Postfinance increases fees for Giro

I can see on their website that you get this voucher now when you sign up.

So what is the current consensus? I am thinking of moving from PF or switching to PF plus because the costs are the same.
The Nextbank offer looks good and even has no charges if you move abroad which might be attractive in the future. Any potential pitfalls to that account?

I tried the CA-NextBank, but I cannot really recommend it.

I will keep some savings on their saving account (1% with some conditions, or 0.5% / 0.2%), but I really don’t see myself using their e-banking for everyday needs. Their e-banking is horrible, not safe and ugly.
I have an account with them for 2 weeks and they already charged me fees they shouldn’t have had.

I am trying Raiffeisen (Sociétariat Member Plus) for everyday use:

  • free account,
  • Maestro for free in the first year,
  • and currently 2% interest rate on the “membership” share which can be between 200 CHF and 10000 CHF),
  • additionally 500 Swiss museums for free and discounts for concerts and skiing.
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Thanks for the update. I can still really recommend BCV for your CHF needs. I now switched everything from Postfinance to them. The online/mobile banking is just as good in some parts even better than Postfinance. For example they have E-Bill with configurable automatic release, payments are executed the same day etc
 They are just a little slow in responding to messages in their Online banking, otherwise there is really nothing I can complain about other than their somewhat mediocre main website. I get unl. free withdrawals at KB and 1x/m at any ATM. So far not a single fee. Also I only need to deposit 10k and can put the rest where it belongs (stocks :money_mouth_face:)

For € I use DKB with 0.2% interest and unlimited free withdrawal worldwide at any currency. (Visa Rate)

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no BCV in Zurich area :frowning:

I live in Zurich and I use BCV as my primary bank
 I never had to physically go to a bank in my life. So I don’t care where its located physically. You can open the BCV account completely online and sign with Mobile ID.

Also other than doing cash in-payments I don’t see why one would need to set foot into a bank. But this you could also do in any other bank. (might incur small charge) Maybe someone can clarify for me why so many need a physical bank?

I was talking about ATMs actually. I checked on their website and they did not show any ATMs in Zurich. No need for a physical bank location tbh

The Kantonalbanken have an agreement with each other for free ATM withdrawal rights. You can withdraw unlimited for free with BCV at any ZKB ATM if you need to withdraw more than once a month.

Thank you :slight_smile: I was not aware of this. I guess I did not understand the KB part in your earlier post.

Does the e-code device come included in the BCV account opening? I see they charge 45.- for them.

I use the BCV Mobile App on my Phone for Two Factor Authentication. It uses a QR Code and is really fast compared to Mobile ID that Postfinance uses.

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@Mobius

If you have a not too old smartphone then you don’t need the “e-code device”.

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I found another free alternative to postfinance:
https://www.bcf.ch/de/privatkunden/konti-und-karten/privatkonti/lohnkonto

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Nice find!
The main issue generally is that a maestro card will still cost you ~40./year. Not sure about BCF. I find that ridiculous, a yearly cost for a piece of plastic. I guess they have to make money somehow and if the account is free, the card costs something

Very happy with Zak for now. Some glitches sometimes but nothing serious. The scanning of invoices with phone camera works like a charm. No problem with lsv. All in all good stuff.

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Closed my PF accounts and have been using Raiffeisen since the beginning of the year, and so far I’m happy with the experience. There’s a demo version of the e-banking website available for you to get a glimpse of how it works: https://ebankingdemo.raiffeisen.ch/. Compared to PostFinance, I feel it is much more limited, but probably in a good way (less options that I don’t use anyway). Was able to quickly setup eBills for the entities I use, and can see in the system that all of them have accepted the request, so everything should be fine for the upcoming bills.

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Raiffeisen tends to be more expensive than PF for me if I input my values at moneyland. Another thing I dont like is that their fx rate is a lot worse if you happen to withdraw in anothe country. I had the direct comparison when I had postfinance and my spouse raiffeisen and we both were withdrawing at the same ATM

I went to BCV where all services I use are free. With revolut I wont even withdraw cash with the maestro abroad

Yeah, those considering aren’t an issue for me as I never withdraw money abroad from my swiss account. I have an account in EU for that, and also Revolut. What made me go for Raiffeisen is that you have 12 free withdrawals at other banks’ ATMs and their MemberPlus program (given that we go several times a year as a family to museums, it’ll more than pay for itself).

and the ski pass reductions

I started using neon and like it better then Zak. Use my code UHMFK0 to get 30 CHF!