How to Open a Bank Account in Germany as a Non-Resident (2026)

Opening a bank account in Germany is straightforward if you already live there, and genuinely difficult if you do not. The wall almost every foreigner hits is the same one: the bank wants proof of a German address before it will open anything.

That single requirement is why so many people arrive in Germany with a signed job contract, a flat, and no way to be paid. You cannot register your address until you have somewhere to live, and several banks will not open an account until you have registered.

There is a way through it. Some German banks will accept you without an Anmeldung, one will open an account for a student before they even land, and a multi currency account gives you euro details the same day while the paperwork catches up.

This guide covers how to open a bank account in Germany as a non-resident: the requirements, which banks accept foreigners and which quietly refuse them, what a Girokonto really costs each month, and how the blocked account works if you are coming on a student visa.

Can a Non-Resident Open a Bank Account in Germany?

Yes, but your options narrow sharply. Several large German banks restrict accounts to people who are tax resident in Germany, so a non-resident is refused before the application starts. Others accept you with a passport and a video call. Knowing which is which saves weeks.

What German Banks Actually Require

Every German bank has to identify you under anti money laundering rules, and that identification has to happen in a way the regulator accepts. In practice that means a passport or national ID card, a German address in most cases, and a verification step that is either done in a branch, over video, or through the Post.

The address is the part that catches people out. A bank asking for proof of address is really asking for your Anmeldebestätigung, the certificate you get when you register your address at the local Bürgeramt. Without it, most traditional applications stall.

Some banks also pull a SCHUFA record, which is the German credit reference file. If you have just arrived you will not have one, and that is not a rejection on its own, though it can limit you to a basic account with no overdraft.

Which Banks Accept Non-Residents and Which Refuse

This is where published terms matter more than marketing pages. Commerzbank states plainly that its current accounts are for adults with residence and unlimited tax liability in Germany, and its online identification route accepts only passports and ID cards from the EU, the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. A non-EU passport holder cannot use it at all.

comdirect sets the same residency bar, listing eligibility as adults with a residence in Germany. ING goes further and states that you should live and work in Germany, with its basic account open to residents of Germany or another EU country.

The digital banks look like the way round this and mostly are not. Their eligibility is set by a list of countries you must already live in, and every list is European: the EU plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. If you are moving to Germany from India, Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey or the United States, a German digital bank is closed to you for the same reason the traditional ones are.

• Refuse non-residents outright: Commerzbank, comdirect, ING
• Accept only if you already live in a listed European country: the digital banks
• Will open for a foreign student from abroad: Deutsche Bank
• Varies by branch, around 350 independent institutions: Sparkasse

Opening a Bank Account in Germany Without a Residence Permit

If you do not yet have a residence permit, your realistic routes are a digital bank that does not ask for one, or a multi currency account that gives you euro account details immediately. Neither replaces a Girokonto for every purpose, but both let you receive money and pay for things while you wait.

It is worth being clear about what this does not solve. You will still need a German account for some direct debits, some landlords, and some employers, and if you are on a student visa you will need a blocked account, which is a separate product covered further down.

Requirements to Open a Bank Account in Germany

The requirements to open a bank account in Germany are consistent across banks: proof of identity, proof of address, and a verified identification session. Students, under 28s and basic account applicants face lighter conditions. Non-EU passport holders face the heaviest.

The Documents Every Bank Asks For

Gather these before you start, because an application that stops halfway usually has to be started again rather than resumed.

• Passport or national ID card. Some online routes accept EU and UK documents only.
• Anmeldebestätigung. Your address registration certificate from the Bürgeramt.
• Residence permit or visa. Required by most traditional banks, not by all digital ones.
• Proof of income or student status. Asked for on premium accounts and free student accounts.
• Tax identification number. Issued automatically after you register your address.

Nothing on that list is unusual by European standards. What makes opening a bank account in Germany harder than opening one in the Netherlands as a foreigner is how strictly the address requirement is applied, and how many banks refuse to look past it.

