Opening an account with DKB bank in Germany from Ireland

soirish

DKB is a decent online bank based in Germany. The DKB-Cash account offers some nice perks like free worldwide ATM withdrawals, 0,2% interest on your balance, cashback, etc.

Has anyone managed to open an account from Ireland? There is a thread (link) where people are discussing this topic but it's from 2010. Also found step-by-step instructions how to open an account.

Yggr of Asgard

DKB recently started declining applications unless you have a German Passport if you live outside Germany.

The account you are referencing is not in the scope of the EU basic account directive so they can do that. You can only get a basic account which does not offer these benefits.

Also since December last year, they have introduced a new tier of "active customer" which requires that you get at least 700€ in a month to continue to get the most benefits as no currency charge and interest etc.

So unless you have a German passport you might waste your time in trying to do it.

Delta2113

Why are DKB bank not in the scope of the EU basic account directive please?

Yggr of Asgard

The account the OP referenced is not part of the Basiskonto. I should have been clearer. DKB as part of the public ownership is.

You can open a Basiskonto with DKB but you don't get any of the benefits that the OP is referencing, the account does not pay interest and you only get a VPay card which has fees attached for cash withdraws etc. You won't get the Visa card, cashback etc. I edited the post for clarity.

soirish

To clarify, I'm talking about DKB Cash is this not the Basiskonto?
https://www.dkb.de/privatkunden/dkb_cash/

Yggr of Asgard

No, that is the standard account they offer.

The benefits and costs are different than the account they offer under the EU directive as basic account:

https://www.dkb.de/info/basiskonto

This is similar to other banks which have tailored accounts basiskonto. The directive does not mea you can get any account a bank offers, they can tailor it within certain parameters and hence the difference.

For the account you referenced they can decline you and from what I know they do, for the basis account they can't but it does not offer benefits and cost money for withdrawal and other things.

soirish

Strange, I just managed to open DKB-Cash account without living in Germany and without having a German passport.

Yggr of Asgard

soirish wrote: »

Strange, I just managed to open DKB-Cash account without living in Germany and without having a German passport.

Congratulations, then let's hope that this is a new policy rather than an exception.

Yggr of Asgard

So, it's a while now since you opened the account online, did you get a written confirmation by now with the vpay / visa card etc.?

brdst3r

n/a

Yggr of Asgard

Still wondering how you are finding DKB now that you have your account set up and running?

soirish

Not great
Unlike N26 their app and customer support is only in German. Also lots of issues with their TAN2go app which never works.

Yggr of Asgard

And they now offer Google Pay on their Visa card.

soirish

What's the main benefit of Google Pay? I'm not sold on it.

Yggr of Asgard

soirish wrote: »

What's the main benefit of Google Pay? I'm not sold on it.

Me standing in front of a self-checkout kiosk in a supermarket

• Scan Clubcard from google pay which is automatically displayed
• Tap Phone to pay

I used to have to take club card out and then once that scanned take credit card for chip & pin. Now all I do is handling one device for both actions, sure on separate areas of the till but still no more fishing for the right cards.

Or in a pub which uses an App to order, thanks to google pay integration my real card number is never exposed to that app or the pub. No saving my card number into their app and risking exposure once they get hacked or are sloppy.

Sure one could use tap or chip/pin with a card but using the phone is just easier as it combines both reward cards and payment cards into one app.

Yggr of Asgard

Loads of changes in the last weeks

Apple Pay also available now.

Also tax id validation is now online vs paper.

New credit card control (security options and spending notification ) both in ios and Android now.

Adding new device for security and tan app now via qr code confirmed in existing app rather than mail.

Paper based tan no longer available.

Active Customers (more than 700€ coming into the account a month) get priority in the phone queue.

Yggr of Asgard

Good News for account holders, if your German is not good enough and you struggle with the web interface from time to time.

The new native Apps (available in Beta) are available in English:

https://bank.dkb.de/banking-app-beta

Not fully stable, some things still don't work but at least it's a step into the right direction.

Banana Republic 1

soirish wrote: »

What's the main benefit of Google Pay? I'm not sold on it.

Google can monitor you purchases a sell that info to advertisers.

JTMan

Is it possible for non-German residents to apply for a DKB Bank account? I would like to avail of the 3.50% interest.

I filled in the application form and the response at the end was "we only open current accounts for customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland".

Yggr of Asgard

DKB a while ago shifted to only open accounts for customers in the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region unless you are a german citizen and have therefore a connection to Germany.

Also, the 3.5 % is a limited time offering from the 01st of August to 31st of January so you might be getting better returns somewhere else.

The only way would be a basic account under EU law, but that costs 4.50€ a month on fees.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120814974#Comment_120814974

It's possible to apply to any bank for an account, but the banks are not obliged to do business with you beyond compliance with the EU directive on basic banking if they are subject to that law. For a while there DKB were happy to accept all comers, but that changed some time back for two reasons - cost of having non German speaking clients and an opinion that accepting clients who could not in fact read and understand all the German documentation might leave then exposed to claims of miss selling services.