Opening an Account with Deutsche Bank in Germany

[Godfather]

Here are the answers from DB!
1) from this website [broken link removed] : "The Deposit Protection Fund of the Association of German Banks fully secures the deposits of each and every customer at the private commercial banks up to a ceiling of 30% of the relevant liable capital of each bank as at the date of the last published annual financial statements"

Is your bank participating to the deposit protection fund? If so, how much is 30% of the relevant liable capital at the date of your last published annual financial statement?

Answer: 1) Yes our bank is participating to the deposit protection fund. In the moment the amount is per customer 851.000.000 EUR


2) furthermore, is it true that "Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken" will raise from 50000 Eur per depositor to 100000 Eur per depositor from 1st January 2011?


Answer: 2) yes that is true

WOW! What a super-bank is DB!

 

[chewchew]

I got an email from DB after filling out that contact form. They told me they require a minimum of 100k to deposit.

So does that mean that to open via correspondance you need to deposit 100k, but if you visit Germany to open the account you can deposit less? They seem to be telling different people different things, it's a small bit confusing!

 

[UFC]

- do you have to make an app't?

Yes, ring them beforehand.

- what airports are DB in?

Berlin has a great metro system so you can get everywhere pretty quickly.

- what do you have to bring?

Passport only. Bring a couple of bills anyway, just in case.

- what type of deposit a/c's are available?

Term and demand. All have very low interest. Details on their website I'm sure...

- do you also have to open a current a/c to lodge/withdraw from the deposit?

You need a German current account to withdraw money. This is pretty important...

- and if so what are the charges for having a current a/c?

Not sure. Their website probably have all this though.

 

[japester]

Hi there, I traveled to Germany and opened a DB account. I did not even arrange an appointment, just literally walked into their branch but it would be useful to arrange one in advance just in case. I had an account opened within 45 minutes. Only needed a passport but bring other bills etc just in case. I opened a current account, which costs EUR5 per month but is necessary if you wish to withdraw your cash online. I am now transferring funds to the current account bit by bit, I have 10k transferred at the moment but will be transferring about 100k in total. They were very helpful and I even got offered tea/coffee while I was waiting (for about 5 minutes). Since I came home, I have received my DB online login/password and transferring the money across is painless (I have an AIB current account). When I have the 100k transferred over, I will instruct my contact to create a 1 year term account for me and this currently attracts a rate of 2% interest, but trust me, its not the interest I'm transferring the money for

 

[centrewest]

I got an email from DB after filling out that contact form. They told me they require a minimum of 100k to deposit.

So does that mean that to open via correspondance you need to deposit 100k, but if you visit Germany to open the account you can deposit less? They seem to be telling different people different things, it's a small bit confusing!

hi, same as that, i rang Frankfurt this morning, they said it is possible to open a non-resident account on line, that i would have to show my passport etc. to the german embassy or the DB branch in Dublin, they even talked me through their online application form. they never mentioned any restrictions or minimum amounts.
2 hours later i got the below email from them !! maybe its a fear RoI residents will suddenly withdraw their €'s if things improve
i think i'll go with option 2 in the first quote

"We regret that we cannot assist you as far as the opening of an account with us is concerned.

We are offering investment solutions to our customers only and no standard banking. Account opening with us is possible from amounts of EUR 100,000 only.

We kindly ask you for your understanding in this matter and regret being unable to give you a more favourable reply.

Kind regards,
Simone Wilhelm"


Simone Wilhelm
Teamleiterin Private Banking

Deutsche Bank Privat- und Geschäftskunden AG
Roßmarkt 18, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tel. +49(69)910-22339
Fax +49(69)910-22487
Email simone.wilhelm@db.com

 

[UFC]

My god DB are incompetent...

Their internet banking documentation they just sent me has a different account number.

So that's three different account numbers they have given me so far, and none of them work for bank transfers (DB rejects the transfers).

 

[UFC]

Well they're ignoring my e-mails now. What a joke of a bank, can't even open a bank account properly...!

 

[burmo]

Hi all,

I recently was in Hamburg and I opened an account with Deutsche bank. I wanted to share my experience here and see if anyone disagreed with the information I was told before I transfer money to them.

Several other banks in Hamburg told me that I would need to be resident in Germany or at least have a German address to open a non-resident account.

The first Deutsche Bank branch I went into told me that I would need to have a current account to be able to have a savings account with them, at a cost of 5 euro / month.

The second branch I went into was even more helpful. I opened an instant access savings account (Sparkouto) with 0.25% rate. There is no upper limit and get an ATM card with this that I can withdraw up to 2k / month… but there is a change for this in Ireland but not in other EU countries that have an agreement with Deutsche bank. There is also a three month notice period to close this account.

I was told again that I could transfer money into the instant access savings account from an Irish bank account but to withdraw I would need a current account. The other savings account available is a Fixed rate 2% 1 year account (Fsetzuisspareu) with 2.5 euro minimum and I can open this at any point over the phone.

Throughout the application process, we reached an understanding that if I had both types of savings accounts with them… that I could request closure of the instant access savings account and get an electronic transfer back into my Irish account. And because I still had an active account (the fixed rate one) I could then request over the phone to reopen another instant access account. This appears to give me the flexibility to get my money without needing a current account.

It also appears possible to open a current account over the phone now that I have an account with the bank… and that you can open the current account for short periods of time just to do transactions. I have found them to be very relaxed and they just looked at my passport and I had a credit card and tax cert with me as well for my address.

Any thoughts or contraindications based on other peoples experience?

 

[Godfather]

Thank you very much burmo!

