Account opening in Switzerland

[GlobalConsult]

Hi all,

I want to open an account in Switzerland (outside the EU). I live in Germany and am a German citizen.

I would like to use the account for normal day-to-day use, i.e. receiving payments of 3-5k per month from my other private accounts or company and then paying via SEPA for my expenses.

My application was subsequently rejected by Yuh, NO idea why. Yapeal only opens accounts if you have a connection to Switzerland, PostFinance only opens accounts with a personal visit to a branch.

Are there other options (without deposit, personal visit)?

Does anyone have experience with CIM Bank?

 

[Clank]

For those amounts Dukascopy or Swissquote.

 

[JackAlabama]

Hi all,

I want to open an account in Switzerland (outside the EU). I live in Germany and am a German citizen.

I would like to use the account for normal day-to-day use, i.e. receiving payments of 3-5k per month from my other private accounts or company and then paying via SEPA for my expenses.

My application was subsequently rejected by Yuh, NO idea why. Yapeal only opens accounts if you have a connection to Switzerland, PostFinance only opens accounts with a personal visit to a branch.

Are there other options (without deposit, personal visit)?

yes visit then if thats all you need. Its not far.
If you have a few millis to deposit, they will work remotely.

Does anyone have experience with CIM Bank?

youre better off at deutsche than using such z-tier operations.

 

[GlobalConsult]

For those amounts Dukascopy or Swissquote.

Dukascopy is a Broker, and Yuh is provided by swissquote.

 

[Clank]

Dukascopy is a Broker, and Yuh is provided by swissquote.

Dukascopy is a broker and a bank and swissquote is a broker and a bank as well

 

[Forester]

PostFinance only opens accounts with a personal visit to a branch.

Well, if this is their only request, what's the problem? @JackAlabama is right, just visit them, it's not 5000 miles, definitely...

Are there other options (without deposit, personal visit)?

Try FIAT24.

Or you can check Amnis Treasury, too – a CH company with a LI licence, so also non-EU. I am not sure whether they open personal accounts, though.

Does anyone have experience with CIM Bank?

Yes; but I do not think it's good for your use-case. A little bit more expensive and requesting a (small) deposit, IIRC.

Dukascopy is a broker and a bank

Yes. You can give it a try. Although again, IMO not much good for your use-case – onboarding is a nightmare, and they impose low initial limits.

and swissquote is a broker and a bank as well

Yes; but they are not focused at a retail transactional banking and behave accordingly – they do not like 3rd party transfers, at least not regularly; perhaps unless you are bringing a really good business to them with trading and/or investments. Not recommendable for @GlobalConsult 's use-case.

 

[Clank]

Yes. You can give it a try. Although again, IMO not much good for your use-case – onboarding is a nightmare, and they impose low initial limits.

My experience has been quite good, it's very easy to increase the limits with proper documentation. They also have low fees.

 

[Forester]

My experience has been quite good, it's very easy to increase the limits with proper documentation.

Nice to hear – and good for you! To be honest, I've heard and/or witnessed another stories in the past, I mean that it was not so easy (but never went into this personally, as I've never needed it).
As I've already written, OP definitely can give it a try, regardless of that I think some EMI like FIAT24, or PostFinance with a personal visit are better suitable for this use-case..

They also have low fees.

I agree (unless you have there more than 50k what probably is not the OP's use-case).

 

[jorge]

Why do you want to use a bank account in Switzerland if you live in Germany? do you think you can hide your money there? if so, you get very disappointed long term.

 

[Forester]

if so, you get very disappointed long term.

Yes, even in the short term, if he wanted to hide his money from the taxmen Both CH and DE financial guards are very accurate, IMO.
But I can imagine another use-cases when it can be useful.

 

[JackAlabama]

Why do you want to use a bank account in Switzerland if you live in Germany? do you think you can hide your money there? if so, you get very disappointed long term.

maybe due to the eu wealth register which is 2029 - 5y backwards looking.
But even then, Id use offshore account only for savings. Day to day payments are where one lives.

 

[GlobalConsult]

Why do you want to use a bank account in Switzerland if you live in Germany? do you think you can hide your money there? if so, you get very disappointed long term.

Did I write that I want to hide my money? I'm not stupid and I know that CRS exists!

 

[Sols]

You might want a Swiss bank accounts, but Swiss banks don't want you.

Non-resident retail banking is extremely uncommon in Switzerland, other than for some former residents who keep their accounts after leaving and for frontaliers who work in Switzerland but live in a neighboring country.

Aside from third/fourth tier options like CIM and Dukascopy, the only somewhat possible options are Yuh and PostFinance.

The other retail and private banks want to see closer to or above 1 million CHF/EUR to open an account for you, if they consider non-residents at all. And even then, they usually don't want you using the account for day to day banking much.

If you want non-EU banking without a big budget within Europe, you can try Moldova and in the Balkans. But you might not get SEPA, so you're paying SWIFT fees for wire transfers. TBH, for the amounts mentioned, you might have a hard time even in these countries.

Buy crypto?

 

[GlobalConsult]

Moldova and in the Balkans

Will be soon in the EU as well!

 

[Forester]

You might want a Swiss bank accounts, but Swiss banks don't want you.

Non-resident retail banking is extremely uncommon in Switzerland, other than for some former residents who keep their accounts after leaving and for frontaliers who work in Switzerland but live in a neighboring country.

For sure. Agreeing completely.

Aside from third/fourth tier options like CIM and Dukascopy, the only somewhat possible options are Yuh and PostFinance.

Any objections against EMIs like FIAT24 (OK, quite new) and/or Amnis Treasury?

 

[daniels27]

Any objections against EMIs like FIAT24 (OK, quite new) and/or Amnis Treasury?

Amnis works, but they want to see fx turnover of about 100k min. per year.

 

[Sols]

Any objections against EMIs like FIAT24 (OK, quite new) and/or Amnis Treasury?

They're generally fine. Also Klarpay but they only do personal accounts for people who also have company accounts.

However as @daniels27 mentioned, Amnis has minimum expectations that aren't in scope here.

 

[myshufflemix]

That means it is more or less impossible to get a bank account in Switzerland unless one has a company with substance, right?

 

[Sols]

That means it is more or less impossible to get a bank account in Switzerland unless one has a company with substance, right?

And/or an amount closer to a million CHF/EUR.

 

[ilke]

Any objections against EMIs like FIAT24 (OK, quite new) and/or Amnis Treasury?

FIAT24 and Amnis are both quite good from my experience. Amnis works actively on new options & features as well (added CH IBANs recently, has interesting savings accounts, is supposed to be adding more local IBANs over the next months). I would not see any objections against using these, but Amnis might not fit the OP, since the funds are held in the EU (German bank). FIAT24 does though - it's a Swiss deposit-taking institution.

I am not a complete fan of Klarpay, because they're a bit slow.