I’m contemplating to switch my bank accounts from the bulge bracket banks, after I’ve seen so many cheap and good alternatives.
The Kantonalbanks even waived the regular fees! They seem to be a good choice too.
Can you give me a good reason to stay with CS and UBS? If not, should I go with Kantonalbank or Fintech banks such as Yuh? Which one do you prefer?
Thanks in advance.
Was discussed quite in details in this forum.
My choice is Raiffeisen. I bought 1k worth of their units that will bring some income and I have an account at a traditional bank for free.
Another popular choice is BCV. Free individual account if you have >10k balance, for a free family package you need >15k balance.
Banking is very basic, investing is very expensive. I use it only for free EUR account in my name. With an option to have a USD account in my name if I ever need it.
Thank you.
I’m just looking for a bank with 0 fees. Right now, I pay like 300 CHF for UBS with credit cards a year. That’s not acceptable.
I just need a free bank account where I can receive salary and transfer money with ease. I don’t need other fancy features.
I live around Zurich so I prefer a bank from the German speaking region. I’ve never heard of BCV, that’s Welschschweiz I guess.
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Thank you! I checked their website. maybe I’m trippin’, but it’s hard to find the necessary info I’m looking for, like fees and stuff.
I’m really just looking for a simple bank with 0 fees. I don’t use those fancy fintech stuff. I don’t plan to trade anything with the bank. I just want to receive salary and use credit card.
What is so good about CSX? Kantonalbank is free too. So, I’m not sure which one to go with.
That’s my facial expression too when I discovered Mustachianpost. What was I doing for the past few years…
For that, I use Swissquote. You can open your currency accounts as many as you want for free. To exchange currency, you pay 0.95% per transaction just like Yuh (from SQ anyway), I believe. There is no negative interest unless you have a lot of money on your cash account.
Why?
The full package including a regular Mastercard is 8-10chf/month.
I’m not sure. When I opened the account with gold credit card options, the bank charges me like 25 CHF or so per month. It’s full package. It’s crazy expensive.
Welcome to the mustachian forum. For your information, I just got over 200 CHF Cashback from AMEX credit card, which I discovered thanks to this forum a bit more than 1 year ago.
Isn’t that your answer?
That’s exactly what I saw. SZKB looks good. However, it doesn’t seem to include free credit card. What is not good dealing with Kantonalbanks? Have you had bad experience before? They don’t exchange info with your tax authority, just saying 
Do you get free credit cards with CSX?
Yea, I’m happy to have found this forum. There are a lot of ways to save money and make money that I don’t know of. Great exchange!
Maybe, I forgot the conditions. It was many years ago.
One thing, I want to add is that UBS e-banking app is by far the worst I’ve ever used. It’s slow, sluggish and full of errors.
I’ve used some private bank, postfinance and Kantonalbank e-banking apps. They are way faster and simple to work with.
A bit off-topic, but while you are optimising, I’d also switch from Swissquote to another broker.
I’ve been using Swissquote for a long time as well, but switched to Interactive Brokers recently. You don’t pay any custody fees with Interactive Brokers and the transaction costs are way lower than with Swissquote.
@Burningstone Thank you! I’m switching to IB too after I joined this forum.
But I will still keep Swissquote because of its convenience to exchange and deposit currencies. If I’m not wrong, custody fees only apply to your securities and not cash positions. I would just park my cash at SQ and wire-transfer to IB as I see fit.
Yes, trading is way too expensive at SQ. Do you trade in USD at IB or also CHF/EUR? There is a negative interest charge for those currencies.
Yes, that’s correct.
Why? Currency conversion is way cheaper at a IB as well. Do you get your salary in different currencies or are you spending a lot in different currencies apart from investing? If not, I don’t see any reason why you should keep Swissquote.
I trade in GBP and a bit in USD at IB. The negative interest is for CHF above 50k as far as I remember, but I don’t keep that much cash at IB. My cash balance at IB is almost 0, if I want to hoard cash, I do it at my bank.
The only minor inconvenience looks like 2 CHF for cash withdrawals (?)
I have the offer of 2 years free UBS package via my employer but am probably going to move all my banking to Raiffeisen. Even if not the best they have an ATM and branch in my commune that I’d like to support and they charge 40chf for debit card but it gives discounts on family activities like museums.
My only doubt is the alleged waste and corruption of their ex CEO which raises doubts about the culture