BW-Bank Baden-Württembergische Bank Reviews 426

This bank sucks. Too much fee for a worthless bank. 15€ fee for just a Giro Konto plastic card, even though they wrote in the designated fees that it was -15€ for a Debitkarte. Shitty worthless bank

It took more than a month to open an account. Another week to launch the app. Another week and a half to be able to open my account details from the app without errors. Endlessly long to finally be able to use my account at all and to get my card, which I ordered a month and a half ago. So far I get an error from the app for every action I try. Multiple requests to support did not help. But the money for "account management" was debited without any problems. And it does not matter that this "account" cannot be used.

I really tried and wanted to, but unfortunately, I did not last longer than two months as a client...

When I arrived to Germany in 2017, I was advised to open a bank account in this bank given its supposedly good customer service, low fess, and advise in English. I never had much trouble since service is all in all standard, and never ran into any problems with them. However, the BW bank customer service has always been very deficient. Only rarely they offered Beratung in English, and when used my OK German, at most branches they were still unfriendly and refused to speak more legibly. Language barriers aside, appointments booking only worked via phone calls at inconvenient times, and typical processing time just to get someone to talk to you is minimum 2 weeks. Face to face attention is not possible if you just visit a branch. It took ages to open a depot account, and ended up missing an employer Aktien benefit deadline. When moved out to another city, kept them for a short time but they somehow always got my main address wrong, and kept sending information to my old address. And most importantly, THEIR FEES ARE A TOTAL RIP OFF. When decided to change to Santander end of 2024, the new bank did all the move out service for free, offered excellent customer service and in English, opened and activated the new account in a few days, and did not cost a thing. Actually, when I left BW Bank in December 2024, the monthly rate had been raised to 10.99 EUR monthly for a girokonto that offer nothing but a debit card, and a very impractical prepaid credit card. Additionally they were always coming up with extra charges from my depo account. I discussed with BW Bank many times if some benefits existed, to which they always replied that I should be paying even more. All in all I was paying 20 EUR for no service at all. In my new bank, given that my salary is high I was given an actual credit card free of charge with my girokonto, no Wertpapiere fees, and even 10 EUR cash back monthly. My netto in my account is now 30 EUR monthly higher in total with Santander, and the new bank is way, way more modern and friendly. I think BW is just for locals who have been using the bank forever and do not know any better. I myself was not aware of how much better and cheaper other competitors can be. Believe me, by changing to another bank you can save up to 30 EUR monthly and avoid the terrible BW Bank customer service. I am sad I did not change before.