Anmeldung, SCHUFA and the Two Week Rule

You are legally required to register your address within two weeks of moving in, and the Anmeldung is free. You need a signed confirmation from your landlord, the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, which is why a sublet without paperwork can leave you unable to register at all.

SCHUFA is separate. It is a private credit bureau, and German banks check it when they issue an overdraft, a credit card or a contract phone. A thin file is normal for new arrivals and improves within a year of having a German account and paying bills from it.

How German Banks Verify Your Identity

Three methods dominate, and which ones a bank offers tells you a lot about whether it wants your business.

• VideoIdent. A short video call where you hold your document to the camera. The fastest route and the one most digital banks lead with.
• PostIdent. You take a form and your passport to a Deutsche Post branch. Slower, but it accepts more document types.
• eID or in branch. The chip in a German ID card, or a face to face appointment. Neither is available to most new arrivals in week one.

Types of Bank Accounts in Germany

German banking splits into three account types with very different jobs. Most people opening a bank account in Germany want the first one, and the confusion usually comes from being sold the other two alongside it.

Girokonto, Tagesgeldkonto and Sparkonto

The Girokonto is the everyday current account. It carries your IBAN, your salary, your rent standing order and your debit card, and it is the account people mean when they talk about a German bank account.

The Tagesgeldkonto is an instant access savings account, usually paying interest and usually unable to make payments directly. The Sparkonto is a traditional savings account with notice periods. Neither can act as your main account, and neither will satisfy an employer asking where to send your salary.

Student Accounts and Accounts for Under 28s

Age is the single biggest discount in German banking. Deutsche Bank's Junges Konto is free for pupils, apprentices, students and volunteers up to 30 with a registered address in the EU. Commerzbank's StartKonto is free from 7 to 27, then jumps to 9.90 euros a month on your 28th birthday.

ING and DKB both waive their monthly fee entirely for anyone under 28, with no income condition at all. If you are opening a bank account in Germany for students, that age band is worth more than any comparison table.

How to Open a Bank Account in Germany, Step by Step

The process itself takes about twenty minutes online. What takes weeks is assembling the documents in the right order, because each one depends on the one before it. Getting that order right is most of the job.

Opening From Inside Germany

1. Register your address. Book a Bürgeramt appointment and bring your landlord confirmation. You leave with the Anmeldebestätigung.
2. Pick a bank that accepts your situation. Check the residency and passport conditions before you start, not after.
3. Apply online. Around fifteen minutes, with your passport and address details to hand.
4. Verify your identity. VideoIdent the same day, or PostIdent within a few days.
5. Wait for the card and PIN. They arrive separately by post, usually within a week to ten days.

Your IBAN is normally usable before the physical card arrives, which matters if you have a deposit to pay or a salary date approaching.

How to Open a Bank Account in Germany From Abroad

This is the route almost nobody writes about. Deutsche Bank publishes a process for foreign students that does not require an Anmeldung: you complete the forms, have your documents certified at a German embassy or consulate in your home country, and send them in.

It is slower than an online application and it is limited in scope, but it is a genuine way to open a bank account in Germany from abroad with a German bank, before you have an address or a residence permit. For everyone else, opening a bank account in Germany for non residents realistically means a digital account first and a Girokonto later.

Opening an Account With a Traditional German Bank

Choosing to open a bank account in Germany with a traditional bank gives you a branch, a long standing IBAN and no argument from a landlord. They also charge a monthly fee that most people from the UK or the US find surprising, because free current accounts are not the default here.

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank runs three main tiers. The db BestKonto is 13.90 euros a month, the db AktivKonto is 6.90 euros, and the Basiskonto, the legally guaranteed basic account, is also 6.90 euros. Das Junge Konto is free under 30 for students and apprentices.

There is no salary based waiver published on the paid tiers, so unless you qualify on age you pay the fee. Electronic SEPA transfers and instant SEPA payments are included.

