Opening bank accounts with multiple institutions

Hi There,

Quick question, I have a Sparkasse bank account from back in 2005 when I first got to Germany, my money is paid into a British bank which is no biggie but obviosuly charges mount up over a month or so.

I really didnt want my money paid into the sparkasse account as they seem to charge for everything you do, most probably even checking the damn balance.

So, I filled in the application form for a Post Bank, I need to keep my Sparkasse account as my rent and electricity goes out of this account each month, PostBank wrote to me and said that I cannot have an account with them as according to SCHUFA I already have an account with Sparkasse.

Is this true can a person only have one Bank account? Seems ridiculous to me that PostBank would turn away a potential long term customer as I am already banking else where.

I hope everyone can see my reluctance to close one bank account and then set everything back up in a new one, the paperwork and potentially missing rent payments is not something I want to get involved in.

Thanks for any advice,

Nick Foxall.

It's weird to me, I have an account at Deutsche Bank and another at Commerzbank and it's never been any problem to do so. Maybe check with them again as to why? Sorry not to be any more help.

no, it isn't true. I used to have a joint account with Sparkasse and my own account with Commerzbank (plus a Tagesgeld account with BMW Bank and a loan/brokerage account with DiBa).

You might find that individual banks might have policies limited what sort of overdrafts, credit cards etc you can have if you have another primary current account. Possibly Postbank see you as a credit risk so aren't interested in your money (ie foreigner, already has another account etc etc)

Maybe what they mean is they are refusing to grant you an overdraft facility?

It's definitely untrue that you cannot have multiple accounts, as others have already stated.

SCHUFA is the organization that keeps track of BAD credit things. If they are refusing to open an account for you due to the result of a SCHUFA report, that means you have troubles.

Post exactly that they told you and get a report from SCHUFA yourself.

PS. For the moment do not close your account in Sparkasse because you will have problems opening a new one in any bank until you solve your issues.

I requested my own Schufa report some months ago after one reputable German business claimed that they would not do business with me as my bank had put me on a "black list". My bank said they had done nothing of the sort & did a Schufa check & showed no problems...

A Schufa report does state that you have an account with XYZ-Bank & a credit card with whoever regardless of whether you are in the black or in the red.

It will also state that XYZ-bank has carried out a "Kreditanfrage" (that was our bank verifying that we were OK).

I think Postbank are funny that way. I was not successful in opening an account with them last year (maybe because I had a joint account at Commerzbank?) and went to HVB instead- account opened immediatley that day, while PB gave me the run around for a month before I gave up.

It could be a misunderstanding about the type of account. You can usually only have one account where your wages are paid in. Here, there may be special advantages and reduced charges. You don't get those advantages if your wages are not being paid in. And therefore should request a different type of account or explain that your wages will be transferred to the Postbank account.
Mystery solved?

I don't think it is an issue of "only-one-wage-account". You can certainly have several Giro accounts as long as you fulfill the requests e.g. paying the bank management fee. Of course, some banks offer "free" accounts with a minimum monthly income request. But it doesn't really need to be a salary account and they don't really care whether you have some another bank accounts.

Ok I'll type out the bulk of the letter here, please excuse the lack of German symbols as Im using an American keyboard:

<start letter>

Wir haben ihren wunsch sorgfaltig gepruft. Dabei haben wir unter anderem auch auf informationen der SCHUFA zuruckgegriffen.

Nach diesen informationen fuhren sie bereits ein girokonto bei einer anderen bank. Dieses girokonto bietet ihnen die moglichkeit, Ihren zahlungsverkehr zu erledigen.

Wir Konnen ihnen daher das gewunschte konto zurzeit nicht zur verfugung stellen.

Auch die empfehlung des zentralen kreditaussschusses zum "girokonto fur jedermann" sieht nicht die eroffnung eines weitern girokontos vor.

Wenn sie die bei der SCHUFA gespeicherten Informationen prufen und eine so genannte selbstauskunft einholen mochten, stehen ihnen folgende moglichkeiten offen:

<-- SCHUFA contact details -->

Sofern sich anderungen in ihren SCHUFA-Daten ergeben, werden wir ihren wunsch nach einem girokonto gerne erneut prufen

Mit freundlichen Grussen..

Susanne...

<end letter>

Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick, anyone care to advise?

Many thanks,

Nick Foxall.

