Open a bank account without an anmeldung

[brynjar 5]

Hi,

 

I'd like to open a bank account, I'm thinking DKB, but I don't have an anmeldung (currently subletting) but I've just signed a contract for my own apartment.

In order to get things going quickly and so I can sign up for an electricity provider etc. I need a bank account. But the wait time to get an appointment to

get the anmeldung certificate is v long.

 

Has anyone been able to open an account, with just their passport (EU) and a housing contract?

 

Thanks.

[yourkeau 7,693]

It's easy:

1. Turn on your navigation device and wait until it determines your position. Note street name and city you are in.

2. Go out and look for a house number plate, note down your house number.

3. Take your passport and go to the nearest Einwohnermeldeamt. Fill in Anmeldung form, where you should specify your address.

4. Get Anmeldebestätigung.

5. Go to a bank and open bank account.

[brynjar 5]

Hello yourkeau!

 

Now, I might be wrong, and I hate jumping to conclusions... but your reply does appear to be, as they say 'sarcastic', no?

It does seem a shame that it is so hard these days to ask a straight question on TT and get a straight answer, rather than pointless replies / sarcasm / yet another moan about using the search function.

 

My question is specific:

 

The wait time to get an appoint to get the Anmeldebestätigung is very long.

 

Therefore,

 

Has anyone experience with opening an account without one, or is this an absolute requirement.

 

But hey, thanks for your input!

[brynjar 5]

For DKB specifically, I called them and although I couldn't quite understand everything the guy said, it seems a Mietvertrag will not do.

[ruapehu 3,756]

yourkeau ist right; you do not need an appointment. And in fact you are obliged to register within 2 weeks of moving to Germany - so you should have registered while you were subletting too.

 

 

Leistungsbeschreibung

 

Sie sind innerhalb der Stadt in eine neue Wohnung umgezogen

oder

 

Sie sind aus einer anderen Gemeinde in Deutschland neu nach Berlin gezogen

oder

 

Sie sind aus dem Ausland nach Berlin gezogen.

 

Innerhalb von 14 Tagen nach Ihrem Einzug müssen Sie sich nun bei der Meldebehörde anmelden.

 

 

Es ist nichts mehr frei, was nun?

 

Termine sind ein Zusatzangebot. Sie können einen Großteil der Berliner Bürgerämter zu den jeweils angegebenen Öffnungszeiten spontan aufsuchen, müssen dann jedoch ggf. mit Wartezeiten rechnen.

 

[StephS 280]

You don't need an appointment.

[Uncle Nick 6,245]

It all depends where you are located, In Munich you just go down to the Kreisverwaltungsreferat (get there early) wait around for a couple of hours and register (it's quicker for people with small children, when pregnant or disabled, in which case you can jump the queue)

[HEM 10,760]

 

It all depends where you are located

 

True - the OP's location is currently shown to be "UK".

[yourkeau 7,693]

@brynjar, I'm sorry if my post was rude but you joined in 2011, not today, so I assumed that you already have lived in Germany for some time.

 

As others said, you don't need appointment. No, you can't do anything in Germany without Anmeldung, that's the first step. While there are some banks who open accounts to non residents, you are a German resident and are obliged to register. It's simple and quick procedure. No bank will accept excuse.

[2B_orNot2B 8,450]

Hi brynjar

 

since you haven't updated your TT profile to indicate you are in Germany, leave alone which city, it's kind of difficult for people to give you precise answers.

 

 

The wait time to get an appoint to get the Anmeldebestätigung is very long.

^this simply does not compute^

 

IME of going through the An-, Um- and Ab- meldung procedure over 30 years, at least 9 times in 8 cities in 3 different states, I've never yet experienced any delay in getting an appointment. In fact in most cities appointments were not required - you just walked in during business hours and did it. The federal registration framing law only mentions that registration should occurr without delay but leaves the states to write their own legislation and to specify time-frames and delegate enforcement to regional, district or city authorities. The state laws all require residents to register within 7 - 14 days so, if local authorities were creating any delays they would likely soon find themselves answering to the administrative courts. Registering one's address is generally thought to be very simple and about the only beaurocratic process in Germany which, even in the larger cities, almost always goes smoothly and without delay.

 

Without a Meldebescheinigung you won't be able to open a German bank account, get a phone line, internet or electricity, register a car, etc., etc..

 

I suggest you just take your passport and to your local Rathus, Buergeramt, Einwohnermeldeamt, or whatever it's called in your city, and go and do it on Monday morning.

 

2B

 

Edit: *curse this sticky keyboard/browser combo* I see now others have already given similar answers.

[polexa 34]

In Berlin, the wait times for an appointment really are often 1 month, though some appointments are released closer to the day you're looking for and there's also the possibility of cancellations.

 

When I looked on September 1st and 2nd, the first large blocks of open appointments were in October.

[AncientBrit 1,934]

 

It's easy:

1. Turn on your navigation device and wait until it determines your position. Note street name and city you are in.

2. Go out and look for a house number plate, note down your house number.

3. Take your passport and go to the nearest Einwohnermeldeamt. Fill in Anmeldung form, where you should specify your address.

4. Get Anmeldebestätigung.

5. Go to a bank and open bank account.

 

Although you thought yourkeau's response was sarcastic, brynjar, in Sachsen at least the advice would have been pretty good.

Prior to moving here in 2004 Mrs AB & I registered as subtenants of a friend, who had even gone to the trouble of obtaining her landlord's permision to take on subtenants and had produced a subtenancy agreement that we signed.

