When do I need a German bank account?
If you live in Germany, you going to need a local bank account because of 2 reasons. The first one is that most of the German stores don’t accept normal cards issued in the whole world (like Visa, Mastercard), but they accept only local cards (Maestro, EC, V-PAY). Second thing is that, if you work for a German employer, you going to need a German account number, to receive a salary.
Which account to choose?
N26
My favourite and most convenient bank in Germany for foreigners.
- online registration
- Maestro card and online shopping card available
- whole communication/app in English
- German account number
- no municipal registration needed
- no fee for a basic account
- 3 uses of ATM per month for free
I believe this is the best bank for foreigners in Germany. You can open an account online in a few minutes, everything totally in English, without even knowing one German word. You can get a virtual card immediately. Banks don’t ask for municipal registration, you can even open a bank account in some other countries for a foreign address.
You can open the account online – the bank website: n26.com
Vivid
- online registration
- no German card (only Visa)
- whole communication/app in English
- German account number
- no municipal registration needed
- no fee for a basic account
- free ATM withdrawals up to 200 EUR
That could be an ideal bank account, but it is not. The biggest problem is no option to order a German card, the bank offers only a Visa card. Everything else is good. The account is 100% online, everything is in English. Municipality registration is not needed, you can open an account in some other European countries.
You can open the account online – the bank website: vivid.money
Commerzbank
- online registration or in-branch registration
- Maestro card and online shopping card available
- part of communication/app in English
- German account number
- municipal registration needed
- no fee for accounts with income > 700 EUR/month
- free ATM withdrawals from some ATMs
- traditional bank
First traditional bank in this article. If you have enough income, the account can be free. Bank offers a German card and also a card for online payments. Some functionalities are available in English, but not all. It looks like it is possible to open the account online, but I think it is easier to go to the bank brunch. Municipality registration is needed for account opening.
You can open the account in a bank branch or online – the bank website: commerzbank.de
Others
You can also find a few different, big, traditional banks. Their accounts should be quite similar. If someone knows the German language and is registered in the municipality, could think about them.
- ING (DE) – ing.de
- Deutsche Bank – deutsche-bank.de
- Norisbank – norisbank.de
- Hypovereinsbank – hypovereinsbank.de
- Berliner Sparkasse – berliner-sparkasse.de
- Comdirect – comdirect.de
- DKB – dkb.de
How to get an online card? How to transfer money to other European countries?
Revolut
You can’t pay with some cards on the internet, like with Maestro/V-Pay. A good solution for that one is Revolut. After registration, you can get a Visa card, that you can use for online payments. Also, the Revolut app offers one of the best exchange rates. So if you want to send money to a country that uses a different currency than Euro (e.x. Polish zloty), you can send it through Revolut and save a lot of money. Revolut is part of Instant Sepa transfers, so money sent from some German banks arrives immediately.
You can open the account online – Revolut website: revolut.com
