And ZKB has a state guarantee for the whole deposited amount.
May be the death knell for other cantonal banks’ online accounts (from other German-speaking cantons, unless, maybe, you live in the respective canton).
People in switzerland (especially those who are still with a cantonal bank) don’t move their accounts quickly.
However I would like to move my joint account away from postfinance. Does anyone know about fees for Partnerschaftskonto?
Hi all
ZKB offers the basic banking package for no fees srating in 2024.
looks like we are back to having basic main stream banking for free again.
What is your thoughts?
my PostFinance setup costs CHF 60 + 50 for the Visa per year…
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Great news.
This should set off a cascade in the next year, because other banks will have to follow suit, I imagine.
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My girlfriend will try this out next month.
Excelent news. ZKB also has very solid internet banking UI. Will be switching from CSX, as I expect UBS to muck it up in 2024. And need a safe deposit box from ZKB since CS goes away soon and that requires a bank account with them. Great move by ZKB and overdue for Swiss market.
Seems like that’s the real end of negative interests rates 
Banking fee on basic package (no credit card) was mostly a way to recover the cost of negative interest without charging for them explicitly.
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I am sure you know, but there are free credit cards around, even with a bit of cash back.
Just got 89.- chf cashback from PostFinance for the last 6 months of usage.
also compare the interest of zkb with those of pf.
AKB already did so too this year, so it seems a trend - or fishing for UBS customers.
Only for the account fees, cards etc. still have fees.
Yes, I overlooked that - hard to believe that ZKB does that too. Time to read the fine print…
Credit cards will still have a fee. But not debit cards:
Bis zu drei Privatkonten und zwei ZKB Visa Debit Cards sind fĂĽr Sie kostenlos.
Or am I stupid?
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I just saw the information that this free offer is also valid for Partnerkonten. Byebye Postfinance.
Afaik this is the first free true partnerkonto (without pseudo-separation like zak and without requiring minimal deposit like BCV)
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Assuming other will follow, there is no reason to rush or am I missing something? (Old question, is the own time free…)
If you live in Canton Zürich and wants a free account from a traditional bank, I see no reason not to change. Otherwise…
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Do you recommend it also for non-german speakers? I might be interested to try it and move away from UBS, however I am worried about the language given that all info is in german and the English version of the website doesn’t tell much
Personally, I wouldn’t take the risk of opening an account if you don’t reside in the same canton. I had this experience with BCV while living in another canton. In some cases, the bank required in-person visits for identification and certain services not available online. For instance, opening a joint account could only be done by physically going to the bank. Additionally, if you want to deposit money into your account, it’s only possible at the bank’s ATM or counter; you can’t deposit money from one cantonal bank for another ex: you cannot use BCV’s ATM to put money into your ZKB account).
To add a little detail to the article and the various comments, the basic package will no longer be offered. The entry package at ZKB will now be the Silver package. More details and price list :
This is a good start and a strong sign from ZKB. I hope that other big banks like Raiffeisen or UBS will also apply a reduction or even free basic banking services. However, in both cases, the loss of earnings for these banks would be enormous.