When we went along to the registration office we simply handed over our passports and gave the address at which we ostensibly lived, i.e. that of our friend (not that we actually lived there). To our surprise, we were not asked to show our tenancy agreement or any other proof of actual residence, and we realised that we could have given for example the private address of the then Oberbürgermeisterin of Dresden city . . . all that trouble we'd taken prior to showing up at the town hall was absolutely wasted!

And as for opening a bank account, we did this at the local Sparkasse on a previous visit prior to having registered our (false) postal address. All they were interested in was making copies of our passports and receiving a bunch of bank notes to open the account.

[the.frollein 6,715]

Again, you DON'T need an appointment to register. Appointments are for issues like work permits, residence permits etc. All you need to do is register, which is very quickly done. Before you go, you might want to read this TT Wiki page, to avoid the pitfalls of certain questions asked upon registration.

 

Yes, depending on which Bürgerbüro you go to, you may need to take a number and wait for 5 or 10 or even 30 minutes. However, please note that you don't have to go to the Bürgerbüro in your district, you can go to any Bürgerbüro in Berlin - IIRC there's a thread here somewhere on which Bürgerbüros tend to be not quite so busy. I'm sure if you search, it'll pop up.

[kato 3,559]

 

I've never yet experienced any delay in getting an appointment. In fact in most cities appointments were not required - you just walked in during business hours and did it.

 

Well, the last time I went to my local Einwohnermeldeamt I had to wait at least 10 minutes because they didn't open before 8 am... (and was back out of there 5 minutes past 8).

[polexa 34]

 

Again, you DON'T need an appointment to register. Appointments are for issues like work permits, residence permits etc. All you need to do is register, which is very quickly done. Before you go, you might want to read this TT Wiki page, to avoid the pitfalls of certain questions asked upon registration.

 

Yes, depending on which Bürgerbüro you go to, you may need to take a number and wait for 5 or 10 or even 30 minutes. However, please note that you don't have to go to the Bürgerbüro in your district, you can go to any Bürgerbüro in Berlin - IIRC there's a thread here somewhere on which Bürgerbüros tend to be not quite so busy. I'm sure if you search, it'll pop up.

 

You don't absolutely need an appointment, but many Bürgerbüro in Berlin won't see you without an appointment -- so you'll need to check online. I just went through this, so I know from personal experience that most of them have shifted to appointment-only completely or only 1 or 2 days a week where you can try your luck without an appointment.

 

On Aug 29, I wanted to change my Anmeldung since I was moving. I went to three different Bürgerämter that did not require appointments, by the time I got to the first one at 9am, they were no longer issuing numbers. I went to the 2nd one, which was only issuing numbers for non-Anmeldung cases, like picking up documents, and the third one was not issuing numbers any more at all. These were Tegel (which is often cited as being relatively easy), Reinickendorf Ost, and Rathaus Reinickendorf.

 

Your life will certainly be much easier if you have an appointment.

 

At the beginning of July, I went at 8am to Bürgeramt Prenzlauer Berg and got a number, one of the last set to be issued that day. I was not seen until around 12:30pm.

[paulwork 729]

Anmelding aside, the main/popular energy providers in a city sometimes don't require bank accounts since you can pay over the counter at their customer offices. What they absolutely will require is the reference numbers of the energy meters in your apartment, along with the readings when you move in / self-register with them as a customer.

 

That obviously can't be done with internet-only energy providers with no/few physical offices.

 

If you didn't have the time to get set up with a bank account and you're now in a mad dash to get deposit and everything else paid asap you can also pay your apartment over the counter at banks for a (quite high, I'm guessing) handling charge if you know all the receiver account details. That might work in the interim, but I wouldn't recommend doing that for more than a month or two.

[brynjar 5]

@ruapehu

 

Actually no. If staying less than 2 months, you don't have to, at least in Berlin. From the website:

 

Innerhalb von 14 Tagen nach Ihrem Einzug müssen Sie sich nun bei der Meldebehörde anmelden.

 

Eine Ausnahme von dieser Meldefrist besteht nur dann, wenn Sie sich besuchsweise vorübergehend bis zu zwei Monate in Berlin aufhalten oder wenn Sie mit einer Wohnung in Deutschland angemeldet sind und Ihr Aufenthalt übersteigt sechs Monate nicht.

 

@HEM I'm in Berin. Have updated my profile, my bad.

 

@yourkeau

 

Actually I was in Germany, then left then came back again. Like I say, my question was a specific one, but no worries. Yes it seems that form is a pre-requisite for absolutely everything

 

@2B Yes, here in Berlin, the wait time IS over 1 month. Due to work constraints, I wanted an appointment, rather than queuing for potentially a long time. I will have to just queue it seems,

perhaps it will be quick.

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

[ruapehu 3,756]

You didn't mention that you had intended only to visit - "besuchsweise vorübergehend bis zu zwei Monaten" . Since you've been registered on TT for several years and were subletting, it looked like you had moved here, even if you'd been away and come back. Even if you only subletted for up to two months, if you took up work during that time, it would certainly suggest you had moved here and were subletting for a couple of months while looking for a more permanent residence. But as longas you only intended to visit and then just happened to get a job and decided to stay, I'm sure that's okay. <_<

[yourkeau 7,693]

It should be added that it looks illogical than the law requires to register by 1 or 2 weeks of arrival while allows visits up to 3 months. Situation were one came to visit but decided to stay is not covered by law: you are required to plan ahead like a German :)

[tade 10]

I registered at Bürgeramt Steglitz recently without an appointment. Twice a week they open at 11:00.

I arrived at 11 and there was a queue of about 10 people. In total I had to wait for 1.5 hours but the actual registration took 2 minutes.

If you go around 10:30 I think it would take you less than one hour.

Good luck