Your experience seems to confirm me again that it looks like it's much simpler if someone gets to Germany with a Ryanair Flight and opens the account with DB there than via Dublin (!).

In my case they informed me about the minimum amount of 100K Eur in order to open a non-resident account and that made the operation more difficult...

I'm now a proud DKB saver (1.65% is not bad at all) but I'm also considering diversifying into DB now thanks to your intervention! Keep up the good work!

...And thank you Shakespeare for sharing with us some information on rabo Netherlands in the upcoming future!

 

[Godfather]

I can give some more feedbacks now:
- 1822direkt: got accepted via "Postident" and their straightforward website gives 2% per year interest
- VWBank: everything went fine. 2.2% until 1st Nov., 1,5% after
- Cortal consors: still waiting for some documentation to get through before more news
- Comdirect: dropped, not for me
- Sparkassen Broker: there seem to be some delays with the set up of my account

All anyway had to be related to a german "Girokonto", and I've one with dkb I managed to set up easily by paying a notary 20 Euro for recognising my signature.

No fees, everything straight forward. In other words, I'm very happy with the german banking system but my german is understandable on the phone... I hope this helps...

 

[Redisland]

DB Account Opened

So I have successfully opened an account at DB in Berlin. Flew there end of last month booked into hotel Gat Checkpoint Charlie and walked around the corner to the DB branch on Friedrichstrasse. This branch is a test branch and pretty amazing. Looks like a cafe/bar. There is actually a bar counter at the back. We were greeted and offered a coffee or drink while we waited. Our contact came to meet us and showed us a selection of differently designed meeting rooms to choose from. She was extremely friendly and professional. Bear in mind we were making a relatively small lodgement to some of the figures mentioned in this forum but still felt we received star treatment. A very different experinece to opening an account here. We don't speak German but she explained everything thoroughly.

So to the details: We opened 1 year 2% fixed rate account and also a seperate savings account called a Spar account. There is no monthly charge for this. She issued us with the account numbers for the Spar accounts on the spot and asked us to transfer the agreed amount of money for the fixed account in there when we arrived home. She would then transfer this into the fixed rate accounts for us. We opted for online banking and she gave us a demo. She explained that we could make as many additional transfers to the Spar account as required and could make withdrawals through a netwok of ATMs. Closest being Barclays UK. We cannot make withdrawals within the 1 year period from the fixed account unless we die or some very serious reason not just because we want the money back. If we want to withdraw the money at the end of the term we must notify them 3 months prior to year end to advise, otherwise the money is reinvested for another year automatically. We must advise them of an account to return the money. We now can also open more accounts with DB without returning to Germany.

So we arrived home. The only hitch occured when our contact emailed us to say she had given us the wrong account numbers for the Spar account. I had yet to make my transfer so was ok but my mother has already transferred and is waiting hers to return before making the correction. I was a bit anxious but checked our contact's email and the sort codes checked out with same branch so I made the transfer to new account number. I have received confirmation that my fixed account is now open and have received my ATM card and pin number but await my online banking details.

Will update you as to the result of my mother's arrangements once I hear anymore info.

 

[Perplexed]

Redisland you described exactly my experience. Only problem was I walked by it a few times as it doesn't look like a bank!

I did make an appointment to make sure I got an English speaking staff member.

Mizenhead bring your Passport and proof of your address. I brought a Revenue letter as a previous German bank required a Govt letter as proof of address. It's wise to bring a few proofs ie. Bank Statements, utility bills ... It's better to have too much than too little.

 

[dec1892]

I was somewhat put off by the results of the recent European Bank stress tests which gave Deutsche Bank a poorer ranking than other big German & continental banks (due to their exposure to PIIGs debt) however they've slashed this exposure considerably of late.

I also emailed Deutsche Bank but received a reply from a member in their Frankfurt branch requesting a €100,000 minimum deposit. My understanding from this thread is that their Berlin branch do not impose this minimum deposit condition. I would like to contact the Berlin branch directly to arrange an appointment. Does anyone have contact details for the Deutsche Bank Berlin branch?

Below are the details for DB in Berlin - I have an appointment booked for next week. Everyone I spoke to had very good english - no metion of a min deposit of 100k was ever mentioned

Deutsche Bank
Privat- und Geschäftskunden AG
Q110 – Die Deutsche Bank
der Zukunft
Friedrichstraße 181
10117 Berlin
Tel. +46 30 46 06 11 30

 

[Brendan Burgess]

As the "did anyone open a bank account in Germany?" thread became very unwieldy, I have separated out the Deutsche Bank posts as it seems to be somewhere where people have successfully opened an account

I do not want this particular thread to go off topic, so only discuss the practicalities and benefits of Deutsche Bank on this thread.

Do not discuss if it's a good idea

Do not discuss any other bank.

Brendan

 

[mcam]

Hi Redisland ,

Do you have the english speaking persons name at the DBank where you opened the account ????

 

[WinnieP]

dec1982... did you have any problems opening a bank account?

 

[dec1892]

none hassle at all to be honest

done and dusted in 40 mins

passport and proof of address, they spoke perfect english. Set up with online banking and 2% 1 year fixed savings account, as well as a current account

no minimum deposit required

 

[mcam]

dec1892, was the a/c operational before you left the Bank , did you have all your
pin / passcodes in hand . Going to that DB branch myself on tuesday .

 

[captain-kirk]

Hi all I left a message on their contact form on the DB website and they got back to me. and gave me a number to ring.

it's 100k minimum to do this so I'm bricking it at the moment as to whether i should do it or not.

 

[Richmond55]

Is it still possible to open a savings/current account with Deutche Bank?
Will I have to go to Germany or is is possible to open accout from Ireland
thanks
Richmond55