Other than as a place to receive these reimbursements and possibly as a way to pay my rent, I do not plan on using the Swiss bank. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive bank in Zurich for these transactions?
Thanks.
I have been doing fine relying on my US bank account, but my Swiss medical insurance company wants me to have a bank account in Switzerland to which it can send reimbursements of medical expenses.
You can use this https://www.moneyland.ch/en/private-accounts-comparison
neon-free.ch is largely free (there are some limits) and mobile only
zak (from bank cler) is mobile only and mostly free
From traditional offerings:
bcv.ch has free packages if you keep more than X in your account (including maestro card - X varies per package but starts from 10k) - they have website in English
https://www.ca-nextbank.ch/ has free packages (including maestro) if you keep move than X in the account (I thin that X is 25k) - the have website in English
In all of the above you can open an account remotely without a visit in a branch (which in CH is not always the case)
Careful. If you are a US citizen most of these options will not be possible for you. There are many threads on that topic on EF. You might have to use UBS or CS.
Might want to check your other thread.
Added to that.
From the title:
..... Inexpensive [] Zurich .
.......... A contradiction in terms!
Best bet is to open a Spar account. This type of account is usually free to keep but has restrictions on activity. Good if all you want is a low cost place to receive transactions. Try bank CLER.
You could switch your health insurance to one which pays the bills in advance and bills you for your share (KPT for instance, others as well). May depend on the billing doctor, the two may need to have some contractual arrangement in place, just a guess.
Did you consider using payment slips? This would require you to queue at the Post office, initiate payment in cash (some payees add a few CHF surcharge, basically what they get charged by Post for the service), but if it's for just a few occasions per year those two measures might be a viable solution.
As for using a "Spar" account (savings account)(see robBob above) for what you describe, I may be wrong but AFAIK you can't do electronic transfers from those. Do ask the bank beforehand.
However, an electronic transfer can be made to a savings account and assume that is only what the OP wants. However, for paying the rent the OP may or may not incur a transaction fee.