EUR <--> CHF currency conversion (electronic money / bank account balance)

Investing / Funding & Currency conversions
1

Hello!
I am 25 yo returning to Switzerland (moved out when I was 4 yo :baby: )
I found this forum today and I love it, it is very useful!

At start i will be spending some of my savings that I have in EUR in swiss bank. So I am searching the best way to convert EUR from swiss bank-> CHF

I did research on forum and it seems that the best way to do so is: (to avoid fee from bank)

Transfer EUR from swiss bank → TransferWise Card → Revolut

Do you know better option?

Is there a difference if I have Revolut account opened in other country? I see that if I would like to transfer CHF via bank on Revolut I can choose only GB IBAN

I am sorry for introducing myself so generally, I will post detailed introduction later! :slight_smile:

2

Welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

I would think that you can directly transfer from your EUR bank account to Revolut. I would test it before because there may be some fees since it’s SWIFT. But there should only be a flat fee not a percentage fee.

Yes, there is a difference in where you open your Revolut account from. If you do not open it from Switzerland, you will not have a CH IBAN and will not be able to transfer CH for free from your bank account. And if it’s not in Switzerland, it is probably not possible either to use your Swiss credit card to top it up for free.

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3

Hello.
Check if you bank’s EUR account have free SEPA transfers. If yes, you can transfer your EUR directly to Revolut. Check Revolut’s app to see how.

Don’t transfer all your money at once.

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4

@thepoorswiss @ma0 Thank you, that’s realy helpful!

As I checked SEPA transfers are free in my bank :star_struck: I will now contact Revolut to open account in Switzerland and close the other one.

5

Dear all

I have opened a Zak account (thanks @_MP for the great tutorial) and I would like to move some euro from abroad in it.
I have found this thread in the forum and I was wondering if Revolut is still the best option here.

Does anyone can kindly give me an advice?

Thanks to everyone in advance!

Best
Don

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6

I have no firsthand experience but would think of TransferWise and maybe https://exchangemarket.ch/.

Also, there’s an article on the blog of The Poor Swiss:

https://thepoorswiss.com/transferwise-vs-revolut-which-is-best/

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Thank you @Neville.
I looked into and yes TransferWise looks good however I am also wondering which fees Zak applies here, I probably miss this piece of information, do you know it?

Cheers
Don

8

Not yet. :wink:

I’ve only just started looking into this question. I haven’t even gotten around to reading the blog post above. Actually, thanks for opening this thread, let’s see if others in the forum know more.

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9

Depends on time and amount. If under the free limit of revolut (1250 CHF) and during the week, this will be the best you can get.

10

Zak will apply usual fees (i.e. none) for an incoming Swiss domestic transfer, since that is what Transferwise will use to pay out the converted funds to your account.

11

true, on low amounts, Revolut is impossible to beat.

12

Apologies, I have not make myself clear. I meant transfer EUR directly into Zak from abroad (via SEPA).
I would like to understand fees/rate applied.

13

I made a comparison recently, including all fees and exchange rates for transfering from CHF → EUR. I assume it’s about the same in reverse. I did effectively transfer the money and compared the conversion rates with XE at the respective date and time. So this took into account the fees and calculated the percentage after.

In first place came in Revolut. In second place was Transferwise and in third my regular bank account.

14

ok thank you @genti. I assume it still depends on how much you transfer, for getting Revolut first.
Still, is your regular bank account Zak?

Thank you
Don

15

I think for any amounts that can’t be converted for free anymore IBKR will be the cheapest. If I read that correctly, it should be about 2 magnitudes below Transferwise.

Having an account with them is only free if you park over 100’000 USD there (as shares of your favorite ETF for example). I don’t have an account with them, though.

16

good to know @Helix, however their pre-requisite is putting me off, we are mustachians after all :slight_smile:

17

@DonDraper You will find that they have a very high standing in this community. Exactly because they are about the cheapest it gets, for everything.

18

@Helix very true, but the topic here is to convert EUR to CHF, are you suggesting to open an account with IB for this?

Thank you.
Don

19

@DonDraper If you have a net worth of 100’000 USD or more in semiliquid assets, then yes.

20

I don’t quite understand exactly what you want, eur-chf conversion or eur transfer to zak euro account?
EUR transfer via Sepa should be free, but to/from Swiss accounts someone along the way may charge something like EUR 5, nothing huge, nothing as a percentage of the amount.
If you want to transfer & exchange eur at the same time, i recommend transferwise.