Have been with Credit Suisse for some time. Always found them reasonable and internet banking doesn't cost anything to my knowledge. Have heard too many horror stories with UBS unfortunately...

thank you guys for the tip! i was going to take an appointment tomorrow to open an account for the garantie bancaire for the regie!!...clearly i'll get in touch with credit suisse rather...

Wow....  Anna!!

Nice Cleavage!!!!

Retail banking is pretty gnarly for most people I find who dont have serious money behind them. The banks just arent very affordable or service oriented. Migros is famous for its low cost model and a very egalitarian ethos- I tried to get a big loan there and they told me that if I got a small loan the rate would be the same...

The cantonal banks have also been growing big time as a result of UBS' decline and I quite like em. But again, I find banks are more or less unpleasant depending on how much money one has with them.....

using a bank for a deposit on an apt.??? haven´t you heard of swiss caution? no money blocked, just a small yearly commsion to cover the deposit (which they do in your place) on your apt.

as for retail banking, years ago, the swiss post office took about 35% of the 3 major swiss banks ( ubs, sbs and credit swiss ) retail business by offering no charges, free bank cards, internet access in 4 languages, saturday opening, and worldwide atm´s.

glocals may be promoting ubs because they pay glocals a fee to be promoted on the website.

anna, if you´re in finance, you ought to know the advantages of the various swiss banks.

another interesting fact: the swiss post (swiss finance) operates bankng services but is not legally a bank. which means they are not required to comply with us banking regulations as the other banks feel they must, if they want to be able to carry on banking activities in the usa.!!!

 the caution will not work for buying an apartment. 

Post bank charges a monthly fee, as far as I understand their literature, and there are no advantages in Swiss banks that I can see.

it depends on what you call serious money I guess.  Or maybe they know the money is in the account and soon leaving so they don't care. 

swiss finance have no charges if you keep a minimum balance of sfr. 7´000 .

Sorry guys..im just poppin in to say anna does have nice cleavage!! Amen

As for UBS i dont know..never tried with them...but im sure glocals wouldnt recommend them if they are not professional and effecient..

Good night!

hello epicure,

if a regie (the only one after you see 10000) gives you  finally a flat and tells you y'ou need to do a garantie bancaire' (and you don't know anything about the swiss system) ...you do it...

i only recently heard of these 'small' fees, but we are talking about 300chf per year...in this country i'm already binninng way too much money and when i'm alone with a baby!!

do you have a suggestion on which bank (migros? credit suisse? or whatever else) where i can do just the garantie bancaire bcs i have already an account with la poste, but they don't do the garanties..

thank you!!

hi ibaria,

even if you already have this blocked deposit account as a guarantee for your 3 months rent,

you are able to have the money returned to you once you open a guarantee via swisscaution.ch

their website is in english and they will advance the 3 months (or whatever) bank guarantee and your gerance wil free up their side of the blocked account. swisscaution works with basically all the real-estate agencies in switzerland.

call them if you have any questions, all their details are on the website.

hope this will free up a few 1000 sfr for this weekend's big party :-)

PS: anna, really nice dress, and i like the smile as well :-P

Voyarch, I'm looking at the BCGE web page now, and it looks quite good. However, I'm a bit confused by the variety of cards they offer. Which one do you find to be the most convenient for withdrawing money from ATMs in Switzerland and abroad, buying things by swiping the card in card machines in stores, and purchasing stuff online?

Hi,

You should check Reifeisen or Post. It's a good deal. If you have more than CHF50'000, you should choose Reifeisen.

Take care,

Eric

For all these things , a maestro card (20 chf/year at BCGe) is what you need, except for purchasing stuff online. For this, you would need a Visa/Mastercard (maybe maestro works on a few sites, but i'm not so sure about it).

One advantage of BCGe is that it's one of the only bank where you don't get to pay a monthly/yearly fee just to have an account there. But most expats I had as customer had their bank account at UBS (often because they work for a big company who got some contacts with UBS) and it was going ok for them usually.

Raifheissen onlyl ets you take out 50,000 francs without paying additional fees from a current account.  Postfinance is best.  Free if you have more than 7500 in assets with them, which i assume includes the 3rd. pillar of 6500 per year so quite easy to achieve

Raiffeisen it is! Super service, friendly, helpful. I am really surprised not more people have actually recommended them. Have been with several Swiss banks, all of whom have let us down one way and another. Now completely happy with Raiffeisen [although of course it does depend on the branch/employees]

I have always banked with Credit Suisse in Nyon.

