Opening an Account with Deutsche Bank in Germany

G

Godfather

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Hi all, it's possible to open an account with Deutsche Bank! :) I called the HQ and they put you in contact with an english speaking person who will explain you how! And DB HQ is in Frankfurt am Main, not too far from Hahr Airport! :)

I'll recall them in the future. I'm quite busy in this period! :(
 
149oaks said:
Thanks for that Godfather. Just a couple of questions if you have time:
- Do you have to travel to Germany to open it?
- If so do you need documents signed by a notary or such as per previous posts?
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I think you have to travel to Germany but ryanair to Frankfurt Hahn doesn't cost too much!

Stephanno said:
If the euro goes down, all Europe will be in deep problem. Germany and France might sound strong, but you have to consider that both German and French banks are quite exposed in Greece and Ireland therefore they won't escape the economic mess. If I had the choice I would go with a USD account in America on the basis that if the euro goes down the USD will be the main currency for trading for a while.
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Yes, but they would be RELATIVELY stonger than the other countries. Here I'm considering back to 1 DM = 1 Punt = 1 Lira = 1 Franc etc and then instant relative devaluation of all the other currencies compared to 1 DM... :confused:
 
I have an a/c with Deutsche Bank in Berlin. They have English speaking staff in their Freidrich Str branch.
My a/c is open a few years as I've an apartment in Berlin. Please come back on this Godfather if you get a good rate Deposit a/c as I only have a Current a/c for paying expenses and rental income etc.
Most German banks look for Government bills as proof of address. My Corporation bin collection charges bill satisfied this requirement. Bring a few bills with you just to be on the safe side.
Good luck.
 
I had an a/c with Berliner Volksbank at first but their website was in German so I changed to Deutsche Bank purely because you can get the site in English. I brought a few bills with me, bank statements, Council Bill, Cr Card bill and they seemed happiest with the Government one. Also Passport.
I must admit I opened these a/c's in 2006 so maybe they have changed.
Telephone no I have for Deutsche Bank is (030) 460611-0 but that's from within Germany, if you want to give it a try. Good luck.

Incorrect phone no given yesterday....apologies
 
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Guys, excellent news! It's possible to open a non-resident account. What you need to do:
1) call the HQ and explain the situation clearly and slowly (depending on the operator they might have a very good or average level of English). HQ phone number +49 69 910-00 as per this website:
[broken link removed]
2) ask them if they can get a representative assigned to look after your case
3) explain the situation to the representative and ask them if you can confirm via email approx amount you want to move, address, phone number, etc
4) wait for representative's answer to your email, the queue is very long
5) PLS NOTE you need to clearly explain that you do NOT need to open a line of credit, just to move your savings safely to DB. They are very careful like every other German Banks in assigning current accounts to new holders, for example in my emails I explained to them my linkedin.com position with clear explanation of connections I had and jobs I am fulfilling (a bit like a resume')

WOW! All the best mates! Let's push DB at least to the bronze medal of biggest world bank! :D http://www.doughroller.net/banking/largest-banks-in-the-world/

Godfather (even some of my italian "friendsa" are moving some of their savings to Germany)
 
Did anyone of you open an account with one the biggest german banks?

I was in berlin last week and was able to open an account with deutsche bank on unter den linden. We met an english speaking representative named lars who went through the whole process.

On the first day we had to make an appointment for the next day as he was busy at the time. You may want to ring ahead to confirm an appointment before travelling.

The only identification we needed was our passports. Deposits are insured upto 20,000 with the german government. This will increase to 100,000 on jan 1st. Deutsche bank have taken out an insurance policy to guarantee upto 900 million per account.

The savings account only pays a minimal rate of interest (cannot remember exactly but less tahn 1%). The one year fixed pays about 2%.

We tried to open an account with commerzbank but could not as we did not have a german address. They will not send internet pins etc... outside of germany.
 
