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I am pretty happy with DKB. They have no branches at all - but who needs them in the age of the Internet (and branches are anyway always closed when you need them).
Consors, where I also have an account, is less good - the French just don't understand customer service!

DKB stands for?

tulug wrote:

DKB stands for?

DKB = Deutsche Kreditbank

Hello Tulug,
I am happy with Deutsche Bank, but it's up to you !

Thanks Rocha, I will take that into account.

When I arrived to Germany, and tried to pay with a credit card, the shop keeper used to look at me as if I were insane !
You can buy your car cash in Germany, and when I arrived, having to pay cash for the whole lot of furniture for the flat was quite a surprise !
now, this is just a German habit !

Worth noting as well! Thanks for the input Rocha...

Judging which bank is best will depend on your criteria, what is most important; lots of branches near you or cost or what. Here are a couple of results I get at google of articles rating German banks (all in German). The second of these is limited to Giro accounts that are free. Rather than a savings account, the most used kind of account in Germany is called a Giro account. It usually pays little to no interest but is used for making payments and transfers, something not done by a savings account. One can pay up to 200 Euros a year for such an account but many聽 banks provide them without cost under certain conditions; the main one being that a certain amount each month must come into the account, usually around 1000聽 to 1200 Euros. For many people with a salaried job this is not a problem since their paycheck gets put onto their account. I myself am self-employed and might have much more in some months and other months with no income. Thus I do not qualify for such a free account.

Thanks for the useful info Tom, I appreciate it.

TominStuttgart, can you advise me as to the best way to route my pension to the bank of my choice? I have recently established an account with a bank in Germany & am trying to arrange the deposit of my pension into this account. However; my bank (as well as my credit union) in the US says it is not possible to directly deposit my pension into my new account. What have I missed in setting this up for my future in Germany? Thank you. Judi

Just tell them some guy named Tom in Germany said for them to do it鈥� Just kidding as your question seems laughable. How should I be able to help how your US based bank and/or Credit Union do things?! Talk to them. If they can鈥檛 offer a strategy for this to happen then you need to contact other banks in the US to see if they can. I am not informed if any US banks or credit unions actually do this.

Otherwise, I think a worst case scenario is that you give someone stateside that you trust signature authority and access to your account and have them send you the money. If not possible through a direct bank transfer, which is the normal method in Europe, then there are services like Moneygram, Western Union and other cheaper ones like TransferWise, WorldRemit and Currencytransfer that have popped up in recent years. I鈥檝e never used such services so I can鈥檛 say much about them.聽 I Googled the subject and find no specific information about direct bank transfers abroad from US financial institutions 鈥� but lots of content provide by such broker services like Western Union. I am providing a link to a site that makes a comparison of costs for various companies. In the end the final cost depends on the exchange rate, fees, amount sent and urgency. Some companies have no minimum but then charge brokerage fees; others have a higher minimum but no fee. Some take 1 鈥� 2 days others 3 鈥� 5 days.

I have sent wire transfers from USA to my German bank account in the past, without myself being in the USA. It did not seem to be a problem at all, just required a signed form sent by post. I suppose nowadays it can be done via the Internet.

Geez Tom, great idea! There is such a thing as sub custodianship that some banks abroad and in US have that allow them to transfer money. I just found this much out. Sarcasm aside thought, I鈥檓 exceedingly sorry to trouble you with what you feel is a laughable question. I didn鈥檛 assume you could fix or help how any bank exchanged money. I just wanted to know if you saw something I missed. I thought, like you, 鈥渙h how simple! Open an acccount, provide my current bank with the new number and Ta Da!鈥� Problem solved. Maybe next time you and Beppi could just say something along the lines of 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know.鈥� I thought this 鈥渆xpert鈥� forum was to help each other not berate people for asking a legitimate question. Thanks to you both and good day.

Judi Clark wrote:

Geez Tom, great idea! There is such a thing as sub custodianship that some banks abroad and in US have that allow them to transfer money. I just found this much out. Sarcasm aside thought, I鈥檓 exceedingly sorry to trouble you with what you feel is a laughable question. I didn鈥檛 assume you could fix or help how any bank exchanged money. I just wanted to know if you saw something I missed. I thought, like you, 鈥渙h how simple! Open an acccount, provide my current bank with the new number and Ta Da!鈥� Problem solved. Maybe next time you and Beppi could just say something along the lines of 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know.鈥� I thought this 鈥渆xpert鈥� forum was to help each other not berate people for asking a legitimate question. Thanks to you both and good day.

Maybe you have false expectations that a stranger can possibly know what your bank does or could do. Nobody knows your own situation better than yourself. But no, we should "ta da", perform magic and solve problems that don't need expert advice but rather can be found out by spending 3 seconds googling it - but people are too lazy or incompetent to bother. In such sitaution a bit of sarcasm is to be expected.

Judi: I gave serious and well-meant advice above. What was wrong with it?
If you cannot accept others having a different view of things than your, maybe you should not move abroad.

I just dealt with a German exchange student in the US whose German parents got her a credit card that the American host family said didn't work at their local bank. This exchange has been going on since 1970, and this was the first time the parents were not able to work out banking issues themselves. I wrote to the US fam and strongly urged them to go to Wells Fargo (I do not prefer the bank, just know it exists in their city and it's an internationally recognized bank). They ignored me because a year ago the same girl's card didn't work at US Bank. The German and American parents continued to grumble, and the Ami parents took the girl to the same ATM three times, reporting each time it didn't work. The Ami parents said the German parents should just transfer the $$ internationally because "it costs nothing". The German parents (and this is my experience as well) said the fees are high for international transfers, and their German bank said if the girl takes her card into an international bank, it will work.

I finally asked MY parents (who live in the same US town and are also involved with the exchange) to pick up the child and take her to Wells Fargo. They did so, and the girl was able to withdrawn money.

I do not know more than anyone else about banks, but I do know that folks need to deal with their own banks directly. There is nothing someone sitting in Germany can do to answer someone's questions about what certain banks in the US can or will do. There are transfer fees on both sides, but each bank decides how much that will be. I can say I have no complaints with the Kreissparkasse, but I thankfully no longer have need to transfer money internationally. When my husband and I were living on separate continents, he transferred money to me from the Volksbank, but he had to tell the bankers each time how to do it and what information they needed due to turnover and that this is a small German town.

When I moved here, we picked a bank and called for an appointment. They were too busy to see us until a week later, so we picked a different one.

I keep a bank account open in the US, and I suppose I'll have my pension sent there if I live that long. When I'm compelled to visit, I use that money for shopping and other expenses.

My best advice: pick a bank and see what their terms are. If you don't like them, pick a different one. Rinse and repeat until you can live with the conditions they offer.