They obviously make money sending 30.- reminder bills. I think my relatives only tested cembra but why shouldn’t it work?
I already have Swisscards cashbacks but my checking account is still at UBS. I’m seriously considering moving to Neon as they seem to check all my boxes. I mainly use e-bill which I see they implemented now and no fees abroad seems too good to be true.
In UBS I have separate accounts for my emergency and car savings for example in addition to my checking I guess this is not possible with neon?
The only thing I would be missing is my Maestro card I currently have at UBS. I guess most of you just pay with your cashback and then you pay the bill in Neon?
Any downside I’m not seeing? (Besides their website in pink which makes me dizzy 
)
Neon is a good product, and they are constantly improving, but you have to accept to use only the mobile app (some might prefer the comfort of a webapp/full size ebanking interface), you will have only one account (no saving account or whatever) and account are only in one person name (no shared account), without only a single card (as far as I remember).
Other limitation vs. most paid account is the limitation to 2 free withdrawal per month in Switzerland at any ATM, other banks are usually unlimited in their own network but paid for any withdrawal at other banks, so I would say it’s not so bad if not better if you don’t withdraw often on average and/or if you use almost no cash as it’s more and more the trend.
Abroad you have no fee (and no hidden fee on exchange fee like it’s mostly the case with all banks and credit card) to pay and 1.5% to withdraw, so compare to Revolut you don’t have the first 200CHF/month of free withdrawal but above 200CHF Revolut is 2% fee, so break even is quite high, at 800CHF of withdrawal per calendar month. On top of that Revolut have a maximum free exchange of 1250CHF/month, so after that you pay fee on the exchange again, so if you do use a lot your card abroad and you withdraw only a few abroad it might not worth bothering to have both account/card, just use Neon everywhere. If you like to optimize or to have backup options, as well as if you need other service from Neon like having your own IBAN in EUR and some free international bank transfers, as well as to directly change currencies to transfer them on another account, you can use both Neon and Revolut, you will use Neon in priority for card purchase and Revolut for the first 200CHF withdrawal plus other function.
Another interesting options is Raiffeisen. You can have a free account if you buy one share with a fixed cost that depend of the local Raiffeisen regulation, it can be from 200 to 500CHF. It’s not so much (OK you might get 10-30frs per year if this money would be in stock but that’s reasonable). You still have to pay for the (optional) Maestro or V-Pay card thus, so total cost is still higher than Neon but much lower than other banks. And when you have this kind of account you enter for free in many museum with you + 2 kids, so for family it’s a good deal that can pay off even counting everything into account. And of course as more traditional bank, you can have join-account, additional (paid) account, free saving account (+ one kid saving account per kid without too much limitation, so you can use for you if you like to put money apart for taxes or holiday, of course until your kids are close to 16-18, then it will be their money if you leave some on them).
We use all of the 3 accounts above for me and my family, with on top an Amex cashback and Cembra Cumulus Mastercard to get some 0.5-1% cashback on purchases in Switzerland, see for yourself if it worth bother with all these products to optimize or not.
Another option is ZAK but I don’t know it, never used it. You can read Mr. MP article to have more detail on all these solutions, ThePoorSwiss talk about them as well on his blog.
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This might also be interesting as your bond part. My branch let me sign 5k which brings interest at 1.5% (might be uped to 1.75% soon)
I do.
I’ve been using Neon as my salary account for quite a while. I don’t feel any need for a Maestro card (I don’t any ship in my town that doesn’t accept VISA/MC, if they do card payments) or more than two cash withdrawals each month. I’ve kept my UBS account up to this point, which worked well (and UBS is a good bank), but frankly I am not really using it anymore.
No bells and whistles such as shared accountholders or spaces/pockets/sub-accounts but less clunky than the ZAK app.
I am in fact using my ZAK account as a savings account of sorts. Incoming transfers are eligible for ZAK deals, even from my own account, even if originating from my own (Neon) account → profit.
Raiffeisen shares are actually, well, shares. Equity.
https://blog.tagesanzeiger.ch/geldblog/index.php/75189/anteile-an-raiffeisen-bergen-ein-risiko
So you should decide for yourself if you want to invest 5k in that particular single stock.
An alternative is a “Plus” account, which you can open with Raiffeisen Basel, Bern, St.Gallen, Thalwil, Winterthur, Zürich. Must have total 5k CHF cash on all accounts for it, some also require that a salary comes to the checking account. Then you pay only 40 CHF per year for the Maestro/V-Pay card (it is required for MemberPlus offers) and receive all perks such as Museumpass, discounted ski passes etc. Couple of museum entrances and one ski day with a discount per year, and you are in profit.
