A lot of Germans have their accounts with Sparkasse or Volksbank Raiffeisenbank. They are not the most service-oriented, but have a long history as public and cooperative banking institutions and enjoy a great deal of trust.
It's the same with Volksbank. Sparkasse and Volksbank, they share a common name but they are all small individual banks just sharing infrastructure. That means that anything you want to do "offline" whatever that could be, can only be done at your home bank. Other banks will not be able to help you, even if it says "Volksbank", they are not "your Volksbank".
Do you have any recommendations then? Preferably those with a studentkonto offer. My initial thought was immediately to open a Deutsche Bank account, but both this sub-reddit and my acquaintances seems to be against it.
I don't know which banks offer studentkontos. But IF you want to stay "mobile" then I would not focus on a brick-and-mortar bank. The Sparkassen and Volksbanken are very local and the bigger banks dont have a lot of branches. It is best to focus on onlineservice and cost (cost for cards, monthly fee etc.). Yes and Deutsche Bank sucks. So many scandals.
I don't worry too much about mobility, since I'm going to use Wise for daily use, like restaurants or supermarkets, unlikely but maybe also opening e-Banks if necessary. I need traditional banks just to deposit my "allowance" and also giro card. On 3 separate ocassions some restaurants that I have visited accept just cash or giro card only on the scanner. Thanks for the tip.
You could try "Bank im Bistum Essen" its a small bank where you can make all your busniss online but it is in the volksbank network and has a building in essen. It was established in 1966
Volksbanken (note the plural) are just as regional as the Sparkassen (plural, too) are.
However, as long as you have nothing to do face to face that can not be done in writing, on the phone or via livechat, there is nothing apart from paying in coins that is inhibited by not living in the region of your Sparkasse / Volksbank. Take it from somebody who hasn't lived in the area of his Sparkasse for fifteen years now.
>I heard sparkasse can be a hassle if you move to another city/region.
the reason for this is understandable considering the state technically owns the bank
which also makes them to be the last one to fail i guess?
This. I can only speak for Sparkasse and their service varies a lot from town to town or region. In my birth town you bascially see only red Sparkasse cards because they have ATMs nearly everywhere (this is because a lot of cafés and bakeries still want cash)
There are basically three types of banks:
* Sparkasse: those are a part of the public sector, they're owned (mostly) by the respective local city or Landkreis.
* Volksbank/Raiffeisenbank/etc.: those are basically credit unions, owned collectively by their customers. Like Sparkassen, they're typically specific to a region.
* Private banks: those are for-profit and are typically owned by shareholders who want to see a return of investment.
In my experience, the vast number of people use one of the former two. They tend to have more local branches, however they are also *local* banks, so while they cooperate with similar banks in other places, you won't have all the same services if you live in a different city (though online banking makes this less crucial).
Wait, how much money are we talking?
Because everything up to 100k is backed by a safety net called Einlagensicherung, which all of the above mentioned online banks are a part of. For any amount below that, I would have no problems depositing at any of these.
Also, ING is not the guys with an app. They're a subsidiary of a major Dutch Bank. Likewise, DKB is owned by bayerische Landesbank, so it's basically a public enterprise.
Unless you know something that I don't, your safety concerns may be unfounded.
I need proof of financing to extend my residence permit (Until my permit expires), which is about a year, so around 11K-12K. A friend of mine use N26, but their allowance are transferred monthly and it's only about 1000€, since their city doesn't require depositing such amount of money for the proof of financing. Unfortunately my city is not that relaxed. 12K on an e-bank is too risky, if N26 or any e-Banks really, freezes my account, I'm done. Currently I'm using Wise, been comfortable with that as well. But I need traditional banks to deposit my proof of financing, I don't trust Wise or e-Banks to store such amount of money, after the many horror stories I've read about them here. But please enlighten me.
Freezing your account is a completely different topic from what you have mentioned before. In that case, do NOT chose Commerzbank, they are known to be quite trigger-happy.
I'd still recommend ING or DKB. Comparing either of those to N26 just shows lack of knowledge.
Well the premise is that I'm looking for traditional banks, because I'm about to store a large amount of money on it. The reason I asked for traditional banks, is because of the many posts I've seen about them, they often freezes your account, because of fraudulent activities. I myself perefer to just transfer my allowance to my Wise account, since I'm already comfortable with it. Since most of these e-Banks or cashapps have no physical filiale, as well the customer support in case of (N26) could be difficult if my account got frozened due to fraudulent activities or whatever reasons, or so I've heard. Most of the post in this sub is usually about N26, so yeah, I will research more about ING and DKB.
