There is only one reason for cash only shops, tax fraud. Don’t support that.
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If you have a margin of 5% then you are going to feel the 1.3%. Applicable in few cases. Question is why do banks and large credit card companies require such a large %? It might seem peanuts for one item but it adds up really fast. Also usually they negotiate better terms for large retailers. Mom and pop shops tend to have no negotiation power. They could pass on the charge to the customer though. But, I am sure there are potentially other pit falls like reversing of charges which are not super easy for someone selling things at the xmas market.
I remember back in the days when digitec was charging the 2% on top of the purchase if you would pay with credit card.
then there wa ssome chaos with the wettbewerb kommission WeKo and some other things but finally they manage to handle a better position maybe?
One thing to keep in mind is that also dealing with cash is not “free”. There is effort involved with dealing with physical cash.
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Hi everyone, does anyone know (I couldn’t find on PF website) if the Smart or SmartPlus will have the 0.50% issuing commission (instead of 1%) on purchase of PF funds?
Some people are saying that if you have 25 kCHF in assets the Smart package will be “free” (or you get 5 CHF discount on SmartPlus) but as far as I know PF will start charging 0.15% p.a. on these assets starting on 01.01.2022. So it can never be “free” (with 25k in assets you’ll pay ~3 CHF a month and if you invest more, you pay more).
I have 2 funds for my 2 kids, they are not yet 25 kCHF together, but at some point I was considering topping it to 25k in order to get better fees (as of know they would reach 25k in about a year or so), however since none of the packages will be free anymore (due to the 0.15%), I actually start to think if it makes sense to move these funds somewhere else (e.g. to my Degiro) and close the PF account (open Neon or Zak).
Does anyone else considered this or is in a similar scenario?
I’m in a similar position. First Postfinance introduced this additional fee on assets (starting on 01.01.2022) and now the new fees on accounts. Originally, I was thinking to keep the account only because of the free ATM-withdrawals abroad I have with the Plus account (as a backup beside other cards, such as Transferwise, Neon (yep, here fees, but better exchange rate)). But since this free withdrawal is only available with SmartPlus I would have to pay even a higher fee. Therefore my final decision: Good Bye Postfinance! Better leave definitely now before they will introduce a new fee on something else 
My only problem is: I have something more than 25000 CHF in funds (invested it 10 years ago or so when I’ve found no other cheaper option), especially also the gold fund. Unfortunatelly, Degiro has gradually stopped the option of buying Gold-ETF for Degiro Custody customers (every time I find a new Gold ETF they stopp offering it after a while!). Therefore, but especially also for reasons of diversification I’m searching for an additional (cheap) broker to invest the money I’ve had in Postfinance funds, in particular also in Gold ETF. So, any recommendation is welcome. I’ve also opened an Investart account the other day, just to give it a try, but given their business model (or at least what I think it is) I don’t dare to invest that high amount with this provider for the time being.
As for the replacement of my Postfinance account I guess I will change to the BCV-account that is free above 10000 CHF. Just wondering if they also offer a second account in EUR (which I sometimes use to transfer to an EUR account in the EU).
If you are looking for a swiss broker instead of IB, please take a look at these brokers:
- Swissquote
- Flowbank
- TradeDirect (BCV)
- CornerTrader
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Have they? These are Exchange Traded Products. I can hardly imagine them selectively restricting the purchase of Exchange-traded ETFs/ETCs (on EU exchanges) altogether.
Or did you mean they just rotated them out of their lust of „free“ ETFs y and you just can‘t spend the 5 CHF or so it costs buy them on the exchange?
Yes they have, and no, I don’t mean the free ETFs (even though at least one of them is still on this list, but cannot be bought…). The last two Gold ETF I remember that I still have and after a while was not able to buy more were: ZGLD and PHAU. I also asked Degiro but they just send nonsense replies (if they reply at all…) like “we regularly adapt our offers to blablabla”.
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Thanks for the brokers. But they’re still too expensive for me. I will probably chose one in Germany where the costs are significantly lower.
Yes, but crazy expensive.
Thank you. So then this is not option for me. Does there exist a bank in Switzerland that offers FREE EUR-accounts that offer FREE SEPA transfers in the SEPA-countries (in EUR)? Used Postfinance until now, but will close this account because of the new fees.
Jesus. Ever heard of this site? Maybe before you close an account, you just run the numbers for your specific case and go for the cheapest option? Your question can be easily answered there.
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If you want to use a German broker (see above), you might just also open up a bank account with them. Or one at a EU bank (N26 for example).
Keep in mind that what’s free for you (sending a SEPA transfers) may not be free for the receiving party.
Here’s the thing: The receiving bank may charge different fees for incoming transfers from non-EEA SEPA countries (e.g. Switzerland) than they do within the EEA. And since Brexit banks (at least in Germany) increasingly seem to have become aware of that.
Surely I know this site. But as far as I’ve seen there is no option to search for EUR accounts, only accounts in CHF. If the search for only EUR accounts in Switzerland exist, a hint where to find it exactly would be appreciated.
Thank you for this helpful information, in particular the thing about the extra SEPA fee which the bank may charge. Was not aware of that. With Postfinance-DKB I haven’t had any issues so far, i.e. no fee at all.
It seems that it’s not so easy to find a free EUR-account at a Swiss bank which doesn’t charge any fees for the account and for the SEPA payments.
Most likely doesn’t exist.
And why would it, barely even CHF-only accounts exist for “free” in CH. 
(bar the new digital solutions)
Alright, maybe I was too quick to bash. The website has the option to specify the number of SEPA payments that you wish to make, but if does not ask if you wish to have a EUR account in your banking package.
The question is: Why does it have to be in Switzerland?
- If you’re transferring (part of) your Swiss CHF income to a EUR SEPA account, you can easily do this from your CHF account. You don’t need a EUR account at all.
- If you want to have some EUR savings, you can do it on a German bank account. Or elsewhere in Europe. Even at IBKR.
- If you want to have a EUR account that’s conveniently with the same bank as your CHF account, why does it have to be free? Convenience is often not free.
It seems largely pointless to me to have it in CH - unless it’s for sheer convenience.
You, on the other hand, seem more concerned about price and costs (which is fine)?!
I am wondering where these funds originally come from, and in which currency?
- If you’re receiving transfers in EUR, you can do so on a EU account just as well
- If you’re converting your CHF salary/savings the before transferring to the EU, PostFinance - or your new Swiss bank - is probably one of the more expensive services to do so.
In other words: If you’ve done currency conversion (from CHF to EUR) at PostFinance, it’s never really been “free” in the first place.
You could probably have saved by converting somewhere else - often a lot more than the account fees for EUR accounts at most Swiss banks.
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Thank you for your reply, I appreciate your critical view and analysis, but please don’t think too much about my problem/general banking setting etc. but only about my direct question. Because I know exactly what I want (if it exisits! 
)
Why a EUR account in Switzerland and not abroad? There are different reasons (e.g. Swiss regulation) which I don’t want to focus on here since all I’m interested is to know if there exist a free EUR account with free SEPA transfer at a Swiss bank. Here, I’m not interested in the pros and cons of having an EUR account in Switzerland or abroad or whatever you ask yourself about this. I know what I want 
It is also not important from where these funds originally come from if/how I make currency conversion. Again: I’m really only interested if there exist a free EUR account with free SEPA transfer at a Swiss bank (as it exists with CHF accounts), that’s all. I ask this here in the hope that a) such an account exist and b) somebody here might now that and can tell me.
So, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to start a big discussion about this but only look for simple question - simple answer.