Info seems to be only in German, though.
I‘m aware that it holds risk. It‘s equity and not shares, they will continue to hold the value you bought them for. Therefore they won‘t lose value over time unless the bank goes bust (not considering inflation, which should be covered by the interest rate). Considering the low risk and low investment I did I‘m ok with it.
For the account type (sociétaire in French) you need to buy only one share at 200 to 500frs (the one I’m in is 500frs, bad luck but in Riviera, like Vevey area, it’s 200frs). Then it’s not clear, the share has a fixed value and is not traded/tradable, so value will not change or I didn’t understood? It’s not getting you any dividend I guess.
It looks like a small risk, 500frs, to get these advantages and Raiffeisen all together are the third Swiss bank, they will not let one of their branch collapse. I’m not familiar enough with banking to understand the implications but I’m much more happy to have 500frs of my money as a share at Raiffeisen than giving away money to the big two.
I think that‘s the one thing. Risk is low (but still existing), there‘s no dividend but they pay interest (depends on region, mine pays 1.5-1.75%)
Does anyone here use the PostFinance VISA Platinum? Looks like something to consider.
- It costs 250 CHF per year for two cards (partner card is free)
- Cashback is 0.5% from 2nd year on, so with annual expenses on both cards of 50’000 CHF, you get 250 CHF back
- airport lounge access: twice per year per card for free, after that 30 CHF. I’d say at times it’s nice to sit down in lounge, have a drink and a snack, would value this at 100 CHF for 4 entries
- travel insurance for cancelled trip up to 15’000 CHF
- AVIS car rental discount (how much?)
- concierge service (what is even that?)
When you stack up all the benefits, the card looks really interesting, especially if you take two cards, so your partner has one too. Anybody can share their feedback or thoughts?
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The drawback is quite clear I think. Swisscard Cashback gives you 500 CHF with 50k expenses, so is basically 500 CHF cheaper. All the other PF benefits would need to be 500 CHF worth to you to break even.
The main benefits in my opinion (lounge, travel insurance and car rental) are hard to calculate. Travel insurance, you have to check the details. Some (Swisscard) exclude so much that the insurance is basically worthless. Car rental, I have a 15% discount or so via UBS Gold card. Nice, but other providers can still be cheaper, so really hard to know in advance how much that discount will save you.
Sidenote: The UBS Gold card offers car rental insurance. It’s the only reason I have that card (err and the fact I get it for free via my employer). I personally would not pay for a credit card that doesn’t offer car rental insurance.
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This VISA has that too: “collision damage waiver” of 5’000 CHF.
Generally, yes. But that Swisscard is AMEX, right? I know it doesn’t add up, I’m just looking at credit card options at PF, as it would be convenient to have my credit card operated by my bank. With Cembra Cumulus, I need to login to a different system and pay them the exact amount each month. I forgot this twice already, had to pay 30 CHF penalty.
The VISA Classic has none of the bonuses, but it only costs 50 CHF. With 0.3% cashback from 50’000 = 150 CHF, that’s 100 CHF net gain. Still 400 CHF less than Swisscard, but only 100 CHF cheaper than the Platinum one. Are all the benefits worth 100 CHF? I guess. So yeah, theoretically you could say only Swisscard makes sense and forget other options. But I don’t like to switch products all the time, and who knows how long they stay the most attractive option.
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Very good in that case.
As for your other points, you can set up direct debit or ebill with Cembra or Swisscard, which automates payment the same way as having a PF card.
Swisscard being AMEX is a drawback. The likely cashback amount is less than the full 1%, depending on how much you can actually pay with the AMEX (and how much with their Mastercard, which gives you 0.3% cashback, you get both cards). It’s still likely to be more than 0.5% and the cards are free. As long as they don’t change their pricing, true.
Cembra sadely doesn’t support ebill… Would be too easy for people to not forget to pay their bills (they tax you if you don’t pay after 20 days), and they wouldn’t be able to perceive CHF 30 for every refused direct debit (LSV).
Didn’t know that. The payment patchwork can be annoying. Swisscard does support ebill though.
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Can’t you do a standing order?
The reference number has been the same for ages on my Cembra bills.
Or overpay a little to have some cushion against unforeseen expenses. You don’t get any interest, but you can avoid the penalties.
LSV would be the best solution, I just never got around to do it.
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I do that. Works fine and gets the job done.
As far as I remember, one letter to send.