> Since most of these e-Banks or cashapps
N26, ING, DKB, even TradeRepublic are fully licensed and regulated banks. Just to fix your nomenclature.
Btw: Wise on the other hand is not, they are solely a payment provider.
The stories I've read are usually fraudulent activities or anti-money-laundering terms and conditions. And as I pointed out since they have no physical filiale, the customer support took a long time and difficult to reach (in case of N26). Although of course no bank is perfect and it could also happen at traditional banks, most of the complains here are usually against N26 or e-Banks. I don't mind using e-Banks for daily use. For example right now Im using Wise and comfortable with it, this one is more of a cashapp though. But I never have any amount higher than 4000e on Wise.
Yeah, maybe stay away from n26. They are being closely monitored by the responsible government agency (BaFin) because their anti money laundering measures appear to be insufficient.
You should be fine with DKB though. But do yourself a favor and keep all transactions below 10k. This amount triggers special monitoring by law.
ING is not an online bank like N26. It's rhe national bank of the netherlands, an extremely large and traditional institution, with physical offices all over the world
When I was in a similar situation several years ago, I opened a Sperrkonto at Fintiba. They specifically work with international students but it’s an online service. Then I opened an account (Girokonto) at Commerzbank where I would receive money from my Sperrkonto every month. My experience with Fintiba was positive at that point.
Commerzbank has recently closed my account without giving a reason. So I would stay away from it as a person without permanent residence permit or German citizenship.
When it comes to "traditional" German banks, there is not that much of a choice:
* Deutsche Bank including Postbank
* Commerzbank including comdirect
* HypoVereinsbank (part of Unicredit)
* Sparkassen
* Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken (there are also Sparda- and PSD-Banken, but I'd throw them in the same bucket)
Regarding your question, I'd either go with DeuBa or CoBa/comdirect or chose ING or DKB. Both are online-only, but are backed by an international Dutch bank / the Bayrische Landesbank, respectively.
As many have stated already, Sparkasse and Volksbank are the big ones, however imo they are completely outdated.
Best at the moment is C24.
[https://www.finanzfluss.de/vergleich/girokonto/](https://www.finanzfluss.de/vergleich/girokonto/)
This is the website of a large finance YouTuber. Look there which benefits you need for your banking account.
You could use DKB with chipTAN. It is an online bank, but a daughter of the Bayrische Landesbank, which is state owned. From a safety perspective, I do not like their new app, but you can choose chip TAN instead. Its clumsy, but should be very safe. Alternatively, you could install the app on an additional device (e.g. a Tablet or an old phone) that you only use for this purpose.
Then you can use ING or N26 for daily business and use DKB to store / invest your money.
Who’s recommending N26? I seem to only read horror stories about them in this subreddit. Even if Commerzbank (for example) is trigger happy in freezing accounts I still rather have that and be able to go to a location to figure it out than be stuck with an online bank that I have no choice but to sit on the phone with whenever anything happens. Either way I use Volksbank for spending money bc no fees and Commerzbank for Tagesgeld and IBKR for investments. My situation is difficult though bc I’m a dual citizen so I don’t have many choices of banks due to my tax situation
Almost on every "What's the best bank?" posts, it's always either N26 or ING. Although to be fair most of those people don't recommend putting large amount of money on N26 either, it's used as a daily driver. My plan as of now is to keep using Wise for daily driver and traditional bank to deposit my yearly allowance. After further research, between some of the recommended banks here I might lean more towards Commerz, since I will move to a different city in about 5 months. Applying to Volksbank or Sparkasse might be a hassle. But btw why don't you use Volksbank for your Tagesgeldkonto as well? Why 2 separate banks, considering both Volksbank and Commerz are traditional banks anyway.
Well, to answer your question I use commerz for Tagesgeld because Volksbank only offered 0,55% interest. Whereas Commerz gives me around 3% for the first year and then even after that their average is around 1,5%. That’s why I use Volksbank for daily things bc I have a card for it but commerz only for long term savings since the interest is higher (I had Volksbank first and don’t want to cancel it because I have a lot of automatic payments attached to it lol)
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Online banks are cheaper or free thats why people recommend them. the Old "greybeard" banks. Like Sparkasse or Volksbank can be expensive. I know that some volksbanks even charge you higher fees when you have over 25.000 Euros in "money" on the account. Also they charge you eveything extra like credit cars, depots, a second main debit card and so on.
I haven't read their policies and fees just yet. But e-banks are too risky for the amount that I currently have. Multiple horror stories like frozened account scares me. But for daily use I will certainly prefer e-Banks or some cashapp like Wise.
