Kontist Reviews 

Great App for freelancing. Very Fast answers from customer service

Easy to navigate, good free tools, app works great, bank card availability with good limit and no complications to use.

They closed my account and it's been taking 10 days for me to solve the issue, so far no solution in sight. Would not recommend, as their customer service is impossible to deal with.

Kontist has been fundamental in everything from getting set up as a Freelancer in Germany to providing the tools to correctly manage all relevant duties, from invoicing to banking.

Their banking app is very conveniently set up to categorize any incoming or outgoing transactions. This is quite useful as it'll allow you to know an estimate of how much money belongs to you, and how much belongs to the tax office.

Their tax/administrative services are also indispensable. They will serve as a very knowledgeable support team whenever you're having to deal with the Finanzamt.

I only had the account for about two months, really loved the design and the seamless tax reserves separation but the paypal transfers simply didn´t work and for me as a small producer selling online this is crucial. They promised to fix the problem but after 3 weeks of trying to pull money to the account and not succeeding I simply had to close it and search for a new bank, it broke my heart a bit. When I asked for closure they didn´t ask why and informed me it could take up to two weeks. I did the right thing

The customer support and the way by which inquiries/questions are handled have been beyond terrible the last few months.

Have to consistently write about issues (which are mostly a result of a system error) 4 or 5 times and wait long, just to get an incomplete or inaccurate answer. Often need to re-explain things several times from scratch due to the requests being passed around to people or departments who have no background about the conditions of my account (or didn't care to thoroughly review them).

Can't recommend Kontist at all at this point of time, and will have to move away to a different solution if the situation doesn't improve very soon.

I was very happy to find this service after loosing my tax accountant and could not find another one.
They were very present and prompt in the onboarding process, the service felt amazing, it felt like I will have a chance to get more conscious as well as more conscienscious of my finances. The platform felt see-through and intuitive and robust. And there and all my hopes and positive experiences, all got emptied quick. I am a freelance filmmaker/videographer.

I joined Kontist in early 2022, they also took on my 2021 tax report which my previous tax advisor could not finish, and which is still not done - or, well, I am not really sure right now. They put it off till the last moment even at me trying to continuously bring it ahead "We still have time, don't you worry"-style. I paid for it in advance and more that we originally agreed on. Right now, I am receiving letters from the Fiananzamt as if I have no tax consultant. It is really-really stressful. I sent Kontist the letter I received from the Finanazamt and have not got an explanation in a week. Having a real tax advisor, I should not get these letters in the first place not to mention one where I am threatened to pay penalties.

Also, I never had to pay so much tax back before and 2021 was my worst year financially. I looked at previous reports and there everything was filled, my current one was basically only about VAT and nothing else. It did not seem like they made an effort to bring down my tax burdens.

Furthermore, the idea is that everything is email based. They have many employees and I don't think I talked to the same person twice regarding an issue. No question is understood as it is. I would say, though, that I get answers with about 80 percent accuracy, which is not so bad. Time is another question and also the feel of it. Usually, they promise to answer within three days, that is not always the case.

I guess in most cases a telephone call and a real voice would be reassuring but I never talked to a real person ever since my onboarding. I had numbers from the beginning which are not available any longer.

I am very sorry bout this client management but the German tax systems feels way too complicated to handle it through this "digital" platform. And I don't think I am a complicated client.

Further problems, hypothetically, you have to only upload your invoices which is also not a big deal and a nice feature, but their categorization is flimsy, and I have to keep an extra eye on it as they miss-categorize many items and never seem to double-check. This can obviously end up in more taxes most of the time. And more work on my side which I was promised to cut.

Fees: when I started the whole thing 2 years ago, the service cost 99 euros the bank account included which was about as much as a tax accountant and a business account together. It would also include a tax report, which felt like a good deal. Except that today I pay 180 monthly for the service, I paid extra for 2022 and 2021 tax reports, and none of them is closed yet. Very worrying.

Maybe I overworry these things, but as a German citizen now I would really like to be transparent, uptodate, and conscious of my finances, I wanna pay all the necessary taxes, but since I am a freelancer, I do not want any tax I can get rid of rightously with a flesh-and-blood tax advisor. Obviously, I have found one now and I wonder how easy it is going to be to transition back.

Whoever is thinking about joining Kontist, I suggest you read some of the opinions and stories here before you commit. Maybe it is a good service still, but my rating is definitely not an exaggeration regarding my experience.

