Financial setup for foreign currency exchange and payment [2025]

Life Hacking
21

Migros CC: Migros is leaving Cembra soon - #278 by Myfirstme?

Using Neon for your everyday banking could be a solution (the Neon Mastercard seems to work as a debit card, as in it debits money from your account, but there should be enough money there if it’s your base account).

Otherwise, the Cumulus Visa may suit your needs, with a sizeable 2% mark-up on interbank forex rates.

I would personally just use Wise/Revolut, evaluate how much money I spend on a trip and top my card up before leaving (and keeping some base money on it for shorter trips on a whim.

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22

I use BCV for my everyday banking, it’s free of charge because I have the rental surety account with them (and a small savings account for emergencies).

My way of managing my finances is to have a typically empty salary account. Each last day of each month, I pay all my bills including Swisscard, and invest the remainder.

That’s the simplicity I wanted to keep.

23

This was on air a couple days ago, and contains an interesting table.

BCV Visa Débit seems to have an excellent exchange rate (but a fixed fee) - or was it pure luck?

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24

Huh. For once a good article about personal finance from classic media.

If they let VISA handle currency exchange, the resulting rate should be not bad, actually.

25

From the RTS table I understand that they add +0.5% and Fr. 2.00 to Visa’s rate.

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https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

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26

I found that Neon for paying in EUR is best this days, otherwise Revolut or Wise.
Non of them are “credit” (they are prepaid or debit) but honestly I do not know why would you need a credit card.
I never had any issue, they will just block more money for rental cars and that is it.

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27

Do go for Wise, not Revolut, for sure! I have long experience with both of them…

28

Personally I prefer Wise (probably for similar reasons like you) even though it may often be a bit more expensive.

29

+1
I use Raiffeisen + Neon (good conversion rates) or Yuh (multicurrency account € / $)

But I do not hold / need a credit card.

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30

I have neon for daily banking and purchases abroad, Swisscard Cashback for personal domestic and Certo (+ partner card) for household purchases.

If I were single, I would use Certo for myself and no Swisscard Cashback.

I wouldn’t know how to lower costs further.

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31

I have neon + swisscard cashback. I’m starting to get a little annoyed how few stores accept amex and often having to change to the second card (visa). I might rethink my combination soon.

32

Yuh (checking/savings) + Certo One for switzerland + Radicant/Revolut for abroad

I have never had an issue with debit cards abroad. If something would come up I would use the certo card as a fallback/emergency.

The only post-paid card without hefty fees I know are the UBS key4 credit cards. They only have a 0.5% markup on the mastercard rate. However, the UBS account itself is not cheap, they don‘t have a good interest rate on cash and one needs to pay for the premium package in order to get a higher card limit.

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33

My combo:

ZKB: main account (e.g. salary) + shared account with GF + custody account (just to hold and to have it as a Swiss institution) + debit card, which I absolutely never use (but it was free). Always have roughly 1k on the main account to be able to Twint stuff - otherwise, I am only paying with the credit card.

WillBe: emergency account/savings account. Abroad and can only be transferred to an pre-defined account in your name. Had always very good interest rates (at the moment 1.3% p.a.).

IBRK: trading + holding only

Neon: Fx transactions only

Amex Gold: I earn a lot of these MR points which are useful for flights, hotels, etc. I am diversified with the MR points, since - in contrary to Miles and More - there are several options how you can use these points. I will downgrade it to Green/Classic in two years, since all the insurance components are already covered by TCS. I just took Gold because of a special offer with bonus MR points. Nearly do not have issues when paying with Amex (living in Zurich).

TCS Mastercard: free and there are some benefits like discount for petrol or when charging a car.

Swisscards Cashback: shared cards with GF for shared spendings.

Always interesting to see, how subjective the optimal package is, since I am pretty sure, that one would not take the Amex Gold, e.g. Really depend on one’s needs, obviously.

But as long as someone is using Revolut/Zak/neon/whatever for FX transactions and a reliable main bank account, you can’t do much wrong. There are other componentes which have a higher impact, in my opinion (e.g. health insurance premium, costs for food, rent, etc.).

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34

Solid combo. If I would need shared account I would probably do something similar (apart from the Gold).

Agree. But also less fun to debate about moving to a cheaper/smaller flat :smiley:

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35

Absolutely.

In terms of simplicity and ease of use, UBS me + key4 standard CC will beat anything mentioned here in this thread for the predictable cost of ~170CHF/y (similar cost-wise to Raiffeisen incl. Debit card + Miles&More Duo + Wise card). The forex rates on their CC are almost as good as Wise, and through key4 you get enough back to buy Migros vouchers with :wink:

Question is what’s more scarce. Money, or time for geeking out on research?

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36

Haven’t there been solutions suggested that cost CHF 0 instead of CHF 170 that have the same fees?

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37

Absolutely. Question is, again, what you’re optimizing for. Paying nothing for financial service is one aspect. Spending as little time as possible is another. A third is maximizing the goodies that come with some combination that increase your quality of life in other ways.

I sum up a bit:

ZKB/AKB/Neon/Yuh all satisfy “free of charge accounts”.

SwissCard Cashback/Certo One give 1% cash on the amount spent.

Raiffeisen Membership + Debit card gives you free access to tons of museums :wink:

AmEx Gold gives reward points that you can use pretty flexibly, and comes with awesome travel insurance.

Wise/Revolut/Neon all satisfy “good for spending in foreign currencies”.

Some of these also have decent rates on savings (Raiffeisen) if not Checkings accounts (yuh)

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38

Wise should be very reliable - the inactivity of four months could be the reason, I would check that with them.

Despite I like the big neo-banks abroad, I am the biggest fan of a Swiss juristication, just because of such incidents.

Moreover, I am also a fan of minimalism but in your case, it can make sense to have one or two additional accounts beside Wise - honeymoon expenses are probably higher than normal holidays, I don’t know.

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39

I like/use Yuh, but for any foreign transactions it is too expensive. In those cases I use Revolut and so far didn’t have any issues, no matter whether I don’t use it for a while.

If you want to keep it simple and keep your main bank account at the same place as you pay your honeymoon, then Neon would be better (better Fx rates than Yuh, but slightly worse interest on account and more troubles with app connectivity).

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40

Have been using Wise for sending around money since 2015, occasional ID verification was normal. Ordered a wise card through this thread and the process of snapping my passport on the phone was convenient enough.

Maybe try again with some pocket change, see if that works?