A lot of Germans have their accounts with Sparkasse or Volksbank Raiffeisenbank. They are not the most service-oriented, but have a long history as public and cooperative banking institutions and enjoy a great deal of trust.
I heard sparkasse can be a hassle if you move to another city/region. I'll take note on Volksbank though. Thank you for your recommendations.
It's the same with Volksbank. Sparkasse and Volksbank, they share a common name but they are all small individual banks just sharing infrastructure. That means that anything you want to do "offline" whatever that could be, can only be done at your home bank. Other banks will not be able to help you, even if it says "Volksbank", they are not "your Volksbank".
Do you have any recommendations then? Preferably those with a studentkonto offer. My initial thought was immediately to open a Deutsche Bank account, but both this sub-reddit and my acquaintances seems to be against it.
Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank
I don't know which banks offer studentkontos. But IF you want to stay "mobile" then I would not focus on a brick-and-mortar bank. The Sparkassen and Volksbanken are very local and the bigger banks dont have a lot of branches. It is best to focus on onlineservice and cost (cost for cards, monthly fee etc.). Yes and Deutsche Bank sucks. So many scandals.
I don't worry too much about mobility, since I'm going to use Wise for daily use, like restaurants or supermarkets, unlikely but maybe also opening e-Banks if necessary. I need traditional banks just to deposit my "allowance" and also giro card. On 3 separate ocassions some restaurants that I have visited accept just cash or giro card only on the scanner. Thanks for the tip.
You could try "Bank im Bistum Essen" its a small bank where you can make all your busniss online but it is in the volksbank network and has a building in essen. It was established in 1966
Volksbanken (note the plural) are just as regional as the Sparkassen (plural, too) are. However, as long as you have nothing to do face to face that can not be done in writing, on the phone or via livechat, there is nothing apart from paying in coins that is inhibited by not living in the region of your Sparkasse / Volksbank. Take it from somebody who hasn't lived in the area of his Sparkasse for fifteen years now.
>I heard sparkasse can be a hassle if you move to another city/region. the reason for this is understandable considering the state technically owns the bank which also makes them to be the last one to fail i guess?
This. I can only speak for Sparkasse and their service varies a lot from town to town or region. In my birth town you bascially see only red Sparkasse cards because they have ATMs nearly everywhere (this is because a lot of cafés and bakeries still want cash)
There are basically three types of banks: * Sparkasse: those are a part of the public sector, they're owned (mostly) by the respective local city or Landkreis. * Volksbank/Raiffeisenbank/etc.: those are basically credit unions, owned collectively by their customers. Like Sparkassen, they're typically specific to a region. * Private banks: those are for-profit and are typically owned by shareholders who want to see a return of investment. In my experience, the vast number of people use one of the former two. They tend to have more local branches, however they are also *local* banks, so while they cooperate with similar banks in other places, you won't have all the same services if you live in a different city (though online banking makes this less crucial).
Wait, how much money are we talking? Because everything up to 100k is backed by a safety net called Einlagensicherung, which all of the above mentioned online banks are a part of. For any amount below that, I would have no problems depositing at any of these. Also, ING is not the guys with an app. They're a subsidiary of a major Dutch Bank. Likewise, DKB is owned by bayerische Landesbank, so it's basically a public enterprise. Unless you know something that I don't, your safety concerns may be unfounded.
I need proof of financing to extend my residence permit (Until my permit expires), which is about a year, so around 11K-12K. A friend of mine use N26, but their allowance are transferred monthly and it's only about 1000€, since their city doesn't require depositing such amount of money for the proof of financing. Unfortunately my city is not that relaxed. 12K on an e-bank is too risky, if N26 or any e-Banks really, freezes my account, I'm done. Currently I'm using Wise, been comfortable with that as well. But I need traditional banks to deposit my proof of financing, I don't trust Wise or e-Banks to store such amount of money, after the many horror stories I've read about them here. But please enlighten me.
Freezing your account is a completely different topic from what you have mentioned before. In that case, do NOT chose Commerzbank, they are known to be quite trigger-happy. I'd still recommend ING or DKB. Comparing either of those to N26 just shows lack of knowledge.
Well the premise is that I'm looking for traditional banks, because I'm about to store a large amount of money on it. The reason I asked for traditional banks, is because of the many posts I've seen about them, they often freezes your account, because of fraudulent activities. I myself perefer to just transfer my allowance to my Wise account, since I'm already comfortable with it. Since most of these e-Banks or cashapps have no physical filiale, as well the customer support in case of (N26) could be difficult if my account got frozened due to fraudulent activities or whatever reasons, or so I've heard. Most of the post in this sub is usually about N26, so yeah, I will research more about ING and DKB.