Postbank have simply made a business decision not to accept you as you do not suit their customer profile to generate income. Postbank offer very limited services to the domestic customer and expect you to use their account to maximise their own income. If you are sharing banking services with another bank then you limit that income and are not the sort of customer they want to attract. Few other banks will limit you in this way. This is not a reflection on your creditworthiness, but your ability to bring them useful and safe business.

when you say paid into your british bank account - is this a uk based € account of GBP?
if GBP then get your uk bank to open a € account (being british they may have no idea what a € is ... but keep on at them or speak to your bank manager in person).
you can then transfer what you want in € either to DE or your gbp acc when you want and take advantage of best timing for rates...

but you def can have as many accounts as you wish... but check the SCHUFA thing

With reference to the euro to GBP account, not really what im concerned about as im living in germany working for a UK company that pays in euros into my british bank... confused yet? I was for a while, put it simply i want my money paid into a German account which my company can do at no extra charge and it will save me the fees of 2-4 euros withdrawing each time from the cash machine...

And also prove income to the bank for future lending oppurtunities...

Worse than that. Assuming your UK bank account is sterling (£!) then you are almost certainly paying a premium to convert your company's € into £ for your account and then another fee (or exchange rate loss) to convert your £ into € to spend in Germany.

... only if the bank(s) let you. They are free to choose who they want as a customer.

@nfoxall: if your getting yoyos paid into your UK GBP account your ok for now as the € rate is good - esp if you have a house in the UK etc. I have a DB account here too so not sure why you have had a problem...
@yl6: ok, fair point - but at this time most banks are losing millions hand over fist so the customer is certainly in a better position to make more demands...

Commercial bankers (even within the same bank) are like doctors ... keep asking a different one until you find one who tells you what you want to hear.

Seriously, you can open as many accounts as you like. We have a regular commercial one and a sparkasse one because I hate the egregious ATM fees here and always want a card that won't charge EUR3.50-5.00 for a withdrawl due to being "out of network".

I disagree completely. The banks are picking the customers that bring them the most income. Some credit-card companies are actually dumping customers that pay their monthly bills in full every month which you would think represent the least risk and would be the best customers to have. They only really make their money from and want to have customers who extend their credit line and pay instalments but at the same time are a low credit risk.

Clearly the holy grail of commercial bank customer bases.

"There is no such thing as fun for the whole family - there are no massage parlors with ice cream and free jewelry" -- Jerry Seinfeld

Both of my credit cards (VISA and MC) I have to pay the bills in full every month.

They are not credit cards, but charge cards (assuming you don't even have the option to pay off in installments). The business model is different - they make their money from your annual charge, plus a different agreement for trader services.

What YL6 said. Banks don't want new customers if there is no money to be made.

The key point is "unter anderem".
It wasn't just SCHUFA even if they even bothered looking there.

Its a very weird situation with my payment... The company pays an hourly rate in euros and then it is automatically calculated into pounds for purposes of paying a little bit of uk tax and also NI. Then I pay german tax off that and then the remainder in sterling gets put into my UK bank. The company conversion rate is actually quite fair and very close to the forex quotes. If I pay my money into the UK bank then i have to worry not so much about the banks conversion rates but the fees every time i withdraw, which are only minimal but mount up, especially as im paid weekly aswell and not monthly.

The biggest reason I want my money into a German account though is to get some history built up with a bank with a view to finance on a property in a year or so.

After reading the comments Im gonna go and speak to a couple of banks and see what the score is with charges etc and try and see the best one, maybe my face didnt fit with Postbank, whatever, I see it as there loss and there will be a fair chunk of money going into the account each week.

Where do you want to buy the property?
With income coming from where?

Postbank maybe gave you the first hard brush off, but...

No plans on property yet, if anything it would probably be within the schweinfurt area (bayern). Income is coming from my employer, with a bit of luck into a German bank account.

In the U.S., credit card companies don't seem to mind "customers that pay their monthly bills in full every month," because they are still making money off the merchants (i.e., even if not the cardholder).

Is it really any different in Germany?

I think its more to do with current situation than, normal practive. I know in the UK Egg had to do this to survive, chopping customers to eliminate the risk of everyone drawing out the full credit and the banks not having the funds to follow up on agreed credit limits. In a normal situation im sure a bank would be happy of this situation.