Hi all
I'm a student about to move to Geneva for a year.
However, I'm renting a room in Gaillard, France. I'm going to try and do all my shopping over in France as it's half the price.
I was wondering if anyone else is in the same position and if so, whether or not they had come up with any good bank solutions - i.e. one that minimizes transfer fees between currencies.
I think I'm going to try and get the Swiss Post Student account, which is free, for my CHF account.
However I'm wondering whether or not to get a euro account with them as well, as then I could transfer between the euro and CHF account for free, but I think it would incur a charge every time I drew out Euros in France. I think the card attached to the CHF account would not be able to be used as a debit card in France, so I would have to draw money out each time, which would mean incurring something like a 5CHF charge each time.
The other option would be to get a credit agricole account in France, but then obviously transfers between the CHF and Euro account would cost, but drawing out Euros/paying by card in Euros would not incur a charge.
I'll be grateful for any advice
UBS charges 30 rappen for a SEPA transfer )that is to say a standard transfer within Europe with full IBAN and SWIFT codes) and the receipt is free on my LCL account. Obviously there will be FX rate impact, so the best thing is to do large wires unfrequently.
So it does not seem to difficult to arrange by selecting banks on both sides on that criteria. With a debit or credit card on both sides, you are set for not much.
Good luck.
Thanks pabcbc - could I ask what the annual fees are for your bank accounts, and what type they are?
Regards,
Josh
Big supermarkets in France accept Swiss francs
Dear Josh
not sure sorry. Shop around, all fees are published I believe or available.
Swiss post will give you Euros from a cash machine in CH, no charge other than fx rate.
Thanks for all your replies
So if I have a Swiss post account in CHF, I can still withdraw Euro in Switzerland from the CHF account at just exchange rate?
No I think what it says above is that you can draw EUR from some (many) cash machines in CH for free but if you use your Swiss ATM cards abroad there is a commission.
My strategy:
Have
an account in CHF&EUR in Switzerland. Swiss EUR-accounts allow free SEPA-transfers within the EEA+Switzerland. a EUR-account in a EUR-country, as this allows free payments throughout EUR-land use services of a currency exchange company, to swap between the two
You then take
a Swiss CHF-payment card for ATM&payments inside Switzerland (CHF), and an EUR-payment card for ATM&payments inside €uro-country (EUR).
Practically:
As soon as you live in Switzerland, you can open an account with money-net.ch They give you free CHF&EUR accounts. Drawback you have to pay CHF 20 for the CHF-Meastro card/Year. Or Postfinance If they ́re free for students, perfect above balances of CHF7500/account they charge nothing otherwise CHF 3/month/account If you want a free CHF credit card, check migros & coop, which both offer them with their loyalty programmes (which you can then choose to use or ignore.) www.wechselstube.ch for exchange between EUR&CHF www.dkb.de they give you a free account with EUR-Visa card. You can pay&withdraw, free of charge, throughout the €uro-Zone, thus also in France. Daily life:
In Switzerland, you use the Swiss card of Postfinance / money-net.ch / migros / coop In €uroland you use the German Visa Card. To exchange money between currencies, you use wechselstube with the Swiss CHF/EUR accounts. To exchange money from Switzerland to Germany (and back), you use the EUR-accounts with SEPA-transfers. Result:
Everything is free of charge, except the money-net.ch card (CHF 20/year) or the Postfinance card, depending on your student-status/balance.
Rgds,
Christian
My current Swiss account costs 36 CHF/year. Transfers (SEPA) to accounts anywhere in Europe are free of charge and will generally give you the best FX rates of anywhere. The transfers are usually either same day or at most next day (except for the UK which doesn't seem to understand wire transfers and takes 3 days). Most ATMs in Switzerland will deliver Euros as well as CHF.
Because of the CHF 36, I guess you are with Postfinance (so am I)?
I also thought their rates are good, until I found wechselstube.ch!
Rgds, Christian
At the end of the day, sounds like a lot of bollocking around to save Chf 100.- or so.....is it really worth it ?
If you have to open account(s) anyway, why not chose the right ones? In this case it ́s not any extra work.
If you already have an established routine, then it may not be worth bothering.
Thanks for the detailed reply - very helpful.
Just a few questions:
- do you mean get two accounts in Switzerland, one in chf and one in euro, as well as an account in France?
-when you say Germany I assume you meant France
Furthermore I've asked my landlady and she says the only bank in her village is credit agricole. With this in mind does anyone know of any decent accounts by them that I could utilise?
Also, is it ok for me to open savings accounts in Switzerland? I'd rather not keep all my money in one account.
I mean two account is Switzerland (one EUR and one CHF), and one EUR-account in Germany (not France)
I really meant Germany, and specifically DKB.de .
I don ́t know about French banks, but I know that the German account is free of charge, and allows free withdrawals @ all ATMs in all €uro countries (thus also France), so I wouldn ́t see why I should bother with accounts in France that cost a fee, and should the €uro collapse lose more of its value than if the enchilada is "parked" in Germany.
I guess you should pay her the rent into a French account? In this case you can transfer it from DKB in Germany to her French account, free of charge.
If you want multiple accounts, I ́d go for Postfinance , money-net.ch (it ́s really by Berner Kantonalbank) and dkb.de for Euro payments...
Of course, if you plan to stay in France long-term, and want to become "local", then you should use French banks. Not only because of the social aspect ("what if everyone moved their money to Germany"), but also to maybe become eligible for loans by building a credit history.
I ́m assuming a temporary nature of your stay (studies), and for that I ́d take above approach...
Oh ok, sorry for the confusion.
I've had a look at the German sites, and it seems that you need to go into a loca bank and get forms sent off, which can take a while, so I think what I'll do short term is get a free account in CHF with postfinance, which will allow me to draw out euros in Switzerland, and then re-assess and see whether or not it is worth setting up extra accounts for transferring euros etc. Also my German is terrible and my translate programme isn't very good.
As you say I am living in France for 6 weeks initially, then will either stay put or move to geneva (but you know what the accommodation situation is like there, I'm sure).
Thanks for all your help!
A bit late here, but I just wanted to add that I have had an account with ING in France for some years. It is Internet only. I am very happy & they are much cheaper than your standard issue Credit Agricole, BNP, etc. who are a bunch of robbers. I suggest checking their charges & conditions first.
However, if you are a student, shop around for good special deals, as all the banks try hard to attract you. Many students open several accounts to get all the goodies for opening an account.
No, for a variety of reasons, I'm not with Postfinance. I had disagreements with their fees some years ago (they started charging fees without informing their clients) so I closed my accounts there. I'm with the Banque cantonale vaudoise, have my mortgage there too. My "copropriété" used to have an account with BCGE, but frankly they're downright incompetent and there were so many mistakes made that we had to keep a continuous eye on what was going on, so I wouldn't recommend them. Raiffeisen looks good and also has low fees if you have a branch convenient for you.
I described the opening procedure here:
Which Bank I should choose?
enjoy Geneva!
Rgds,
Christian