CS.

(Meaning I don’t get the panic around CS, maybe if you’re a shareholder or employee you care, but otherwise?)

It really depends what you are looking for. If you need both digital and physical banking, then it could be a good option if there is a branch office near you. The interest and fees are similar to those of free checking accounts from some Swiss regional banks, so I would take a look at those and compare.

If you only use online banking and cards, etc. then you can look at neobanks like Neon, Yuh, etc. as well.

My guess is that you are worried about a possible bankruptcy at Credit Suisse. I won’t comment on that possibility, but obviously any bank can go bankrupt. It’s part of the parcel. The best way to protect your assets is to divide them between multiple banks: firstly because it is very unlikely that all banks will go bust at the same time; secondly because Swiss depositor protection is limited to 100k per customer and bank, and to a total of 6 billion francs (soon to be 8). Because the CHF 6 million pie has to be divided between all customers, a very small bank with no more than 6 billion in covered deposits can be safer than a bigger bank.

One observation on my part: Bank CIC consistently offers some of the highest-interest medium-term notes. That could possibly be interpreted as an above-average need to attract capital.

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I agree in the diversification. That’s why I want to split

My advice would be to just compare Swiss savings accounts online and open savings accounts at the 3 best-paying banks which do not require you to also open a private account or buy shares, etc. If you will keep a lot of money (e.g. in the hundreds of thousands) as bank account balances, then I suggest you use more than 3 banks.

For your private account, just use the bank with the lowest fees and charges, and don’t keep more money in there than you need for running expenses. I use a regional bank which does not charge annual account fees for private accounts, and doesn’t charge for things like physical documents, postage, transactions at the counter, etc. which Credit Suisse did charge me for (I used them for a few years). There are plenty of good options out there.