PS: I forgot extra fees that appear on my invoices which they can explain, of course, but never had them before.

PSS: Heads up for any real tax consultant working hard to get fair tax deald for hard working clients out there!

Their tax service is extremely overpriced and totally not recommended! I made the mistake of using it for over 1 year as a new business owner and non german speaker, and their service was minimal. the monthly cost was sky high (around 120-150EUR per month) WITHOUT dedicated service, whilst similar service providers are less than 10EUR a month - like Accountable.

Their free bank service serves it purpose. But I won't make the mistake of paying for anything from them.

Was ist mit dieser Bank los?
Geld wird nicht mehr gutgeschrieben!
Meine Karte funktioniert nicht mehr!
Kann keine Geld abheben oder Überweisen!
Daueraufträge werden nicht bearbeitet!

Telefonisch niemand erreichbar! Auf eine Email Antwort muss man 3 Tage warten?

Sorry, das ist keine Bank, das ist ein mieser Saftladen!

multo bene - love the tax splitting feature!

A Banking Institution That Does Not Care About Its Customers' Security or Satisfaction

I need to warn you about the unacceptable experience I had with the Kontist. Their customer service is appalling and shows a complete lack of respect and care for their customers. On March 28th, 2023, I experienced two unauthorized payments from my Kontist account, which I use exclusively for business purposes. Despite contacting their customer service team immediately, I was left feeling insulted, unheard, and downright disrespected.

The first unauthorized payment occurred without any SMS or app authorization request, followed by a second transaction just one minute later, again without any notification or approval request. Instead of taking responsibility for the breach, the Kontist customer service team accused me of not securing my information and demanded that I identify the person responsible for the unauthorized payments.

I was shocked by the lack of assistance and care I received from their customer service team. It is absolutely unacceptable for a banking institution to neglect the security of their customers' accounts and provide zero support when such situations arise.

I am now taking legal action to address the security breach that occurred in their system and the poor customer service experience I encountered. I urge potential customers to be aware of the risks associated with using Kontist and the lack of respect and care they may receive in the event of unauthorized transactions.

For those who have experienced similar issues with Kontist, I recommend immediately filing a police report and reaching out to BaFin for assistance. This is crucial! I am not sure Kontist will mention you about that because they don't want us to go to BaFin I believe.

Kontist needs to take this matter seriously and take immediate action to improve their services and ensure that no other customer has to go through what I did. As of now, I cannot in good conscience recommend Kontist as a reliable banking option for business purposes.

Kontist must take responsibility for their lack of care and show some basic level of respect towards their customers.

Such a great product. Life-changing for solo entrepreneurs and freelancers

very effective reply
translated a document just for me in English, so nice

I've been using the bank for a few years and unfortunately am closing my account.

Previously I loved the feature that divides income into tax, vat and my funds, but now there are so many fees for everything it's just not worth it.

The app also has some issues - my account shows that I have an overdraft even though I don't, which caused me problems. I informed customer service about this months ago and there has been no fix. For my business bank account I can't trust an app that has obvious issues like this.

And finally I've had bad experiences with customer service. They often don't answer my questions, only giving the minimal viable response.

It looked great at first. Finally every banking transaction, incl. bookkeeping through one channel. Only, it's not. When I first was in the process of signing up, answers came real fast. Once I was a customer, they didn't come at all, or 6 different people were working on the same email, so I kept having to repeat my case. Also, if answers came, they were slower than the regular post office. They know nothing about international transactions and only months into being there, they said they no longer do the quarterly bookkeeping, only annual. If it weren't such a pain in the rear end, I'd switch banks immediately again.

I am really satisfied by Kontist service.
As a startup, they are totally supportive, and managing my startup business needs this type of support without wasting a lot of time and effort.
The app is so easy and in two languages German and English.

Although the new change in the limitation of free transactions, but I am still using Kontist as the primary bank account for my business.

The consulting team is very good and extremely helpful.
Everyone at Kontis is very nice and a pleasure to work with.
I'd be lost without the tax service.

Kontist took away my anxiety for handling everything for me and the team was there to answer every single question I had, thank you!

My account was blocked for one month and then they said my account will be close and they will send me the rest of the amount . But there is 2 weeks and they didn't do nothing.
Also the communication is very bad. I have to ask them all the time and they are answer once in a while. Very desapointed. Not recommend.
Victor