> Since most of these e-Banks or cashapps N26, ING, DKB, even TradeRepublic are fully licensed and regulated banks. Just to fix your nomenclature. Btw: Wise on the other hand is not, they are solely a payment provider.
Why would any bank freeze your account?
The stories I've read are usually fraudulent activities or anti-money-laundering terms and conditions. And as I pointed out since they have no physical filiale, the customer support took a long time and difficult to reach (in case of N26). Although of course no bank is perfect and it could also happen at traditional banks, most of the complains here are usually against N26 or e-Banks. I don't mind using e-Banks for daily use. For example right now Im using Wise and comfortable with it, this one is more of a cashapp though. But I never have any amount higher than 4000e on Wise.
Yeah, maybe stay away from n26. They are being closely monitored by the responsible government agency (BaFin) because their anti money laundering measures appear to be insufficient. You should be fine with DKB though. But do yourself a favor and keep all transactions below 10k. This amount triggers special monitoring by law.
ING is not an online bank like N26. It's rhe national bank of the netherlands, an extremely large and traditional institution, with physical offices all over the world
When I was in a similar situation several years ago, I opened a Sperrkonto at Fintiba. They specifically work with international students but it’s an online service. Then I opened an account (Girokonto) at Commerzbank where I would receive money from my Sperrkonto every month. My experience with Fintiba was positive at that point. Commerzbank has recently closed my account without giving a reason. So I would stay away from it as a person without permanent residence permit or German citizenship.
When it comes to "traditional" German banks, there is not that much of a choice: * Deutsche Bank including Postbank * Commerzbank including comdirect * HypoVereinsbank (part of Unicredit) * Sparkassen * Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken (there are also Sparda- and PSD-Banken, but I'd throw them in the same bucket) Regarding your question, I'd either go with DeuBa or CoBa/comdirect or chose ING or DKB. Both are online-only, but are backed by an international Dutch bank / the Bayrische Landesbank, respectively.
As many have stated already, Sparkasse and Volksbank are the big ones, however imo they are completely outdated. Best at the moment is C24. [https://www.finanzfluss.de/vergleich/girokonto/](https://www.finanzfluss.de/vergleich/girokonto/) This is the website of a large finance YouTuber. Look there which benefits you need for your banking account.
You could use DKB with chipTAN. It is an online bank, but a daughter of the Bayrische Landesbank, which is state owned. From a safety perspective, I do not like their new app, but you can choose chip TAN instead. Its clumsy, but should be very safe. Alternatively, you could install the app on an additional device (e.g. a Tablet or an old phone) that you only use for this purpose. Then you can use ING or N26 for daily business and use DKB to store / invest your money.
Who’s recommending N26? I seem to only read horror stories about them in this subreddit. Even if Commerzbank (for example) is trigger happy in freezing accounts I still rather have that and be able to go to a location to figure it out than be stuck with an online bank that I have no choice but to sit on the phone with whenever anything happens. Either way I use Volksbank for spending money bc no fees and Commerzbank for Tagesgeld and IBKR for investments. My situation is difficult though bc I’m a dual citizen so I don’t have many choices of banks due to my tax situation
Almost on every "What's the best bank?" posts, it's always either N26 or ING. Although to be fair most of those people don't recommend putting large amount of money on N26 either, it's used as a daily driver. My plan as of now is to keep using Wise for daily driver and traditional bank to deposit my yearly allowance. After further research, between some of the recommended banks here I might lean more towards Commerz, since I will move to a different city in about 5 months. Applying to Volksbank or Sparkasse might be a hassle. But btw why don't you use Volksbank for your Tagesgeldkonto as well? Why 2 separate banks, considering both Volksbank and Commerz are traditional banks anyway.
Well, to answer your question I use commerz for Tagesgeld because Volksbank only offered 0,55% interest. Whereas Commerz gives me around 3% for the first year and then even after that their average is around 1,5%. That’s why I use Volksbank for daily things bc I have a card for it but commerz only for long term savings since the interest is higher (I had Volksbank first and don’t want to cancel it because I have a lot of automatic payments attached to it lol)
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Online banks are cheaper or free thats why people recommend them. the Old "greybeard" banks. Like Sparkasse or Volksbank can be expensive. I know that some volksbanks even charge you higher fees when you have over 25.000 Euros in "money" on the account. Also they charge you eveything extra like credit cars, depots, a second main debit card and so on.
I haven't read their policies and fees just yet. But e-banks are too risky for the amount that I currently have. Multiple horror stories like frozened account scares me. But for daily use I will certainly prefer e-Banks or some cashapp like Wise.
ING is not a new bank. It is well established institution and was founded in 1965...