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Comment by ahartmetz | Hacker News Reader

They acquired Postbank (where I have an account) some years ago. Postbank had a reputation for good IT. Now they are consolidating their online banking system... Of course, on the bad system of Deutsche Bank. It's a huge mess. I need to log into two different systems for credit card and bank account things. They mailed me account statements for the timeframe of one day once and for a few days another time. I never get printed statements otherwise. The switchover is also months behind schedule.

So, Deutsche Bank is still crap at IT.

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I have been in the process of being migrated from Postbank to Deutsche Bank since about a year now (no, not a typo). They occasionally send letters, emails, pop-ups etc. that at some weekend they will do a migration. There is always some online banking downtime for that and for some reason the CC migration seems to have broken something with my account. I just got a different CC and called it good, I need a reliable way to pay one-off things.

It has gotten that bad that the regulator is starting to get interested [1, German]. Luckily I was not hit by the more serious problems of missed payments. Really "funny" to see that nothing has changed since 2018, I would have thought this is a current article if it weren't for the year in the title...

[1] https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/verbraucher/umstellung-...

P.S. for the Germans looking for a privacy.com alternative (not available in Germany): Revolut took less than 30min to setup from scratch to first CC payment, not affiliated or anything, just really happy with a financial service not stuck in the past

I've worked in IT (system Integration) for Postbank a number of years ago... Their IT was never good when you can see how the sausage is made

I can recommend Comdirect. Have been with them for a number of years. It's not a perfect all digital experience but largely a good offering. moved to a non-european country and was able to keep my account and stock portfolio with them (just have to tell them that you aren't a tax resident anymore so they don't deduct captial gains tax automatically). I am always a bit worried about using neo-anything for the core of my savings since I would like to not have to touch then for a long time. Having to sell or move all your assets because a startup shuts down isn't fun.

Uh oh, I was considering opening an account with them… actually they couldnt in July, because of their IT transition. Maybe I‘ll pick a different one. Any recommendations for a good Business Account in Germany?

Sadly, business accounts are kinda all over the place. I use Kontist, but it's pretty basic. You could also look into your local Sparkasse, it should have everything you need.

Revolut?

It's a UK bank with a Lithuanian subsidiary. Which is fine, but means you don't have a German account number, nor an easy way to sue/contact if legal problems arise. The latter is rather unlikely to be a concern, but the former might be a pain to deal with, depending on your customers. A lot of companies have rules which require double-checking every transfer to non-German accounts. Suddenly, your payments take a few weeks longer to arrive.

N26 is German fwiw similar to Revolut

N26 has a history of problems. I would recommend staying as far away as possible.

Could you elaborate on that? I've not been aware of any.

I'm just gonna link a few German articles. They seem to have reestablished their phone hotline by now, but I don't think they have changed their "move fast and break things" attitute.

[1] https://www.anwalt.de/rechtstipps/erneute-probleme-bei-n26-b... [2] https://www.businessinsider.de/wirtschaft/einem-n26-kunden-w... [3] https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/n26-er...

Well, since we were just talking about how dysfunctional IT traditional banks are in germany, maybe in this context a -move fast and break things- attitude is appreciated?

I think the difference is, as a customer I don't care how dysfunctional their internal IT is, as long as the customer facing IT and support "works".

N26 is not for corporations (GmbH, UG) so cannot be used for most startups. they have poor ratings.

I tried Finom, but the experience was abysmal. They behave like some sort of shady porn subscription, not a place I would want to entrust my money with.

I’m not sure about giving money to these Neobanks. They’re not really cheaper, and have so many downsides.

I’d say that’s an issue with those companies but of course that doesn’t help the situation

I've been with Deutsche Bank for 14 years and it has been mostly smooth sailing. Some things require calling my account manager and/or driving to their local office with my ID card and their contract forms are ridiculously lengthy, but overall I can't remember any major issue. I use the Banking4 app for online access and import into Agenda bookkeeping. For Sepa deductions from my customers, I can import CSV files through Banking4 and then submit them with HBCI. Oh and don't be afraid to ask for rebates. Good behaviour in the past may allow you to get lower fees, because then you're lower risk for them.

I use Volksbank and I’m really happy.

Volksbank, Raiffeisenbank, and Sparkasse are not the cheapest but very solid. They are typically too small and local to be host to the sort of high-powered CEO that optimizes shareholder value and then takes the golden parachute when it crashes. (Actually, some of them are legally cooperatives, too lazy to look up which is which.)

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