Commerzbank

Commerzbank prices from 4.90 euros a month for the GiroKonto up to 12.90 for the PremiumKonto, with the StartKonto free from 7 to 27. The GiroKonto fee is waived only if you hold 50,000 euros or more with them in the month, and there is no salary deposit waiver at all, which is unusual.

For a non-resident this is academic. Commerzbank restricts its accounts to people with residence and unlimited tax liability in Germany, so it is not an option until you have both.

Sparkasse

There is no such thing as a Sparkasse price list. Around 350 Sparkassen operate independently and each sets its own fees, and Sparkasse says so in its own words: a precise national list of account charges does not exist.

As a worked example, Berliner Sparkasse charges 2.95 euros a month for Giro Individual, 4.95 for Giro Digital and 8.95 for Giro Pauschal. Your local Sparkasse will be different. The upside is the branch network, which still matters for cash and for landlords who want to see a local bank on a rental application.

Read across that table and the pattern is blunt. Every bank in it either requires you to live in Germany already or requires a registered address before it will finish the application. Deutsche Bank's student route from abroad is the single exception, and it only helps if you are enrolled.

Online Bank Account Germany: DKB, ING and comdirect

An online bank account in Germany is faster to open and cheaper to run than a branch account. The trade is international capability, and on that measure the best known names have a limitation most reviews never mention: two of the three below will not send your money abroad at all.

DKB

DKB is free with Aktivstatus, which needs 700 euros arriving each month, and free outright for anyone under 28. Without Aktivstatus it is 4.50 euros a month.

DKB also does not offer international transfers in its own app or web banking. It says so directly and hands customers to Wise as a partner instead, which is an unusually honest admission from a bank and a useful signal about where the capability actually sits.

ING and comdirect

ING costs 4.90 euros a month, waived on 1,000 euros of monthly income or if you are under 28. comdirect matches the 4.90 euros with a lower 700 euro threshold and three other ways to waive it, including three mobile payments a month.

Both are solid German accounts and both are closed to you until you are resident. comdirect requires a residence in Germany, ING expects you to live and work there. Neither is a route in from outside the country.

Open a Wise Account: The Faster Route for Foreigners

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Wise is not a German bank account and it does not pretend to be one. What it does is remove the two things that block you: it opens from abroad with a passport and no Anmeldung, and it gives you euro account details you can use the same day.

What You Get and What It Costs

You open it online in minutes, verify with your passport, and receive account details in euros plus more than 40 other currencies. There is no monthly fee, no minimum balance and no residency condition, which is why it is the standard answer for anyone opening a bank account in Germany for non residents who needs to receive money this week.

Conversions run on the mid-market rate with the fee shown as a separate line before you confirm. That matters against a German bank charging an undisclosed margin, because you can see the whole cost in advance instead of reverse engineering it from the amount that arrives. If you want the mechanics, we cover them in the guide to using Wise for international transfers and score the product in full in our Wise review.

The card is the other half of it. It spends in euros at the point of sale without a foreign transaction fee, which is worth more than it sounds while your salary is still arriving from another country. We go through the fees in the Wise card review.

What Wise Is Not

Being straight about the limits is the only way the rest of this is worth reading.

• It is not a bank. Wise Europe SA is a payment institution authorised by the National Bank of Belgium. Your money is safeguarded rather than covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.
• It cannot be a blocked account. A Sperrkonto has to sit at an institution licensed for banking business in Germany. Wise is not one.
• No cash deposits and no overdraft. And no German credit history, so it does nothing for your SCHUFA file.
• The euro IBAN is Belgian. It starts BE, not DE, which occasionally causes an argument. The next section explains why that argument is one you win.

Blocked Bank Account Germany: The Sperrkonto Explained

A blocked bank account in Germany, the Sperrkonto, is how most students prove they can support themselves. You deposit a year of living costs, the money is frozen, and a fixed amount is released each month once you arrive. It is not the only accepted proof, but for most applicants it is the only practical one.

