Best bank setup for student

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
1

I currently have a Student account at LUKB called LUKB blu with a debit visa card (stucard). I also recently opened a UBS account (UBS Campus) to benefit from the 500 Keyclub point offer. But both of the cards seem to charge for transaction to different countries as well as transactions in foreign currencies. To mitigate this, I use Revolut but their fees increased and it takes days to withdraw money and also it’s not a Swiss account.

So I thought about the following:

  • Day to day, purchases in Switzerland → Swisscard Cashback card
  • UBS to receive my salary
  • Transfer salary from UBS to neon, use that for online purchases and towards end of month, pay the credit card off using neon

What do you guys think about this?

2

If you are still a student and you don’t really care about your main account being in a traditional bank and your are looking for simplicity over optimizing, you could just go with neon as your main account to receive your salary, pay your bill (eBill), purchase in Switzerland and aboard.

If you want the back up of a traditional bank, go for CSX (Credit Suisse).

3

Why exactly Credit Suisse?

4

They have the exact same solution as neon, except the fact that you can’t withdraw cash for free (if you take their free option solution).

5

What for? Isn’t Keyclub mainly tied to making card payments - which you don’t intend to make with a UBS card anyway, do you? And you suggested transferring your salary to Neon, too.

Cause they have a free digital bank with debit card.
Though he already has as brick&mortar bank account with LUKB.

I’d receive salary at either LUKB or Neon.
And use Neon either as main account - or as a prepaid card that can be topped up for foreign and/or foreign currency transactions.

That’d would be a nice and simple two-bank, two-account setup.

6

They offer new customers 500 keyclub points if you use their card 3 times, I’ll just use that and then I’ll see if I wanted to keep my account there or close it. But thanks for the recommendations regarding CS and LUKB!

7

As long as you are a student, you can go with every bank you like - everyone has discounts for students.
My way to go was UBS. After I should start paying CHF 15 per month I switched to BCV as main account.

8

I would suggest Neon to receive salary and pay ebill, and Revolut for paying online and day to day in Switzerland.

I’m using Metal on Revolut so it’s extra convenient for paying abroad and with cashback, but you need to calculate if yearly fee minus transaction fees minus cashback < UBS or other standard bank fees+card fees solution.

For free you could open a ZAK account as well. I find it a hassle to open at the begining, but after that it work well and it’s a cool backup (you can keep a small amount there) in case Neon suddenly doesn’t work, all Internet is down, as you can still find a physical desk…

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9

A couple of years ago I saw the Credit Suisse traditional account for students. They give you 1% interests rates up until 50k I believe. Check that