German Bank Account

**moorfield** · 29 January 2009, 14:13

Originally posted by chef View Post

Im looking for a recommendation for a German bank that is less likely than others to fold and have a decent customer service. Imsetting up as a freelancer.

any recommendations?

Commerzbank? Just merged with Dresdner and now part nationalised I believe.

**tim123** · 29 January 2009, 16:39

Do you speak German.

If not IME your chances of finding someone who will give you "good" service is virtually nil.

Oh and don't be surprised when you have to pay lots of money to have this account, it's the german way of banking.

tim

**expat** · 29 January 2009, 17:06

Originally posted by tim123 View Post

Do you speak German.

If not IME your chances of finding someone who will give you "good" service is virtually nil.

Oh and don't be surprised when you have to pay lots of money to have this account, it's the german way of banking.

tim

Yeah, well, just imagine trying to find a bank that is less likely than others to fold and has a decent customer service in Britain, if you don't speak English

**tim123** · 29 January 2009, 17:56

Originally posted by expat View Post

Yeah, well, just imagine trying to find a bank that is less likely than others to fold and has a decent customer service in Britain, if you don't speak English

I'm sure that there are lots of languages that you could use in the UK and still get useful service - if you went to a bank in the right location.

IME, Germans don't like helping in a foreign languaue "on principle". Brits only don't like it because they are lazy feckers who can't be bothered to learn another language.

I'll leave the rest of you to debate which is worse.

tim

**Slumdog** · 29 January 2009, 18:14

Initially I went to Citibank but was told that you had to be resident in Germany for at least 7months to open an account.

Next stop Deutsche Bank. had no problems with them. Arranged initial meeting with UK ID/passport etc and that was it. I found it to be a good service.

**Slumdog** · 29 January 2009, 18:16

Also there online banking is straightforward. i.e website not complicated.

**BlasterBates** · 31 January 2009, 22:45

I would recommend the Sparkasse. Each local German comunity has a Sparkasse. They´re very old fashioned and run their bank as banks used to do in the 1960´s. no subprime, fancy investment banking etc. They also have tremendous number of local branches. The staff are quite friendly.

**AlfredJPruffock** · 2 February 2009, 11:12

Originally posted by BlasterBates View Post

I would recommend the Sparkasse. Each local German comunity has a Sparkasse. They´re very old fashioned and run their bank as banks used to do in the 1960´s. no subprime, fancy investment banking etc. They also have tremendous number of local branches. The staff are quite friendly.

Sparkasse are pretty good - as I recall you will have to present a whole dossier of inforation including your German Registration Papers - I dont know if this has changed much in 15 years - whatever you do good luck .

**darmstadt** · 2 February 2009, 12:10

The one thing you will probably have to watch out for is your Eurocard (bank card for ATMs.) If you get an account from the Commerzbank/Dresdner/Deutsche/etc. you can use the card in any of their ATMs with no charges. If you open a Sparkasse or Volksbank (which are more numerous than the Sparkasse and in every town) then you will incur quite high charges if you use a different banks ATM, and vice versa. A lot of German banks will want to see your registration papers though and the last 2-3 payslips. I have had an account with the Dresdner for 20 years now and though not the best I recently managed to get a hefty discount on my business account interest and they have recently done me some good deals. You might want to look at the SEB bank which I have heard good things about.

German Bank Account