How Much You Need in 2026

The figure is 11,904 euros for a year, released at 992 euros a month. That comes from the German Federal Foreign Office and is the number your consulate will apply.

Be careful with older sources, because this is one of the most out of date numbers on the German internet. Deutsche Bank's own blocked account form still prints 10,332 euros, Sparkasse's guide still quotes 934 euros a month, and one Foreign Office mission page still shows 861 euros a month from 2024. The central Foreign Office page deliberately publishes no figure at all and points you to your local mission, which is how so many stale numbers survive.

Why Wise Cannot Be Your Blocked Bank Account

The reason is how the account has to behave, not where the provider is licensed. A Sperrkonto must release only a set amount each month and must not be closable without the consent of the German mission or the foreigners authority. Wise has no blocking mechanism at all, so it fails both conditions. It is also worth correcting the common explanation that only a German licensed bank qualifies, because that is not true: Coracle holds student money at Lemonway, a French payment institution, and Studely runs on a French electronic money institution, and both are accepted.

There is no official list of approved providers either. The Foreign Office deleted its list in 2022 and now states that it makes no recommendations and accepts no liability, leaving you free to choose any provider that offers one. Deutsche Bank has stopped opening new blocked accounts entirely, so the live options are the specialists: Coracle at 99 euros with no monthly fee, Expatrio at 119 euros plus 9 euros a month, Fintiba at 159 euros plus 9.90 euros a month, and VietinBank's German branch at about 119 euros for the first year.

Watch what the monthly fee does to your payout. Fintiba deducts its 9.90 euros from each monthly release, so you receive about 982 euros rather than the full 992 euros. Expatrio refunds its service fees if your visa is refused, Fintiba keeps the opening fee, and Coracle requires an official refusal document from the embassy or the foreigners authority before it returns anything.

Funding a Blocked Bank Account in Germany Without Losing Hundreds

This is the part that costs real money and almost nobody warns you about. You are moving roughly 11,904 euros in a single international payment, usually from a country whose currency is not the euro, and the exchange rate margin applies to all of it.

At a 2 percent margin that single transfer costs you about 238 euros. At 3 percent it is about 357 euros. That is a month of the living costs you just proved you had, lost in the transaction that proved it.

Nothing about the blocked account requires you to fund it through your home bank. Compare what the transfer actually costs before you send it, then send it once, correctly.

Compare the Cost of Moving Money Into Germany

Enter the amount you need to send and the tool shows what each provider delivers after fees and the exchange rate, so you can see the spread on a large one off payment before you commit to it.

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If you are sending from the United States, the US to Germany corridor page has the current rates for that route.

Sending and Receiving Money With a German Bank Account

Once the account is open, the cost moves from the monthly fee to the transfers. Euro payments inside Europe are effectively free. Anything that involves a currency conversion is not, and the gap between those two facts is where German banks make their money.

SEPA Is Free, the Currency Conversion Is Not

Under EU rules a euro payment to another EEA country must cost the same as a domestic one, so a transfer from Germany to Ireland or Spain is free at every bank in this guide. That obligation now sits in Regulation (EU) 2021/1230, Article 3(1), not the older 924/2009 that most articles still cite.

Article 3(4) is the part that matters to you: the equal charge rule does not apply to currency conversion charges. So a bank can advertise a free transfer and still take 1 to 2 percent on turning your euros into dollars, rupees or lira, and it is fully within the rules doing it. This is the same trick we take apart in the guide on whether banks charge for money transfers.

What German Banks Charge Outside SEPA

Outside the SEPA area you pay a transfer fee on top of the conversion. Deutsche Bank charges 0.15 percent with a 10 euro minimum plus 1.55 euros for the SWIFT message. Commerzbank charges 10 euros under 250 euros and 0.15 percent with a 12.50 euro minimum above that, plus a 2.50 euro processing charge, and adds a flat 7.50 euro conversion charge under 12,500 euros.

