I want to talk about a topic that I am seeing happen often with the Expat community is that a Bank account in Germany was Closed without any reason , whats my opinion on it and how you can remedy the problem.
The back story
OK so Today I want to bring your attension to Bank account in Germany being Closed without any reason of bank
Now this happens mostly with Deutshe Bank but it is not limited to just one bank. It does happen with Commerzbank among others as well.
So what happens is that out of the blue people get a letter from their bank like this
A majority reads and tries to understand it, but some people just look at it and think its just another garbage letter and dont give a second thought. And because they didnt read this letter they are the ones who face the most amount of trouble.
Explanation of the Letter
So what does this letter say:
It states that according to point number 19 Paragraph 1 of our General Terms and Conditions (GTC), we have the right to terminate the entire business relationship with you at any time. We make use of this and cancel your account with effect from date XYZ.
Please prepare yourself with your arrangements so that from this point in time we will no longer do any banking business for you, in particular, we will no longer execute any standing orders that may have been given to us and, if necessary, redeem incoming direct debits correctly.
We ask you to return your card (s) to us by the aforementioned date. In any case, we will have your card blocked with effective at the above-mentioned date. Please tell us by the aforementioned date where we should transfer the remaining credit balance given after the account statement.
English translation of the letter
Suppose you got this letter, now you have 3 months to take care of your account. If you have another account then there is no problem but if it is your only bank account as most people do, then it becomes an issue that needs to be solved very quickly. Maybe your have holidays, maybe you are in another country for the next couple of months?
Perhaps you have a bad credit history and not every bank is willing to open an account for you! and worst of, maybe you were one of those people who didnt read the document thinking it was trash you will only find out that there was a problem until your card stops working and you do not have access to your bank account.
I know so many people who came to Germany for their heigher education and they had their blocked account with Deutsche bank and they continued that same account once they got their jobs and they still use it. Heck I still use the same old blocked account as my primary bank account!
Why banks can close your account without any reason
You might ask why this happens, some people say Deutsche bank is in trouble. some say it might be your nationality ? What I think is that its nothing personal. Its just banks being banks, and if they feel that they cannot make money off you then why keep you as a customer. No need to worry unless they give you a specific reason for the termination apart from this point number 19. Then you need to make sure that you look into that objection
While researching , I saw this problem occuring mainly with expats but some German nationals also have this issue, not often but this issue was still there.
How to prevent this from happening to you?
Well you cant. Its in the banks Terms and conditions. The same way you can close your account the bank can terminate your account according to the same role.
Well if you cant prevent this then what ? Well open another bank account. Do not rely on just one account. The same way you need to diversify your investments, you need to have at least 2 bank accounts. There are so many free options out there and it takes just a couple of minutes to open one.
I have a video and an article, where I show you how to open a free bank account in Germany . I go through step by step on the process of how you can open a totally free bank account online.
This said I would be really interested to know if you had the problem of a Bank account in Germany being Closed account without any reason and what reason the bank gave for the account termination? Let me know in the comments below
Related Videos:
💡 How to Open Trade Republic Account
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*None of this is meant to be considered as investment, legal or tax advice . As I am not a financial expert nor a tax consultant please do your own reasearch and come to your own conclusions I am only sharing my experience with stock investing. The video and articles are accurate as of the posting date but may not be accurate in the future.