If you followed the suggestions in my previous post on how to find a job in Germany, you now find yourself facing the next challenge: opening a bank account.

In this online German lesson we tackle an important topic, a situation that at the beginning of your experience in Germany will certainly have given you quite a few headaches: going to the bank.

Das Girokonto is the normal current account, where you can deposit and withdraw money (das Geld), have your salary credited and so on.

Going to the bank branch, die Filiale, as a customer (der Kunde), waiting for your turn in the queue (in der Schlange stehen), stepping up to the counter (der Schalter) and talking to the cashier on duty (der Kassierer), or at most to the branch manager (der Filialleiter), and asking to open an account (ein Konto eröffnen).

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To find out which is the best account, search for comparisons on the web using Girokonto Vergleich as your search term.

What you need to look at to evaluate the account are:
the management costs (Kontoführung), the interest (Zinsen) on the money you deposit (Zinsen für Guthaben).
Whether the debit card or cash card (die EC-Karte) or the credit card (die Kreditkarte) are included in the price, and are therefore kostenfrei (free of charge).

Be careful not to forget the PIN code (der PIN-code) of your EC-Karte, otherwise you will have to call customer service (die Kundenbetreung) to request a new EC-Karte.

Moreover, as soon as you receive the EC-Karte you must put a signature (die Unterschrift) on the back of the card.

If you need to withdraw cash (Bargeld or Bar), go to the ATM (Geldautomat or Bankautomat are the most common terms in Germany, Bankomat in Austria and Switzerland). There you can withdraw money (Bargeldabhebung is the noun); (Geld) auszahlen or abheben is the verb.

But it doesn't end here!

Other operations you can do at the bank are:

  • a payment (die Zahlung)
  • depositing money (einzahlen)
  • a bank transfer (die Überweisung)

If instead you want to put money aside in the bank (Geld anlegen), in a more or less flexible way, and earn a return on it (die Rendite), then you need to open a savings account: das Sparkonto.
A Sparkonto is one of the possible investments (die Geldanlage, or simply Anlage); be careful about the return … and the management costs (Kontoführung, Kontogebühren, Verwaltungkosten).
Other investments are:

  • Festgeldkonto (or Festgeld) for a fixed period of a certain number of years, at the end of which you get your money back with the interest (die Zinsen)
  • Tagesgeldkonto (or Tagesgeld): the interest (Guthabenzinsen) is lower, but you are free to access your money (auf Geld zugreifen) whenever you want.

Now things get difficult, because it's time to ask for money…

If you need a loan (der Kredit), several solutions are available depending on the purpose of the credit. If you need money for a house (der Immobilienkredit), you have to distinguish whether you want the money to build your own house (der Baukredit) or to buy one (die Baufinanzierung).
For example, below you find a loan illustration (das Finanzierungsbeispiel).

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The important thing is the interest rate, der Zinssatz or der Sollzinssatz, the annual rate, per annum. In this case it is a fixed rate (gebundener Sollzinssatz).
Of course there is a higher effective rate (effektiver Jahreszins). The Nettodarlehensbetrag is the amount the bank lends you, and the monatliche Rate is of course the monthly instalment that you repay to the bank over a period equal to the Darlehensaufzeit, Zinsbindung or Sollzinsbindung.
Usually, if you go to the website of any bank you will also find a Finanzierungsrechner, i.e. a loan calculator, where by entering the desired loan amount, der Wunschbetrag or der Darlehensbetrag, and the repayment model: Anschlussfinanzierung or Volltilgung, it will calculate the amount of the monthly instalment, the term of the loan, the effective rate, etc.

Missing something? Leave it in the comments and I'll add it.
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