John H
Are you confirming therfore that no further paperwork was needed, no utility bills, tax clearance certs, no other official documentation other than your passport? If you were opening a non-resident account, did you not have to prove non-residency as much as you'd have to prove residency if opening as a German resident? A passport proves citizenship but not residency.
Apologies if it seems like I'm doubting you at all, just really need to be 100% sure of the process before I can consider travelling.
Can you lodge funds over the internet?
Thanks in anticipation
S
 
Yes I was surprised that I needed no utility bills, tax clearance etc... The only thing shown to prove our identity was our passports.

He took a copy of our passports and we also had to sign various forms in order to get the account open. At the end of the process he gave us a folder with all our details.

We only opened a savings account into which we can transfer money using the bic and iban codes. There is no internet access with a savings account.

We could open a current account which would give us internet access but there is a minimum charge of 5-7 euro per month. From my understanding this internet access can be in english on the deutsche website.

When we went to commerzbank they were looking for proff of residency before opening the account. We did not have any address in germany and could not open an account.

I would suggest ringing the branch before going to arrange an appointment. Their english is excellent.
 
JohnH said:
I was in berlin last week and was able to open an account with deutsche bank on unter den linden. We met an english speaking representative named lars who went through the whole process.

On the first day we had to make an appointment for the next day as he was busy at the time. You may want to ring ahead to confirm an appointment before travelling.

The only identification we needed was our passports. Deposits are insured upto 20,000 with the german government. This will increase to 100,000 on jan 1st. Deutsche bank have taken out an insurance policy to guarantee upto 900 million per account.

The savings account only pays a minimal rate of interest (cannot remember exactly but less tahn 1%). The one year fixed pays about 2%.

We tried to open an account with commerzbank but could not as we did not have a german address. They will not send internet pins etc... outside of germany.
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Hi JohnH
I rang Deutche bank in Frankfurt this morning and I was told that you need a minimum of €100,000.00 to open an account with them. Could you confirm if this is true? I would travel to Germany gladly if I thought I could open an account with one of the banks there with about half the above amount! Thanks.
 
Did anyone of you open an account with one the biggest german banks?

I had the same experience with Frankfurt before I went to berlin.

I rang Frankfurt and was told that they were not interested in opening accounts for Greek or Irish customers as they could leave the bank in a year or a few months and go elsewhere once our problems were solved.

There was no problem opening an account in Berlin. The main problem is to make sure that you have an appointment. You can open an account with as little as a few 100 euro in it.

There is no internet banking on a savings account in deutsche bank. You need to have a current account in order to get internet banking. There are charges every month to opening a current account.

You need to do eft to transfer the money.
 
Quarterly fees for a normal current account in Deutsche Bank are €13.47. As well as trasfering money on line, you can also go into your bank and fill out an International Payment Application Form, "Paylink Euro." The AIB charge is 75 cent to transfer up to €50,000. Very good value! It takes 3 days. You can also pay €25 for an urgent transfer.
 
If there is no internet access on savings account, does that mean you have to fly over again to transfer the money back to ireland?
 
Deutsche Bank

I found a Deutsche website and contacted them at onlineservice@db.com and received emails back in English. Here is a reply, so if anyone wants to contact them, it seems that it is possible to open an account without travelling to Germany. I don't know what documentation is needed but you can ask them for details.

Treasure


Thank you for your recent e-mail.
It is possible to open a savings account with Deutsche Bank as a non resident.

If you want to open a savings account Please register yourself on our website:
https://secure.deutsche-bank.de/forms/pbc/terminvereinbarung-devisenauslaender_en.html
Our personal advisors will contact you in a short time. So, it is not necessary to travel to Germany for the account opening.
If you have a Deutsche Bank SparCard you can withdraw money at every ATM. Please be aware of the fact, that the banks can deduct a fee for this service.
We hope this information is of help to you. Do not hesitate to contact us if you you need any further assistance.
Kind regards,
Your Deutsche Bank
Matthias Guettler
 
Deutsche Bank offers different types of savings accounts free of charge:
With the "db SparCard" savings account (no minimum investment needed) it is possible for you to withdraw cash quickly and flexibly
from your savings account. There are about 760,000 ATMs for cash withdrawal at your disposal worldwide.
All cash withdrawals at domestic Deutsche Bank ATMs and abroad are free of charge.
You can withdraw up to 600.00 Euro per day or 2,000.00 Euro per month, depending on the credit balance of your account.
 