ING charges 10 euros up to 500 euros and 0.15 percent with a 20 euro minimum above it. Sparkasse charges a flat 10 euros up to 10,000 euros electronically. If the payment is sent OUR, meaning you cover the receiving bank's costs too, Deutsche Bank and Sparkasse both add a flat 25 euros on top.

Set against a specialist charging well under 1 percent all in, the arithmetic is not close on anything above a few hundred euros. The mechanics of moving money between institutions are covered in our guide to transferring money to an international bank account, and if you are sending in the other direction the Germany to US corridor page has live rates.

Why a Belgian IBAN Is Legal in Germany

If you use a multi currency account, your euro IBAN will start with BE rather than DE, and sooner or later an employer, a landlord or a gym will tell you they need a German IBAN. They are wrong, and there is a regulation that says so.

Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 states that a payer making a credit transfer to a payee holding an account within the Union shall not specify the Member State in which that account is located, and puts the same obligation on the payee. Refusing a valid EU IBAN is known as IBAN discrimination and BaFin, the German regulator, states directly that the practice breaches the SEPA Regulation.

In practice, quoting the article number ends the conversation more often than arguing does. If it does not, BaFin takes complaints about banks and the Wettbewerbszentrale takes them about other companies.

How Long Does It Take to Open a Bank Account in Germany?

A digital account is usable the same day. A traditional Girokonto takes one to two weeks from application to card in hand. The genuine delay is not the bank, it is the Anmeldung appointment sitting in front of it.

Timelines by Route

• Multi currency account: minutes to open, euro details the same day, card in about a week.
• A German digital bank: same day approval after VideoIdent, card in 5 to 10 days.
• Traditional Girokonto in branch: one to two weeks, longer if PostIdent is involved.
• From abroad through an embassy: several weeks, driven by consulate appointment times.
• Blocked account: allow three to four weeks before your visa appointment.

What Slows It Down

Bürgeramt appointments are the usual bottleneck, and in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg they can run weeks out. Book the appointment before you need it, because it gates almost everything else.

The other common delay is a mismatch between the address on your application and the address on your registration certificate. Banks reject on that automatically, and the application usually has to be restarted rather than corrected. Transfer timing has its own rhythm, which we cover in how long an international money transfer takes.

The Bottom Line

Opening a bank account in Germany as a non-resident is a sequencing problem more than a paperwork problem. The honest answer to how to open a bank account in Germany is to register your address first, because most doors open once you hold the certificate. Try to do it in the wrong order and Commerzbank, ING and comdirect will all turn you away before you finish the form.

If you are already in Germany with an Anmeldung, open a Girokonto and pick on price: DKB or comdirect free on a modest monthly deposit, Postbank Giro pur free at 900 euros incoming, Deutsche Bank or a Sparkasse if you want a branch and will pay for it.

If you are not there yet, open a multi currency account today so you can be paid, then add a German account once you have registered. And if a student visa is the reason you are reading this, budget the blocked account at 11,904 euros and compare the transfer before you send it, because that one payment can quietly cost you 300 euros.

Related reading: opening a bank account in Austria, opening a UK bank account for non-residents, opening a French bank account and how to transfer money between banks.

Opening a Bank Account in Germany FAQs

Sources

• Deutsche Bank, Preis- und Leistungsverzeichnis
• Commerzbank, Preise und Konditionen
• Commerzbank, who can open a Girokonto
• ING, Konditionen and exchange rate margins
• DKB, international transfers with Wise
• Sparkasse, account fees are set per institution
• Auswaertiges Amt, blocked account guidance
• Regulation (EU) No 260/2012, Article 9 on IBAN discrimination
• Regulation (EU) 2021/1230, Article 3 on cross-border charges
• BaFin, transfers, direct debits and IBAN discrimination
• Wise, account details by currency