New Comdirect customer > Which card should I use for what purpose?
As a new customer, you can get a bonus of Euros 100 with the account opening (€ 25 activity bonus + € 75 switching bonus). Details: www.comdirect.de
The Comdirect Bank and specifically the free current account are among the absolutely best offers in Germany (our subjective assessment).
Driven by the fee increase and branch office closure of other banks, the willingness of switching is currently particularly high.
We want to help our new and frequent readers to get along with a new bank quickly. This is why we created this article with video clip today. Tomorrow, we explain the DKB cards.
Tip: Apply for the Comdirect Visa Card …
… at once! This is in any case free of charge for you and you will be thankful for this step, when you are on a trip outside the EU, as you can learn from this short video clip:
If you are not yet a customer of the Comdirect, you can become one here: www.comdirect.de/girokonto.
A) Tabular Overview
| Which card should I use for what purpose? Chronology as in the video |
 Comdirect Visa Card |
 Comdirect Girocard |
| Withdraw cash in Germany Cashgroup: ATMs of the Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Postbank, UniCredit |
Cash-Group-ATMs up to € 1,000 per day + some supermarkets up to € 200 per operation |
|
| Withdraw cash in the EU-area + Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland |
all V-Pay-ATMs up to € 1,000 per day | |
| Withdraw cash in the rest of the world (Switzerland, America, Asia, etc.) |
Worldwide up to € 600 per day | |
| Debit card payment (formerly: EC-card payment) immediate debit from the current account |
in Germany historically common | |
| Credit card payment interest-free until the monthly settlement |
is growing in popularity | |
| Fee-free cash deposit cooperation-model |
3 × a year free of charge through the Commerzbank | |
| Desired PIN free of charge |
1 × through online banking | as often as you want through the Commerzbank-machines |
| From our experiences and observations: for many people, the Comdirect Girocard is sufficient for the everyday expenditures. The credit card is an ideal and free supplement for journeys. | ||
|---|---|---|
Questions about the use of the Comdirect-cards?
At the end of this page, you can find the comments box. Through it, we can communicate with other smart bank customers about the ideal card use, tips and tricks. Questions are welcome!
B) German particularity at the account opening
Who wants to open a current account in Germany must agree to the so-called SchufaKlausel (Schufa-clause). Exceptions are of course Schufa-free accounts.
The Schufa-clause states that the bank makes a creditworthiness request at the Schufa, which is Germany’s biggest credit investigation agency.
German direct banks open free current account only for people, who can, roughly speaking, deal well with their finances. Of course, there are also misinterpretations or uncomplete data.
This is the background, why not every application on account opening leads to an account opening.
Trend: good creditworthiness necessary for a free current account
If an account opening is rejected by the Comdirect, you can try it at the other two top current accounts. We have often received the feedback of our readers that when one bank does not open the account, the other one did without problems. From this, one can learn that they have different assessment criteria.
C) Advantage of the Comdirect
In contrast to the DKB, the credit card at the Comdirect is optional! That means that the Comdirect can grant accounts to new customers with different creditworthiness ratings easier.
For example, a new customer can get the free current account immediately with Girocard, Visa Card, overdraft facility and credit line without having to transfer any salary payment to the account. That can be achieved, if you dispose of an outstanding creditworthiness.
If your creditworthiness rating is average to good, you also get the free current account – however, the Visa Card will be issued initially as a prepaid-card. That means: in order to use it, you must transfer money from the current account to the credit card account first.
The Comdirect does not charge fees – neither the foreign transaction fee – for withdrawing cash with the Visa Card around the globe (outside the European Union).
The Prepaid-Visa has, apart from missing the loan-feature and the embossing of the letters and number, exactly the same great function. As a new customer, you can e.g. withdraw cash fee-free from the ATM outside the EU.
Account opening at the Comdirect tendencially easier!
D) Card issuance for new customers of the Comdirect
- Every new customer gets the Comdirect Girocard automatically at the account opening.
- At the online account application, one has the option to order a Visa Card free of charge at once (our recommendation).
- If your creditworthiness is rated as very good to outstanding, you will get the Visa Card issued immediately as a credit card with a credit line.
- If the bank wants to get to know you and your usage behaviour first, you will get the Prepaid-Visa. This can be exchanged for a true credit card at a later point of time. For example, after the salary transfer.
Often, no salary transfer is necessary for the issuance of the Visa credit card for new customers, as our experience shows.
How was it in your case?
In order to give our readers even better tips and instructions in the future, we are thrilled to find out, which cards you applied for and got at your account opening. Just as interesting are the granted credit lines on the current account or on the credit card, if you have applied for them at once.
We would also love to read your experiences, how you managed to increase these limits on the account and card. That such an interchange is very helpful and polyvalent for many people, we have experienced in this article: How to train the credit line to Euros 9,500 (more than 90 comments).
E) Account opening at the Comdirect
These articles show how an account opening works and provide you with tips:
After the account opening, one must legitimate oneself at the bank. This can be done through the PostIdent-procedure or, relatively new, through a video chat. How this works, we have recorded for you in the following video:
If you are not yet a customer of the Comdirect – you can become one here: www.comdirect.de/girokonto.
If you want to open a new current account at the Comdirect anyway, then please take advantage of the Euros 100 bonus payments (Euros 25 activity bonus, as well as Euros 75 switching bonus).
Experiences on that can also be exchanged using the comments feature.
Hi!
I live in Sweden, and have managed to get a Comdirect Girocard and a prepaid Visa card.
As a regular traveler to Germany, I started my application process by performing the PostIdent identification.
To do this, you need to bring the following with you:
* Your passport (very important!)
* A record of your latest electricity bill (proof of where you live).
* The account application, inserted in a small envelope.
* As someone from Sweden, you should also bring a note of your address, it is needed by the post office attendant.
The PostIdent procedure takes about 10 minutes.
The post office attendant puts all papers, including the envelope in an (bigger) envelope, and sends it to Comdirect. You don’t pay any fee for this.
When you are approved, you will in the coming weeks receive around 7 different envelopes with different papers, including the cards!
Everything is in German, so make sure you have Google Translate ready if you don’t speak German!
You get an Giro account, with an IBAN code, which can be used to transfer money from your home bank, to the Giro account. I tried it, and it works fine.
I have Nordea as my bank in Sweden.
The Nordea bank do not charge any fee for this transfer, and the euro rate is close to the offical (max 1% higher).
So, it has worked out great, and for my purpose, I think the Girocard will be mostly used.
I have one question about the Visa card.
If I make a payment in USD online with the Visa card, will I be charged a currency exchange fee, or do I get the official EUR -> USD currency rate?
I think I read that there is a fee of 1,75%, but I’m not sure if I understood the text properly.
Interesting to read how it has worked out for you! Many thanks for the extensive description of the account opening and legitimization.
Regarding payment in US-Dollar: When you pay with card, there is an International service fee of 1.75%. The exchange course of Commerzbank are basis for the billing. If you you withdraw cash at the ATM, this fee is not incurred. Comdirect also does not charge an withdrawal fee for the Visa Card in countries with a different currency.