Thank you for your recent e-mail.
It is possible to open a savings account with Deutsche Bank as a non resident.

If you want to open a savings account Please register yourself on our website:
https://secure.deutsche-bank.de/form...aender_en.html
Our personal advisors will contact you in a short time. So, it is not necessary to travel to Germany for the account opening.
If you have a Deutsche Bank SparCard you can withdraw money at every ATM. Please be aware of the fact, that the banks can deduct a fee for this service.
We hope this information is of help to you. Do not hesitate to contact us if you you need any further assistance.
Kind regards,
Your Deutsche Bank
Matthias Guettler
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I got the same reply when I emailed them. I filled out the form on the link the gave me but I didn't receive a call from any advisor, they simply sent me another email saying the exact same thing, filled out the contact form a second time a couple of days ago and haven't heard anything since. Let us know if you have better luck getting a call from someone at Deutsche bank!
 
I filled out the form too about 6 weeks ago and got a similar email from DB. I follows up twice and on the third occasion complained - no response.
 
deutsche bank

Contacted Deutsche Bank in Dublin who gave me a contact in Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt and this was her reply:

Thank you for your recent e-mail and your interest in opening a private account with us.
In this connection I kindly ask you to get in touch with me on the phone at 0049-69-910 22534 in order to discuss the details concerning the handling of the prospective account.
Please note that we require a minimum investment amount of EUR 50,000.
I would be pleased to call you back to avoid costs for you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Annegret Heun

Deutsche Bank Privat- und Geschäftskunden AG
Roßmarkt 18, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tel. +49(69)910-22534
Fax +49(69)910-22487
Email annegret.heun@db.com
 
I spoke to someone at DB today. One year fixed rate is 1%, 5 year bonds are 2.8%. You have to open a current account to make deposits or withdrawals but you can close this once you have transferred money if you don't expect to have any more transactions for a while. Fees are €5 a month.

The only thing that threw me is that the government deposit guarantee of 50k does not apply to non-resident accounts. The only "guarantee" is the stability of DB itself so that is a judgement call you have to make yourself.
 
149oaks said:
UFC how did you get on with Deutsch Bank yesterday?
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Very well!

The whole process is simple.

Ring Deutsche Bank and arrange a meeting. I went to their branch on "Unter den Linden", which is one of the main streets in Berlin. It's the street behind the Brandenburg Gate.

When you arrive in the branch go to the counter and say you are there for your meeting. I didn't do this (I just sort of sat in the waiting area waiting to be called) which apparently is wrong. "It is very important you follow the rules when opening an account", etc. :)

I was brought upstairs to a room where they asked me some basic questions (e.g. what's your address) and opened my account for me. It was a very painless situation. All I needed was my passport.

Couple of important points:

1. The interest on their accounts is quite low. I think I am only getting 0.35% on the "on demand" account I opened. I am ok with this as my concern is wealth protection rather than wealth creation...

2. You cannot transfer the money back into an Irish bank account. This is really important to know. You can only transfer it into a German current account. The good news is you can also open a German current account at the same time. (I didn't bother as I am emigrating to Germany in 2011 -- I have to get out of this ridiculous country).

3. The account isn't opened immediately. They will e-mail me when the account is fully open. Should be tomorrow. I then have to transfer 5k into the account (this is a rule when opening the account). When they have received the money they will then arrange internet banking for me. This will just entitle me to view my balance or (not applicable in my case) transfer money into a German current account.

Any questions I would be happy to answer them.
 
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