The account manager there is Stefan Roulet, who is extremely helpful and efficient and speaks excellent English. 022 994 8112

As far as I can see I have never been charged for anything much at all.

Pay 20CHF and get a maestro card which can be used worldwide to withdraw money and in some countries pay over the counter, u cant use this card in USA or CANADA to pay over the counter.
And be careful they have a foreign withdrawal limit which is only 500CHF u cant withdraw more than 500CHF if abroad this is really sucks because I had so much trouble when was in Canada then I had to use my credit cards a lot which normally I don't like, may be there could be a solution to increase this limit coz I was told to speak to someone when I asked them but I didn't do it, on the other hand u can withdraw 5000CHF per day in Switzerland, which is really good. Otherwise I have no problem with this BCGE- Salary and saving account they don't charge a lot coz I never notice that, I found it's really good to withdraw EUR over the ATM they provide the best rate, and customer service is also not bad,
I would recommend this bank but when u travel be prepaid and don't trust this card unless u liaise with the customer service

To pick a bank, you should first what you are expecting from it, which services you really need...

credit card? good savings rate? low cost transfers? free cash withdrawals?

In Switzerland, the basic principle to please your banker (and get rid of most of the fees) is to maintain a minimum average total balance within a month portfolio (checking-savings-portfolio):

10000chf with UBS and most of "serious" swiss banks, SEPA payment will still cost 0.30 per transfer

7000 chf with postfinance and then almost everything will be free and if you can maintain 25000 chf you can have several bank accounts in different currencies fpr free, do SEPA transfers for free and do foreign exchange at a very good prices and best of all even withdraw cash from almost any ATM in the world without fees. Postfinance doesnt hol a bank licence, therefore they offer a sub account with Banque Cantonale Vaudoise for stockes, shares etc (no custody fees). They also have cash back credit cards!

If you have funds in different currencies, still have commitments in other currency zones and you travel a lot, Postfinance is one of the best cost wise solution but they dont have the best website though...

If you are looking for a mortgage, get a broker to find you the best mortgage offer and you will save the pain to choose the bank ;)

OK, the definitive answer:

I opened an account at post bank.  every little village seems to have a post office and they are open saturday morning.  there is no limit on withdrawals per month from your current account.  it might no seem a big thing but you can forsee buy a house , a kitchen refurb, a bathroom, the next month, a car....easily beating Raiheissen's measly 50k limit.  BGCE aren't open at lunch, in Paquis at least, Credit Agricole have a monthly fee, as do Credit suisse (but their monthly limit is 500k which is a bit more than I was planning to spend)  Quite homestly I could have left the money in an account in the BVI or the UK and transferred the funds in from there. As it I will pay UBS 2500 for the priviledge of accessing my own money. 

Forget why I rejected Migros and the Coop.

I'll update this when I have the account up and running.

Migros coz its depressing.....not sure about Coop....didnt even know they had financial services!

In any case that's a pretty cool synopsis!!  Thanks for that.

well done anna, and don´t forget you can overdraw on your current account by 1000 sfr at no charge. not bad eh?

by the way BCGE also unlimited withdrawal as long as u have the money just take them out, but 5000 CHF per day over the ATM, post finance normally 1000 CHF per day unless u have special agreement ;)

anyway post finance is also good I have both pst finance and BCGE, there are both good, what is special i post finance u can use the western union account through ur online banking with really cheap commission, I dint find this option anywhere else, if u want to send some money through western Union it couldn't be easier ;)

Good move, Anna! I started with UBS, and when they closed the offices at the university I switched to BCV. Well I didn't totally swich... I left little money in my account and kept my appartment security deposit account there. There were no fees for the first year, but I forgot that the 2nd year had started... so I had fees automatically taken out, now being in the -30 (hey, almost like canadian weather!)... but hey, no letters no nothing! Time for a final visit to UBS!

About the 500 limit overseas, it might not be specific to a bank, since for bank cards (at least for "local accounts"), the limit is usually 500/day in Canada. But if I remember well, that's for withdrawals at cash machines. The limit is higher (maybe 1000) for direct debit at a store. But even then, if you call the bank they can increase the amount for a specific purchase.

It is funny... I have a good experience with UBS - I had an offer for 1 year with no fees etc. Great customer service, in person, by phone or e-mail.

I suggest an important thing to do is read the conditions before you sign to open an account - no matter where you decide to open it.

you know what they say about banks. if you owe them 100'000 sfr you're a debtor

if you owe them 100'000'000 you're a partner!!