Customers residing outside of Switzerland are charged additional fees for their accounts at most Swiss banks. The accountholder’s nationality usually makes no difference in this regard. That means Swiss citizens residing abroad may also be subject to non-resident fees if they choose to maintain their Swiss banking relationships.
Swiss banks justify the additional fees charged to customers living abroad by citing higher administrative and regulatory expenses.
PostFinance also imposes additional fees on non-residents. In the past, PostFinance was a relatively affordable banking option for small-time customers, compared to other big financial services providers. Customers residing in Germany, France, Italy and Austria paid a 5-franc monthly fee per account held, regardless of the size of deposits. Residents of all other countries paid double that amount, or 10 francs per account, which came to 120 francs in account fees per year.
However, as reported by numerous moneyland.ch users, PostFinance is raising fees for customers living abroad.
From July 1, 2015, residents of all countries other than Switzerland will pay a 15-franc monthly fee per account – a total of 180 francs per year.
Only accounts designed for frequent transactions (PostFinance checking/private accounts and Postfinance business accounts) are affected.
Accounts which are not affected by the fee hike are PostFinance savings accounts (the e-savings account is not accessible to non-residents), pillar 3a accounts and vested benefits accounts. It is worth noting that you can open a savings account at PostFinance without opening a checking account.
Note: Unlike other banks, PostFinance applies non-resident fees on a per-account basis rather than a per-relationship basis. It also does not waive non-resident fees for high-net-worth customers, which other Swiss banks generally do.
More information:
Banking fees for customers outside of Switzerland
