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Comment by dawhizkid | Hacker News Reader

Maybe banks outside the US are terrible, but honestly in the US I find most "big banks" to be completely fine. JPM Chase, Amex, and Cap 1 started heavily investing in their digital units years ago and IMO it shows. Would not say the experience is perfect but I don't need perfect UX...I need reliability and stability.

One reason I would never move my primary banking to a startup is customer service. There's absolutely no way that a startup is going to have 24/7 online/phone support like the big banks do.

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One major advantage of N26 is that they’re the only bank in Germany offering a free credit or debit card without conditions.

All other banks require either > 30€/year fee for the card, or > X€/month income, or > X€/month spending.

Even the Amazon credit card has a 60€/year fee.

EDIT: Regarding the comments suggesting dozens of banks – they all have some conditions. You can’t open an account that only holds a balance for a few days per year, and is only ever used to pay e.g. Namecheap or the Google Play developer fee. Most people don’t want or need a CC in daily life, only to interact with shitty startups or US companies that assume everyone has a CC.

Neither ING-DiBa nor Consorbank charge a fee for their current account with debit Visa nor does DKB for their current account with credit Visa. They also don't require income or spending. There are other free credit cards as well such as those offered by Barclaycard, Santander, or Advanzia.

As discussed in the other subthread, I suggest you open an account with them, do not ever hold any balance on the account, and only transfer a few euros per year in and back out per CC.

I bet they’ll either close your account, or, if you tell them ahead of time, never even allow you to open it in the first place.

My DKB account stayed unused for 4 years and they have made no attempt to close it (instead send a new credit card after mine was invalid).

And why the heck would you tell them ahead of time? Of course they will consider that then.

Most banks in the US have a free tier, though the catch is usually that you need to deposit a certain amount each month through your job or keep an average balance above $X.

I think Cap 1 is completely free with no minimum balance needed.

Probably the best thing about US banks though is the insanely generous credit card bonuses...I've been churning credit cards for years and have taken many free flights including int'l first/biz and free hotel stays solely on bank credit card bonuses.

This is not true. Comdirect and DKB are just two banks who offer free credit/debit cards.

I tried getting a credit card with basically every bank, as a student, with no income, but good SCHUFA. Comdirect offered me one if I’d pay 30€/year, DKB required that I have some income – even if it’s just 400€/month.

They do not and that fact is unambiguously stated on both bank's website[0] and price list. It also hasn't changed compared to last time you claimed that on this site.

[0]: https://www.comdirect.de/konto/girokonto.html and https://www.dkb.de/privatkunden/dkb_cash/

That’s nice, but it doesn’t change the fact that I tried to get a CC with them, and they said no.

I tried with Commerzbank, Comdirekt, Postbank, DKB, ING-Diba, Hanseaticbank, Wüstenrot, and a bunch more.

Every bank required either some income, or that I pay. I’ve been in bank branches or called their sales every time.

You always say "it’s technically possible", but that doesn’t change the fact that these banks all said they couldn’t offer it.

The fact is, N26 is the only bank that agreed to open an account with me, and offer me a CC, where I hold 0.00€ balance and transfer about 25€ via CC per year.

Which narrows it down. The problem isn't that the offers don't exist (they are successfully used by many people) but that for some reasons almost all banks refuse you as their customers. The only explanation I have is that something is seriously wrong with your credit rating. Have you looked into what Schufa, Infoscore, and Boniversum have on you? Have you asked the refusing banks for your data? (The latter one isn't really well known but possible as well.)

I’ve looked into the credit rating, and asked the bank – the rating is fine, the banks all would take me as normal customer.

But no bank agrees to open an account if I am not going to hold any balance, and only use it for one or two transactions of a few euros per year.

I only need a CC for a handful of shitty US services (namecheap, Google Play developers, etc) that do not take SEPA payments, everything else, including my servers, I run via SEPA Lastschrift.

Have explicitly asked them that question? I see why they would refuse you then. Just don't tell them ahead of time that you will be a money-loosing customer.

They asked me how much money I’d transfer or deposit. I didn’t lie.

If I have to lie to get an account, it’s not without conditions.

Have had a free CC with Commerzbank for ages, as a student.

I’ve got the Student Start-Konto with Commerzbank, and they offer me a CC with a Jahresentgeld of 39.90€. Nothing below that.

You can get the CC for free if you are in high school, but if you’re above 18 it’s 39.90€ per year.

https://i.k8r.eu/A5R6Pg

Right, seems like you need 300 € incoming per month for the free YoungVisa, didn't remember that.

How do you pay your friend $100? Can you do it direct to their account simply knowing their name and some numbers?

You just need an email address or phone number, and the money arrives in minutes.

https://www.zellepay.com/participating-banks-and-credit-unio...

Which is the US banks' answer to Venmo, Square Cash, PayPal, etc that have offered such a thing nearly worldwide for 20 years.

Yes, and even better, you can make your friend pay you $100 with only knowing their name and account number!

Venmo

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