Hi all - info from Credit Suisse received this week.
I am an Australian returning home shortly. They advised they will charge CHF480 per year to keep the account open and they are not permitted to send any correspondence (Statements etc) to an address in Australia. They also said I will not be able to make any payments via Internet Banking.
I was going to post a similar query. The only reason I wanted to leave the account open was so that I can pay any bills that come in over the coming months.
I have informed phone company, TV license, credit card etc. of move, but imagine that bills will not be received until after my departure.
Just thought I would "forget" to close bank account until a month or two later. Is there likely to be any problem with that (except account fees of course)?
I am an Aussie who purchased a property with an American who is now back in the USA. UBS has closed her account and wants to do the same with the joint mortgage and hence force us to sell the apartment. This despite no laws being broken (she reports her account here). Don't be fooled that there is any new laws...it is all just bank "Policy" driven by the government so that the US can't get their paws on more information and destabilize the Swiss banking system.
This is obviously happening to many people at the moment but the government and the banks are not interested in discussions.
Just a warning for anyone in a similar situation what is likely to happen to you!!!
I'm a Brit, I left CH about two years ago and I have just recently closed my UBS account. We had a family account - joint account for myself and my wife. UBS wrote to us stating that due to a change in rules resulting in an increased work load for them handling overseas/foreign accounts (where the account holder is not resident in CH)they would be charging us CHF 30 per month just to keep the account. Needless to say I told them to stuff it and close the account. They did tell me though that if you keep a minimum of CHF 50,000 in the account then no charges would be levied. Yeah right, like I'm going to leave 50 grand laying around for them to play with.....
That's exactly the point. If you have large amount of money and want to deposit it in presumably the safest country in the world, then it makes sense. Otherwise it doesn't, if you deposit few grand which will be subject to monthly fees. In worst case scenario their either close your account when it reaches the limit or you will accrue the negative balance.
You don't leave it in a checking account though with no interest. CHF 50.000 @ 5% is CHF 200 per month you would gain when properly investing it (in a pretty safe way).
The problem in CH is that banks are not allow to leverage your money like they can in the US. Hence in CH they have to charge fees to recoup the cost of ATMs, bank accounts etc.
One way or the other you pay these admin fees. For example, back in RSA, either on savings account there was ATM fee R5 charged on every withdrawal and transaction or if you had debit account those charges were included in monthly fee R70. You figured which one worked out better for you i.e. cash withdrawal vs paying with card subject to how frequently, safety factor of carrying the cash around and etc..
I wouldn't leave my CHF50k in to let the CH-men play with it. There are way better things to do with such amount of money and somewhere else
Due to ebanking I only receive 1 communication a year for tax reasons, just set up a change of address to a swiss post internet post box & your done. I guess you could just give the bank the new 'swiss post' mail address
UBS official line is - Close all, especially if you are moving to the US. Not sure India is such a problem... However, exceptions can be made in case of locally owned real estate.
I suspect that the rules will vary extensively depending on who you're asking, so I would be very interested in hearing more about it.
I want to leave here my Libre Passage - anybody having a good clue about that? I've been reading all I could on that , but I can't quite find something clear.
Anybody here is an expert???
I know I can get the money out and take it with me, but with time I am a Swiss citizen, and I don't want to take all out...
You will pay charges of around chf 40 per month if it's with a bank. If you open a Post Office account, they only charge chf3 per month if you have less than chf 7000k. If you have more than this, then there are no charges with the Post.
The experience wy wife and I made is that having a bank account with 'Postfinance' is not a problem at all. You just need to pay your standard fee (if any).
Having an account with 'UBS' or 'CS' you might be able to keep the account as well but the monthly admin fees jump from a couple of CHF ot around 70 CHF per month
I think most banks do not want non resident accounts if you are a regular Joe. That is pretty much the situation, even though it may be possible for certain countries. You need a local address to keep an account.