Best (free) joint account for couples aka any experience with Credit Agricole Nextbank?

Does anybody have experience with the Pack CA EssenCiel of CA Nextbank?

It ticks many boxes besides being free, but it is seldomly mentioned.

I am looking for a new joint account. I find Migros not suitable, we have quite a few incoming transactions, and those are not free with them. I tried Raiffeisen but was dented in my enthusiasm by a pretty arrogant attitude towards new customers. I tried BCV or rather, I am still trying, since after a telephone call and several emails I am still not sure if we can open an account if living outside of Vaud and if so how. The only other free option I encountered was CA Nextbank, definitely the least known of those.

I have the pack with a single account, it’s basically all free and they still give some very small interest on the saving accounts if you’re not fully invested.
On the other hand their ebanking is somewhat of a pain and not very user friendly compared to others, at least the web interface. The telephone app might be better, apparently they’ve updated it recently but I haven’t tried it out.

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Do you need to keep 20,000 chf minimum in the account for it to be “free”? I was told as much and ruled it out for this reason

Yes, if you keep less than 20’000 it’s definitely not a good option, I believe it costs 15CHF/month in that case.

I got it.

Web interface is ok for me (functional enough). The only pain is no e-bill.

Got my 20k as emergency fund but yes, looking to change for postfinance or something because I would like to reduce that part (and I need a joint account).

When do they start charging interests?

Thanks everyone!

We are at Postfinance at the moment. Decent choice overall, but not free. You either pay at least 5 CHF per month or you have to invest at least 25k with them. All their investment options are much more expensive than those of their cheapest competitors, so if you invest you effectively pay much more than the 5 CHF per month (the counter-argument is convenience, they are never the cheapest or the best, but also never the worst, so if you do everything with them you save time and have an OK package).

Keeping 20k with them would be OK for us. Web interface is more important, I try to find out how it looks.

I got out of CA because of their ebanking. BCV is quite alright, though. I think they let you open account online now, but maybe not joint accounts…

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I had no trouble with this. But I did the last time Postfinance fees were rising. It’s a single account but I will move our joint account there if postfinance do not fix their app anytime soon

I looked for FREE joint accounts and could not find any.
CLER was the cheapest option at 2 CHF/month ( 1CHF if you have more than 25.000 CHF).

It’s definitively more difficult than finding a free individual account. But BCV and CA Nextbank are free if you hold 15k or 20k with them.

Checked Bank Cler. If I understand things correctly, a Maestrocard would not be free and we’d need to have that. So not an option for us.

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Hi everyone,

Some time as passed since the last post of this topic.

Is there any update on which is the best join account for couples?

I would rather pay 1-2 francs a month instead of keeping 20k in CA Nextbank.

If you have a different suggestion it would be great to hear!

It’s a shame that Neon, Zak and Yuh don’t offer this kind of accounts…

BCV Formule Famille Directe
Your local Raiffeisen with social parts

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Does Raiffeisen have their interface in English?
Or only French/German/Italian?

Thanks!

Seems to be no English at Raiffeisen.

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Confirmed.

I’ve recently changed for them for our joint account with my girlfriend.

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The last time I checked both BCV and Raiffeisen have a minimum requirement for money on account / invested. With Raiffeisen it differs widely depending on which Raiffeisen bank you are actually joining.

The other alternative might be Migros Bank. As far as I recall you pay for incoming transfers, but if you are ok with paying a bit per month and don’t have too much of those, they might be something to check out.

I don’t mind the minimum requirements. I’d keep some cash for emergencies anyway and with CA Nextbank I at least get some interest on that (yeah, it’s almost nothing, but still, it doubles the advantage of being with them instead of Postfinance).

I’m facing the same “problem” - I’ve been looking for a joint account similar to the ones we can have on Neon, CSX, Cler (i.e. no fees) and it’s impossible.
And also I don’t find it interesting to have 20/25k stuck there without having that on any ETF…

My view: we will just need to wait and keep pushing Neon to get something done :smiley:

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