aeroplane

Did you use their account switching service ? I am thought the signing up process , there was first a form to fill in , than I went through video identification and now got some mail that they will send me details per letter but none mentioned the account switching service they promote on their web page...

Hi Gary, am i getting this right: are you saying that the introduction of fees that would start 1JUL that Commerzbank announced in a letter we got some time end of April is blocked by a court case?

@Leon G. Santander sounds interesting, somehow they were never listed in the comparisons when I looked for it at internet. What are the other rules for the account? i.e cards , free withdraws, transfer of funds to aboard ect.

so this was one of the things I was wondering about. Let's say I want spontaneously a buy a used car and I need cash or bankers check. Can this be done in Santander or DKB ?   

Hi all, I am a bit of "old school" when it comes to banking: so when Commerzbank sends me a letter that they will start charging for our up-to-now free girokonto accounts, I got upset.  How did we end up here: from getting decent interest on our saving and our operating accounts just a decade or so ago to being charged a fee just for having a bank account (i.e a bank borrowing my money to run their business,) and to charging a negative interest on my savings.    So I started looking at what alternatives there are and comparing to what I am getting at Commerzbank there seem to be many better options. So after some research, I stuck for DKB, they offer everything free if you have some minimum income,  including Visa card, free withdrawals ect.. The only thing is that I live in Frankfurt and it seems that DKB is the only bank in the world that does not have a branch in Frankfurt... all seem to be in East Germany, one in Munich. So this would be my first encounter with doing all banking on the internet. Can you tell me if there is something that can't be done with girokonto that a brick-and-mortar bank would have but internet bank don't? 

I think i'll do. Will report progress. 

So going back to the original post in this thread: shall I fight another battle or just give up?

After few years in Germany I am starting to believe that the medical profession in this country has attracted an unproportioned share of crooks and shady characters. I don’t go to doctor often therefore the likelihood, its just a bad luck seem almost impossible. Since I moved to Frankfurt I got: A doctor whom I seen my first month in Germany to ask for allergy shot, while still on the Swedish EU insurance card,  who has been sending numerous bills to the Swedish Health Insurance for supposed visits that I never had . (got a call from the Swedish authorities a year into this procedure questioning to my surprise all my supposed illnesses, they said with all this I should be dead by now) A dentist who charged twice what he said the cost would be. ( I paid only agreed sum and he continued to bug me for years). A doctor who charged  over €500  for an examination that my health insurance provided me a check for €70 based on expected average cost of it. ( He later admitted it was a mistake but only after I complained) A doctor that said that a bump on my arm needs to be surgically removed, I went to another doctor who said: wait a week or two, it will go away itself…and it did.  I guess the bill for such a surgery would be quite large… And yesterday a bill came from another doctor, this time once again, insurance asked me to take a check, I reached the age when you get to take colonoscopy check, not fun ☹ anyway I specifically asked how much such procedure will cost. My insurance told me they will refund up to €220. The doctor said it will be €350. I decided, what the heck, this is an established institution, 130 extra is worth it. But today when the bill came it was for €550. So I am now thinking what shall I do with it…  I am becoming very tired of those constant battles… . 

Y I don't believe anyone in the previous post said anything about national medical card. Although in the past ( and maybe still) there was a plastic "Patientkort"  which everyone had and you could say it was almost a National Health Card , but I have lost mine in the nineties and as it was never a problem not having it :once I gave my "personnummer" I was served without it, so I never ask for a new one.   

Yes, somehow they are better at completing two jabs/person than Germany. the explanation is of course that they do second shot 3 weeks after first shot while in Germany, France, ect they wait 5-7 weeks  Somehow it seem that lately the number of people who received th,eir first shoot is used very often in media:  DE- 23% , CH-18% But for me the efficiency would be by how many vaccines are expedited per 100 inhabitants. DE 32%, CH 28%  BTW: the world leader is Gibraltar with 95% of population fully vaccinated and 202 does expedited by 100 people so let's not get too enthusiastic about German or Swiss efficiency as yet  :-)  https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations 

hehe, so this is as per rule-of-the-slowest-buffalo-in-the-herd? ( you know, the herd of buffaloes only moves as fast as the slowest buffalo among them. When the wolfs catch the slowest one, the herd is able to go faster )

indeed, I believe 3-4 weeks are recommended by Pfizer but the German practice seem to be 6-7 or even more weeks. My parents got this 3 week apart, they are in Stockholm but I read even in Sweden they are making longer intervals now due to shortage of vaccines after Astra-Zenecca went sour. But hey, a possible way around it: tell your doctor you will be abroad for several months and need to take second jab earlier :-)   Otherwise Swiss don't impress with speed of vaccination, out of curiosity I follow vaccination progress in different countries. CH is behind Germany.  But  as HH_Sailor says: they issue electronic apps for this and also electronic certificates with a unique code as a pdf 

I got my first dose of Pfizer vaccine this morning at my Hausarzt praxis. I asked whether I can get it documented. What I got is a 1950-style yellow booklet, which was only filled with my name, no other id details, and on one of the pages one line in handwriting showing a date , a cross in column for COVID19  and signature of the doc with a "rubber stamp" ( of questionable visibility) and with a sticker that only has some text on it. I asked if they have something more "secure" perhaps electronic , the doctor just smiled and said that in terms of electronic certificate Germany is behind Romania (his words not mine)  My parentsgot vaccinated in Sweden last month, also with Pfizer, and I have seen the stickers they got: secured with hologram and 3D bar code. and they were able to scan the code to their electronic vaccination card called "mittvaccin" which was than verified electronically by the lab who gave them the stab So I wonder: will this yellow booklet I got, be recognized at all when traveling abroad? There is no id-details except the name, the vaccine is not identified by secure means plus there are probably other issues    

just as a feedback. there was no issue staying at a hotel  . 

so when booking a hotel, neither in a booking process nor in the confirmation I received, there is  information about any restrictions that would apply.  So along the #catjones question: I think  it is in the interest of the hotel not to police it's guests and that the burden of proof is on individual in case any authority bothers to ask...