So I know it is very difficult, I already contacted few banks which turned me down. But was someone recently able to open bank account as foreigner in CH?
Is it possible to open bank account in Switzerland without residence permit? I work as freelance IT consultant for client in Switzerland, but mostly remote with just couple of trips per year to Zurich. As such I don`t have residence permit, I pay my taxes on this income in my EU country, I just file notification for every trip to Switzerland (up to 90 days per year I am not supposed to register and pay taxes in CH). I still however would like to open bank account in Switzerland and receive my payments there. Because they are in CHF and in my country only one bank offers accounts in CHF and it is not a safe one, and I don`t want to convert them to EUR.
Have you tried Wise? I don't think it's required that you be a Swiss resident or citizen in order to add and keep money in CHF there.
There’s the e-bank form the Swiss Post. It’s called yuh https://www.yuh.com
To activate the yuh account, you must first make a deposit from an account you already have in Austria, France, Germany, or Italy.
Basically aimed at cross-border and temp workers in CH from bordering countries.
AFAIK (just checked) you can add money to your CHF account in Wise, but you cannot receive money. Meaning that you can transfer CHF from an already existing bank account in your name, but somebody else cannot pay you money using it.
(I just opened a CHF pocket in my Wise account, and it doesn't provide me with an IBAN...)
OP is Bulgarian according to their signature. This will not work.
Most swiss neobanks are like this. I do have an N26 (German) account, but of course they don't accept that.
I'm curious, what do you mean by this? Since Bulgaria is in the EU, doesn't the 100k EUR protection apply for any bank account that you hold as a private person?
Fair, thanks. I was able to send money from my Swiss bank account to my Wise CHF account, but it was a touch convoluted and I didn't realize how limited the functionality was.
Actually, I just remembered that Postfinance asked me for a proof of address when I opened my account at their counter ( in person! ) - but they did not like the one I received from the local Gemeinde because it did not have my actual address on it . (Don’t ask me why they gave me a paper like that…).
But.
When I asked why they needed the proof of address they said that for non-residents the fee is higher (25 CHF per month, IIRC). Which kind of suggests that it is possible to open a bank account as a non-resident, but you:
have to be present, online won’t work have to pay extra for the privilege. On further checking online, it seems most banks charge quite a hefty fee for non-residents (and they are not obliged to open an account for you, not even Postfinance):
https://www.moneyland.ch/en/swiss-bank-fees-abroad
If these fees are acceptable for you, then it might be worth asking around the next time you visit. I’m not sure it is that much better than an EUR account, considering the fees - unless the CHF/EUR rate changes for significantly worse…
I called few banks such as ZKB and Migros and they said it was entirely not possible to open account for non resident even with higher fees. I am still to check with Post Finance and UBS.
25 CHF fee would be fine, I am charged more when I receive the money in my country as they come from non EU area.
Revolut seem to be more Flexible than Wise.
The answer is almost certainly no, unless you got mega-millions
UBS may be able to help but they don't like it and charge a lot for it. But good to check with them.
If you have can put around CHF3m - CHF5m under management you would have no problem finding a Swiss private bank willing to accept you ;-). Beyond that without some kind of contact to the country - resident or citizen there is little or no chance.
But as an EU citizen, resident in the EU you can legally open an account in any EU member state, so try and find a bank on line that will allow you to open a CHF with them. They will all support SEPA payments so you should be good to go.
With WIse, you have an account in Belgium or UK - not Switzerland.
With Revolut, you have a bank account in Lithuania - not Switzerland.
It might work using Interactive Brokers, though your nationality may be a problem.
Deposits to your IB account can happen using their Swiss IBAN ("to the benefit of bamse"), so your "employer" should be fine with it. You have one free payout per month (every additional payout costs a tenner) so the costs of this caroussel should be low/zero. Plus the exchange to EUR/Lev happens at IB's difficult to beat rates.
IB treats currencies like any other item in your account. Your 10k Apple shares, the CHF position, and the Lev position, are each merely one line in your deposit (the total value of which is calculated in the currency of your choice using market prices for each position/line) that you add to or subtract from using various ways, including transfers+sales+buys.
Of course that would also solve the question of which low-cost broker to use.
However your IB account may not be a Swiss one, but that of IB(Romania) or wherever. They introduced a not-so-obvious multi-coutry structure a while back I'm not familiar with, probably for regulatory reasons.
Both Revolut and Wise support multicurrency accounts e.g. EUR and CHF. And both can accept CHF via bank transfer. I recently did a transfer to both so I know it from my personal experience. So there is zero sense to have an account in a Swiss bank just to deposit CHF.
In addition if you decide to convert CHF to any other currency the fx rate that is offered by these 2 financial institutions are almost always better than what a conventional bank offers.
The only downside is that neither Revolut, nor Wise is a bank in a traditional sense. Hence 100k protection does not apply.
Revolut has a 100k protection as it has a banking licence.
And the question is not if you can transfer CHF to your own card but if third parties can pay to your CHF account on your card.
yes and no. not every account is tied to the legal entity (Revolut Bank UAB) which is registered as a bank. I believe all Revolut accounts registered in Switzerland are not covered. https://help.revolut.com/en-PL/help/…lut-bank-live/
third parties can transfer money to your revolut/wise account as long as they are willing to add some client-unique reference code in the payment details. but I agree that it might be problematic to receive your salary due to this limitation.
I’d suggest to the OP to look in your home for some conventional bank country that offers multicurrency accounts.
I confirm that this is not possible, IB does not allow any incoming transactions from accounts that are not owned/named to the recipient at IB.
"to the benefit of" will not work and will immediately raise a red flag with their compliance dept. Your account might be blocked if fraude is suspected.
I tried to be smart and transfer directly from my business payment account (Stripe payment systems) to IB and it was refused by their compliance dept.
It is extremely unlikely a non-resident can open a CHF IBAN account, unless you are an ultra high net worth individual. I'd also like Swiss banks to keep it that way, considering it reduces the amount of online scams.