Degussa bank - a German-based bank

Hi All,

Any views, experiences etc on Degussa Bank?

I'm thinking of getting an account with them as they have a branch on site where I work and I need a German based bank. But first I thought I'd see if there any other TTers who have used them.

I only intend to use them for paying in salary, ueberweisung to my landlady and drawing cash out.

Cheers,

The Poster With No Nominee Account

Then you need to know where they have their own cash machines and whether that's convenient for you. On the Degussa Bank homepage you can enter a postcode and it shows you the nearest machines. For Haidhausen (81669), the shown locations strike me as inconvenient, but maybe you're ok with being tied to ARAL and ESSO stations.

I'd try a bank which is a member of one of the two big cash machine networks, Cash Group or Cash Pool.

Intresting fact: Degussa also smelt their own gold. They also worked under contract of the SS during WW2 smelting all the Nazi looted gold.

Why not try HypoVereinsbank? www.hvb.de

They are quite good and their ATM network is vast.

I know someone in the Marienplatz branch. If you need to make an appointment, let me know and I will let you have the details.

"Intresting fact: Degussa also smelt their own gold. They also worked under contract of the SS during WW2 smelting all the Nazi looted gold."

If I am not mistaken, they were involved (with another firm) in the production of the infamous "Ziklon B" gas, too. By the way, it seems to me it was the gold taken in the infamous camps.

Again if I am not mistaken, they were filed together with Siemens in the US and pleaded guilty.

Their history of refusing accounts to foreigners which they actually admitted to is a reason not to imvho.

Really? I wish I had known that a couple years ago. They were the bank to give me a loan at the conditions I wanted when my house bank (Dredner at the time) wanted to charge me silly fees and higher rates. I just took out another loan with them - and still haven't bothered to get an account with them...

Me too.. Hypo offered me the best deal on a loan, when all the others wanted crazy prices/terms...

Full Story

The major issue with German accounts is that they generally seem to insist on charging you for every transaction, plus a monthly account fee...

If you go to www.focus.de and click on Finanz -> Banken & Gebühren -> Konto Vergleich you can run through a short questionaire to check which account may be best for you. It takes into account number of transactions, account charges (or rebaqtes for interest of internet transactions) and gives a result table. Some of these may end up being free, or paying you money!

I must admit, I've become a bit of a "rate tart" recently - I stopped using my Deutsche Bank account when I got a free to use HVB account (plus 30 cent credit for every überweisung made via the internet banking service!).

But this doesn't pay interest, so I got a Citibank current account special offer paying 2,6% for a year, but then I found another at CortalConsors account paying 3%. These need a minimum balance to remain free, but I'm getting interest on it so it isn't a problem bad. Roll on the next interest rate rise, maybe I'll look for another account then!...

Remember, you don't need to pay banking charges in Germany if you find the correct account. Postbank is probably the easiest in this respect, it just needs a payments into the account totaling of €1500 per month to remain free.