Yes if you need more than 10K withdrawal per month then ZKB savings account won’t work. That’s the limit per month for “flexible withdrawal “. In that case Swissquote has better deal (25K per month) and 1% interest
But of course Yuh is fine too
Main point is that for my needs , brick and mortar free accounts work. But it doesn’t always mean it works for everyone.
Its not free if you look at the big picture and lost opportunity costs (0 interest). Yes it’s still a decent option in my opinion (ZKB), but just not the best.
How long is your salary laying around on your account and how large is it?
My salary is on my account for 2-3 days every month, let’s say 40 days a year. I get aroumd CHF 10k net every month. So with 1% interest that’s CHF 11 per year. So that’s not really an argument for me personally. The opportunity costs of letting my salary lay around on my account is way higher than that.
You want to have a free account, xy% savings, it should have unlimited guaratee in case something happens, it should have one of the best e-banking/app access - best case low salaries of employees and 24/7 here for your. Do you realize something?
It’s in your responsibilty if you have opportunity costs or not. For me, I do not want to have an savings account/emergency account at the same bank anyway, therefore I get my 1.3% p.a. somewhere else.
Same situation as for @Burningstone ; all my financial liabilities are timed to be executed at 26. of a month - after all these deductions, I just keep ca. CHF 1k on the private account (e.g. buying/sending money through Twint).
The real costs in your life are not e.g. CHF 11 p.a. bank account fees. Optimize other stuff as taxes (e.g. 2nd pillar contribution, IF that makes sense for you personally), rent, electricity, interenet at home and mobile, homeowner’s insurance and personal liability, legal protection, basic and supplementary insurance, entertainment (e.g. Netflix), mobility (e.g. SBB, car, car insurance, gas/electricity) etc.
If you are not willing to pay xy for a service, this is absolutely fine and your choice. But I am wondering, which option in your eyes is the best option.
Not sure whether I had this discussion already with you or with someone else from the forum in this thread. But no, I don’t pay bills the day after I get the salary, if the due date is 20 days later.
And no, its not a ‘lost opportunity cost’ if I have the money on my account during that time, since the alternative would be paying the bill immediately so it lands on someone elses account.
All together I get ~ 50CHF in interest per year.
Doesn’t change my life, but if I have two equal options and one offers 50/y, I’ll take that.
Please elaborate where this is not the case for the solution I proposed (Yuh)? Except of the ‘unlimited guarantee’ (useless imo, since I surely don’t keep >100k on there) of a cantonal bank, I cant see it.
Those brick and mortar banks have some (subjective) advantages as well, so that I would probably suggest my parents to stick with them. (Known for long time, a real person there etc.)
For me this is not the case as I don’t need these things, and rather keep more interest.
From experience, traditional banks offer advantages that are more tangible than subjective. Over time, by consolidating various services such as your salary, savings account, third pillar, and mortgage within the same bank, you can obtain significant benefits. For example, some traditional banks offer reductions on mortgage interest rates if you consolidate your third pillar along with your private and savings accounts with them. A 0.10% interest reduction on an amount of 500´000 to 700´000 CHF is significantly more advantageous than an increase of 0.2% or 0.3% in the savings interest rate on amounts of 10’000, 50’000 or 60’000 CHF. However, everyone is free to choose services according to their preferences and needs.
Neither do I, all my fixed bills are due at the end of the month incl. the credit card bill (which covers all my variable costs).
Otherwise I’d totally agree with you, paying bills to early would be lost opportunity costs.
Yes, agree that in the case of mortgages this can make sense. Lots of money being moved here, so the full picture should be taken into account.
I would defnitely calculate it through again if I need a mortgage and might switch to the best offer/bank then. But since its easy to switch bank once this situation comes up, this is not part of my current pro/con assessment.
Apart from mortgage, I havent seen a beneficial scenario yet, as the most attractive 3a offers (low fee, high investment % possible) are currently with separate providers (Finpension, VIAC, Frankly,…).
That may be true, however from my experience people stick to their homebank and are happy with the discount they get, rather than shopping around for mortgage. Back in the days when I was still at UBS and needed a mortgage they confirmed that UBS could not match the offer that I got from Swisscanto.
As long as your home bank can match any external offer, it’s obviously fine to stay at your home bank but to be honest there is no gain of having the mortgage there as well.
The additional effort of having a mortgage from a different institute is only paying a bill and have some paperwork at renewal.
ZKB iirc no separate app for debit card.
UBS no separate app for either debit or credit card.
If migros uses same setup as cumulus card then it’s a separate app.
Actually I don’t quite understand the question.
For e-banking even debit card is not needed. It all works via access apps. Same for mobile banking
For debit card, spendings will be shown in the Migros mobile app, as well as in the viseca one. If a transaction validation is needed, I don’t know if the viseca or Migros app is used. I’m not using it to pay on internet.
For credit card, viseca app only (validation and overview of the spendings)
I can only speak for Migros Bank. Yes, it’s a separate App (to the e-banking) called “one” for seeing card details, changing security/geo-blocking settings, blocking stolen card, seeing card’s PIN, etc. This is all not possible on the e-banking app. As was already said, transactions show in both apps though.
For payment authorization it’s the “one” app too, but they “offer” an alternative (which I’ve never used though) - if the “one” app is not activated on your phone, they send a text message with a confirmation code to enter during the 3D secure payment process.
For more details see - About “one” | "one" digital service
Effective 29 October 2025, Cembra will reduce its standard cashback from 0.33% to 0.25%. The 1% rate remains only for three selected retailers (Migros, Coop, SBB or user-defined via the app). New automatic partner cashback offers will also be introduced. More details: Cembra – Certo! Cashback Program.
Received the same when applying for a new partner card last week. But for my personal card, no communication yet, very bad communication service.
With that one, it makes Certo! way less competitive as it does not have an advantage anymore over the Cashback MC/Visa, and no e-bill.
Well it still does if you shop regularly at e.g. LIDL.
Swisscard Cashback Amex is not accepted there, hence you get only 0.25%.
EBill is a strong argument though.
I agree on the Lidl, Aldi bit … I was hoping I could use Certo! as my main card and simplify everything. The cashback difference vs. Swisscard was not so much in the end with the 0.33% for all other purchases. Now, back to the drawing board.
And yeah, thanks to e-bill not being there I did miss one of the payments and enjoyed those horrendous fees
Yes, same here 
(I know that I probably could have called them and got the fee waived. But too much hassle.)
So they reduced the cashback on non-preferred merchants from 0.33% to 0.25%? Not really a big deal, or is it?