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Comment by usr1106 | Hacker News Reader

Banking is a citizen right. Well, at least it should be.

In Germany every bank is obliged to offer everyone (including homeless, overindebted, asylum seekers, etc.) a so-called base account, which offers a way to receive payments and pay the bills and get a basic debit card. However, the law has a mistake: The price of the base account is not regulated. And many banks charge more than for a "normal" account.

Germany is still a cash country in many aspects. It's worse in Sweden in Finland, where you often cannot buy a train ticket without a debit (or credit) card, cash is no longer accepted.

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> In Germany every bank is obliged to offer everyone a so-called base account

That's very commendable; I wish more countries had such a regulation. Does it extend to non-citizens living in Germany? What about to visitors to Germany? Could someone open an account (by right) while there on a holiday?

Non-citizens absolutely. Completely illegal immigrants no, but rejected asylum seekers who cannot be reasonably expected to leave the country yes. (The term is "geduldet", but I don't know the exact legal definition.) Visitors no, I'd guess.

Right, now I see why you ask, I wrote citizen right. Maybe I should have written human right.

In German there is the term of the "foreign co-citizen", not sure what an English equivalent would be. So when I wrote citizen I had in mind those with German citizenship and foreign co-citizens. It just includes everyone living in the country. (Illegal immigrants are smaller topic in Germany than the US, so there is little need to think about that distinction.)

“Tolerated”

There are free, base functionality accounts in every bank in Poland. Debit card use is also free provided you make few transactions per month.

What a strange rule. Debit cards presumably only cost the bank money if you use them.

So what. Everyone being capable of doing so should pay tax to maintain society functional. That banks should pay tax in form of a couple of free debit card transactions for poor people is not an unfair share. Banks earn enough money because society no longer works without debit cards.

No, I was saying that it is strange that the debit card is only free if you use it a few times. If you give me a debit card and I don't use it, what did it cost you? A few pennies for the plastic?

Ah, I read the original message as the card and its usage are free as long as you don't have too many transactions. No idea, my knowledge about Poland is very close to zero :(

It's not strange, it's the banks fighting back to prevent "cannibalization". Kind of like how Intuit lobbied the government to gimp the free tax tool.

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