WIR Bank TOP package

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
103

Thank you for your suggestion. I can confirm that I am fully aware of the situation. My message was directed at you, not at @TRSP, whose actions are his own.

If you share the same concerns or have others, it seems more effective to address them directly to receive a tailored response. That said, if you prefer to rely on others’ initiatives, that is, of course, your choice.

In any case, I wish you all the best moving forward.

3 Likes
104

A tailored response to a common issue… alright then.

I hope you get better, too.

1 Like
105

So after a while I got a response from Wir. They assured me that everything was fine with my card and that the correct exchange rate (interbank rate) was applied.

I then replied and showed them three examples (in EUR, AED and GEL) where the exchange rate applied by WIR was worse than the one applied by Mastercard (and this was valid both on the date of payment as well as the date of settlement, so there is no argument here about which dates should apply). The answer was then:

  • WIR exchange rates come from SIX Financial Information and are updated in the system every 15 minutes. Their interbank rate is exactly as published by SIX.
  • The relevant date is always the date of settlement, which can be 1-2 days later than the date of purchase, depending on when the seller actually settles the payment.
  • They cannot judge whether the Mastercard exchange rate is worse/better. Especially for exotic currencies the Mastercard exchange rate seems to be slightly better.

So, as I mostly use ‘exotic’ currencies, I might go back to Neon or another provider that uses the Mastercard exchange rate then!

2 Likes
106

Thank you for the reply.

But I assume if one mainly uses the card for purchases in EUR and USD, WIR should be better than Mastercard rate?

107

Anyone here moving from neon to wir? Since neon announced 0.35% markup fees.

108

We will with the joint account and I will also with my personal account.

109

Already our main bank for joint account for 6 months now.

Interface could be better but we don’t complain of the service which has been always up and running unlike my main account by Migros

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110

Have you tried using their mastercard for other currencies?
do they add a small markup on top/ use mastercard fees instead of using interbank fees?

111

I have been using them as my main bank for several months now. Their service has been perfectly reliable until now.
The mobile and ebanking are indeed quite old school. They have a windows 3.11 vibe. yes, i am that old…
However, they plan to update their ebanking in 2025: Bank WIR drives digitalization with ti&m Banking

1 Like
112

I’ll go with WIR as main account. The only issue I have is the settlement of the card payments abroad. They are visible in the main app several days later with the CHF amount. (neon shows instantly). And yes the 2 apps.
The e-banking will be definitely better, but it’s not that bad at all rn imo (I just couldn’t find the ebill section today… but I looked only for couple of minutes).

113

So far so good. A bit annoying the delay with which I get a notification on the watch after I buy something through ApplePay: when I use other cards it arrives immediately, with Wir several minutes can pass and then I’ll have forgotten about the transaction and think it’s some other notification… I can live with that. I still need to double check the exchange rate they apply on foreign currency payments, some people here mentioned issues…

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114

Luckily, the notification treshold can be set… I suppose works for ApplePay as well.

115

Ok, after tesing card payments abroad and in CH. The transactions are visible only in E-Banking (the mobile banking is quite stripped down). Under the account in a separate tab “disponierte Beträge” (not in the pending payments section) with the rate of the fx. It’s pretty near the interbank rate (only visble on desktop, not in a moble browser coz the row is too narrow). And there is the amount available rn. It’s quite hidden. I can live with that.

Further cool stuff I found: you can set an amount at specific date to be in account. Everything above can be sent to the savings acc. An below can be transferred from savings acc.

2 Likes
116

Thank you for the feedback and the information provided. Raiffeisen offers a similar feature, but with less attractive conditions for the card. Does Wir also offer rounding up on card payments (as Migros Bank does, for example)? I’m referring to rounding up to the nearest franc, to 5 or 10 francs with the difference automatically transferred to a savings account, for instance

117

Haven’t seen this yet.

1 Like
118

Nice: Sparkonto plus with 0.75% up to 250k until March 26 (for fresh inflows). 20k/yr can be withdrawn.

Edit: Link

3 Likes
119

Hey all,

I lived in Germany for a long time and was using the DKB card for FX payments and withdrawals (VISA exchange rate and no additional fees with active status).

Since I’m back in Switzerland, I found Radicant and and moved all my foreign card payments to it (interbank rate, I checked and it was incredibly accurate). The downside is a CHF 2 fee on withdrawals.

For an upcoming trip to Singapore, that means that purely based on the exchange rate and fees, DKB is better up to SGD 300 where the 2 francs start being less than the worse exchange rate. Add to that the fees for getting Euros to DKB with Wise and the cutoff goes down a little further.

Now I’m wondering if WIR could actually be better. I’d just use it for cash withdrawals since Radicant is still better for card payments. But I’m kind of taken aback by the 3 apps you need, the big delay in showing the transactions and the non-transparent exchange rate with SIX. I’m guessing in the end I would save a bit of money doing it, but it’s hard to put a finger on it.

What’s your honest opinion, is it worth the effort and extra apps for cash on vacation once or twice a year or should I just get rid of the thought of trying to squeeze out the last drop of fee improvement and stick with the options at hand?

Thanks,

JonSnow

120

What’s the max you think you will save per year with this super optimisation vs your current situation?

121

I wish I knew, the exchange rate on six is shown like an interbank rate without any markup, but I don’t think that’s what’s actually happening, so there is pretty much no way of telling how it differs from visa or interbank. But let’s say I need CHF 3000 cash per year which is probably higher than the truth depending on the digitalisation of the country I’m travelling to, and let the difference be max 1%, we’d be talking CHF 30. Probably I should forget about it, but it’s easier said than done lol

122

Agreed. Forget about it :slight_smile:
I think interbank rate is generally quite competitive.

So all you will have to pay is 2CHF withdrawal fee

1 Like