Girokonto — the main everyday bank account in Germany
Almost nothing works in Germany without it: your salary is paid into it, rent, insurance and phone bills are debited from it, and its number is asked for on every form. We’ll look at how accounts differ from one another, what has changed in the rules for transfers, and what to do if the bank refuses to open one.
A separate topic is below: when a joint family account is disadvantageous and what gift tax has to do with it.
What are a Girokonto and a girocard
Girokonto (current account) — the account itself. girocard (it is customarily called an EC card) — a debit card associated with it.
All regular payments come from this account: rent, electricity, internet, insurances, mobile phone bills, travel passes, gym memberships and other contracts with monthly direct debits.
Important limitation of girocard: It often cannot be used to pay online and outside of Europe. Therefore, many banks give an international scheme card (Visa or Mastercard) as an add-on — sometimes for free, sometimes for an additional fee. Check this before opening an account, and not while on holiday.
SEPA-Lastschrift (SEPA Direct Debit): who is taking money from your account
Almost every contract in Germany will ask you to sign a SEPA mandate — permission to take payments automatically. This is convenient and usually cheaper than paying manually, but bear two things in mind.
- The debit can be refunded. You can reverse a standard SEPA-Lastschrift within eight weeks without giving reasons: it is enough to tap “return” in the banking app. If you did not give permission at all, the time limit is 13 months.
- A refund does not cancel the debt. The money will be returned to the account, but the contract will remain, and the company will issue the invoice again, often with a reminder and a fee. A refund is a tool against an erroneous charge, not a way to avoid paying.
- With an insurance premium the stakes are higher. Under § 38 VVG (Insurance Contract Act), if a subsequent premium goes unpaid the insurer sends a demand with a deadline of at least two weeks. If the premium has still not arrived once that deadline expires, the insurer is not obliged to pay for a loss occurring after that moment and may terminate the contract — the termination only becomes void if the premium is paid within one month. Reversing an insurance Lastschrift “just in case” is the most expensive way to save money.
The contracts where this really matters are the ones covering other people’s losses, your own belongings and medical treatment: Personal liability insurance, Hausratversicherung and health insurance. If the account changes or goes into the red, it is better to give the insurer the new IBAN in advance than after a claim has been refused.
Which banks are chosen most often
At every bank, the conditions for a “free” account are tied to regular deposits into the account or to turnover, and these amounts change — please check the bank’s website for the current ones. However, the type of bank does not change over time, and it is easier to choose based on that.
- ING* — a large direct bank without branches, with app and support in German and English.
- DKB* — is also a direct bank, historically convenient for those who withdraw a lot of cash abroad.
- Comdirect or Commerzbank* — one group: Comdirect online, Commerzbank with physical branches you can visit on foot.
- HypoVereinsbank — part of the Italian UniCredit group, with branches in major cities.
- N26 — a mobile bank, an account is opened directly in the app in a few minutes.
Branch or online — the main choice. Direct banks are cheaper, but all communication is in writing and by phone. If you have just arrived and your German is still a bit difficult, a branch where you can go in with your documents saves you more stress than the account costs.
What has changed in the transfer rules
Two things that very few people know about, yet they affect every single account in the euro area.
Instant transfers are no longer a paid option
Previously, an Echtzeitüberweisung (instant transfer) was a paid service. Now the bank has no right to charge more for it than for a standard SEPA transfer. Banks are required to accept instant transfers from January 2025, and to send them from 9 October 2025.
If your bank still charges a separate fee for instant transfers, that is a reason to write to them, not to just put up with it.
The bank is checking the recipient’s name
Since 9 October 2025, before making a transfer, the bank checks the recipient name you have entered against the name the IBAN is actually registered to. There are three possible outcomes:
- It’s a match — the transfer goes through as usual;
- partially matched — you will be shown the real name of the account holder, you can correct it or confirm it as it is;
- Doesn’t match — a warning will appear.
You are entitled to send money in any case—the decision is yours. But responsibility is divided along the same lines: if the bank carried out the check and you ignored the warning and the money went to the wrong place, the bank is not liable. If the bank did not carry out the check, it must reimburse the loss.
Practical conclusion: from now on, a warning during a transfer is not a technical detail, but the final line of defence against losing money. Especially when paying a “deposit for a flat” or making other transactions with strangers.
Basiskonto (basic bank account): an account available to everyone
The most common problem for newcomers is that banks refuse. Under the Payment Accounts Act (Zahlungskontengesetz) anyone legally resident in Germany has the right to a basic account — including asylum seekers, people with a Duldung (temporary suspension of deportation) and Ukrainian refugees. A bank can only refuse in a narrow range of legally defined cases.
What is important to know:
- The decision will be made within 10 working days from the date of application.
