Raiffeisen Bank. a good option for Brick & Mortar Bank?

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
1

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all doing good.

I moved to Switzerland at the end of August and my girlfriend will move at the end of October.
My company has an agreement with UBS which allows me to have an account without any charges for 2 years. Her company doesn’t have such an agreement.

Would Raiffeisen be a good option for her since she is looking for a brick and mortar bank (she will get neon as well as a secondary bank)?

Is my understanding that if you buy a share in the bank (from 200 to 500 CHF) you will not have any account expenses?

If you have an account with Raiffeisen, what is your experience?

We are based in Schaffhausen and both 26 if that makes a difference!
Thank you in advance.

2

Ask UBS if the UBS family package is part of that agreement.

1 Like
3

If you do not use any of their financial services and only use them as a bank and have over 7500 CHF (might be more nowadays) in your account to be considered member plus then it’s ok as most of the fees are waived.

But do not use them for your funds or anything else which has to do with finance, they cost quite a lot and have “hidden” fees.

In your case you could also consider simply have one single bank account, a Neon or Zak one.

1 Like
4

That’s actually a good tip Cortana, I will check with my account manager if that is a possibility! :slight_smile:

5

I don’t think she would be using them for investing for instance (probably going with VIAC+DeGiro/IB).
Maybe I will be able to convince her to only have Neon/Zac as her bank accounts.

I opened a Neon account to check it out and really liked the app. I have been using for most of my payments. But since I have a free UBS account for 2 years, I will probably take advantage of it!
Thank you for the help and heads up with Raiffeisen

6

I have Raiffeisen and becoming a shareholder (200 CHF and no fees for account handling) gives you access to a lot of discount tickets and free tickets for museums, events, ski passes, etc. if you close the bank account they will give you back the 200 CHF of course :slight_smile:
I pay 40 CHF a year for my debit card and I do not have any credit card with them, I have cumulus Mastercard only and Transferswise for the rest of the world :smiley:

happy with Raiffeisen honestly… worth if for 40 CHF a year in my opinion.

1 Like
7

Thank you for the feedback Mr. Pol.

Maybe two questions, if you didn’t request their debit card, then your account would be free?

I was reading in the forum that this shares pay interest/dividends, could you tell me how much this is? (or point me to a website, I couldn’t find this number when looking online)

8

Raiffeisen with a Raiffeisen-only card is free if you are a member, but you won’t get MemberPlus. MemberPlus is the thing you use to get free access to museums and discounts elsewhere.
If you like museums, I suggest you to get it or at least try it the first year. Not all museums are free, but if you go to 3-4 museums per year, it will pay by itself.

9

In some Raiffeisens you can buy-in a higher share ownership (10k max in Raiffeisen Versoix, 20k max in Raiffeisen Geneva-Meyrin one for example). The “interest” on this money is paid once per year and it is around 2% per year, which is quite a good deal :slight_smile:

So, it’s a completely free account and 200-400 CHF / year in interest.

1 Like
10

Good if it works for you, but considering your participation as equity, 2% p.a. is a bad deal for your capital, especially at an inflation rate of 2% :wink:

11

Is it 2%? Show me proof please, I’d like to show it to my boss.

12

The interest depends on the location of the bank. In my case I got 3%.
I’ve decided to sell my shares - it took almost 4 months until I had the money on my account.

Note: if you have a mortgage at a raiffeisen you’re apparently obligated to have atleast 1 share.

13

No it`s actually not at 2% p.a., but I would say it really depends on your basket. I use the 2% as a long term average for my calculations, but if you have a better suggestion for private investors, I am open for it :wink:

14

Negative. I can’t show that to my boss :slight_smile:

1 Like
15

I use 1%. We had almost no inflation in the last 20 years.

1 Like
16

I still prefere my very conservative approach of 2% p.a. with a margin of safety, but I think it also comes down to your future expectations.

17

I would agree that 2% inflation is a good imputed figure to work with. If we look at the basic costs associated with living in Switzerland (i.e. rents and property prices, mandatory health insurance) then 2% is not far from the historical truth.

2 Likes
18

I have 3 of them: 2% in Raiffeisen Versoix, 2.75% Raiffesen Gros-de-Vaud, 3% Raiffeisen Lausanne.

19

I meant 2% infaltion rate. Not interests.

Btw I though you couldn’t have two different raiffeisen bank accounts since they are in the same network.

1 Like
20

You can have shares in every place you have a company or a building.