- What features must such an account have: depositing and withdrawing cash, Lastschrift collections, transfers and Daueraufträge (standing orders), card payments. In other words, everything you need for everyday life. An overdraft facility (Dispo) is not included – it is granted separately and at the bank’s discretion.
- The price must be “reasonable”. There is no upper limit in law, but the Federal Court of Justice (BGH, XI ZR 119/19) deemed a monthly fee of €8.99 at Deutsche Bank to be excessive; in that case, the market average of around €6.45 per month served as a benchmark.
- Documents. Usually a passport or identity card. For those arriving from Ukraine, BaFin has explicitly instructed banks to accept other Ukrainian documents along with German confirmation — an Ankunftsnachweis (proof of arrival), Fiktionsbescheinigung (provisional residence document) or registration certificate.
A refusal is not the end. BaFin has a free administrative procedure: a form or online complaint is submitted, and the regulator deals with the bank itself. Many people do not know about this and instead go on to try a fifth bank in a row.
What to look for when choosing an account
- Condition for a free account. Usually this is the minimum monthly deposit. Fail to meet it, and the account becomes subject to a fee, which you’ll find out about from your statement.
- Cash withdrawal: Which ATM network is free of charge and how much does using another bank’s ATM cost?
- Card for the internet and abroad. girocard is often no good — you need a Visa or Mastercard.
- App and support language. Some banks only operate in German.
- Overdraft rate (Dispozins). This is the most expensive loan of your life: double-digit annual interest rates are the norm.
- Account transfer. By law, the new bank is obliged to help transfer all your regular payments and notify the other parties. The service is called Kontowechselservice (account switching service), and it is free of charge.
N26 has a long history of BaFin regulatory orders regarding anti-money laundering. The restriction on accepting new customers, imposed in 2021, was lifted in 2024, but supervisory oversight returned to the bank later as well.
The practical conclusion is simple and it concerns not only N26: BaFin publishes all current measures openly. If you plan to keep your main account with the bank, take a look at the supervisory measures section on the website bafin.de and check if your bank is there. It takes two minutes and is much more reliable than someone else’s post from three years ago.
And separately: funds in the account are protected regardless of supervisory measures. The statutory deposit guarantee in the EU (gesetzliche Einlagensicherung) is €100,000 per person per bank. It is funded by the banks themselves through contributions to protection funds, not by the state. Many German banks also have a voluntary guarantee from their banking association on top of that.
Any questions? Write to us — we will answer in detail.
What else to read
- Money transfers abroad — how a bank transfer differs from services and where it is cheaper.
- SCHUFA — why a bank might refuse and how to check your credit score for free.
- Credit cards — why you need a second card if you already have a girocard.
- Cash withdrawal — where they don’t charge a commission.
Sources: BaFin — beneficiary check on transfer; Verbraucherzentrale — questions and answers about Basiskonto and right to a bank account for newly arrived residents. Bank conditions change — please check prices and limits on the bank’s website. Verified in August 2026.
When a joint family account is disadvantageous
Many couples—both married and living together—open a joint account (Oder-Konto). For everyday expenses, this is convenient: rent, groceries, and utility bills come from a single account, and such an account does not raise questions with the tax office.
The problem starts when a large sum of money from one of the partners goes into the joint account — inheritance, property sale, a bonus. Formally, half of this money may be treated as belonging to the second account holder. And gratuitous transfer of property is a gift, and it is subject to tax.
How much can be given as a tax-free gift
- Spouses: €500,000 over 10 years. Anything above that is subject to gift tax.
- Unmarried couples living together: Just €20,000 over 10 years — twenty-five times less. This is precisely where the unpleasant surprise most often arises.
How to avoid this. Draft a written agreement stating that the incoming funds remain the property of the person who deposited them and that the second account holder makes no claim to them. Alternatively, direct large deposits to a personal account, transferring to the joint account only what is spent together.
This is not individual tax advice: in a specific situation, the decision depends on the amount, the degree of kinship and what has already been gifted over the last ten years.
What does that look like in monetary terms
The tax office’s logic is this: half of everything that goes into the joint account may be treated as a gift to the second owner. This means that if over ten years one of the spouses has contributed more than €1m, the gift to the other spouse may exceed the €500,000 allowance — and then half the amount over a million is subject to gift tax. As a rule, however, it is the tax office that has to prove the second holder could in fact freely dispose of this money (BFH, II R 33/10).
An unmarried couple has a threshold twenty-five times lower — €20,000 over ten years. Therefore, it is wiser to keep large windfalls (such as an inheritance, the sale of property, or a bonus) in a personal account, transferring to the joint one only what is spent together.
A similar situation can be avoided by entering into a joint agreement that the other spouse may only use these funds for joint expenses. Contact a tax advisor (Steuerberater) regarding this request.
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