Fidor Bank AG Reviews 2,867

This used to be one of the early challenger banks, it had a lot of cool feature, as an example it would allow to download in one go a statement for the entire year, then they reduced the possibility to maximum one reporting month.
Now they want 10EUR per each monthly statement duplicate of a dormant account that was closed.

This is the worst banking experience I have ever had with any of the bank accounts in Germany. I created this account back in the early days because it was free and they had some good integration to help transfer money to crypto exchanges. Fidor eventually decided to convert this free account to a paid account without any notification, email, letter to home or an email that a notification was sent to my mailbox in the account. There were mostly no transactions on the account from my side and the account has been racking in monthly charges since 2019 with interest, which were never informed and hence a decent amount of negative balance. These are highly unethical practices. I tried to clear up the situation with the customer service but got a fairly standard response back that they have informed of the changes even though I received nothing. I am usually very careful with these matters and also other banks have decent notifications systems in place to inform of any changes. Somehow I don't even have access to my account anymore and can't even reset my password and get a reset email. Not sure how to proceed further.

I am so disappointed with Fidor, I've used them for a few years with no problem and no real reason to have a problem; my salary goes in, my expenses go out, easy.
But on the first of June my card expired. The first I found out was a transaction declining trying to buy a train ticket. Unbelievably, a replacement is not automatic. Since then I have called a number of times and written a number of times. To be fair my german is not advanced, but adequate for the situation. They asked me to email in German, ok. They have ignored every email I've sent. Every phone call results in them saying they've sent the card and I have to wait. Except for once when they told me it got returned, despite my address information being correct. It's now been 23 days without a card, I'm constantly having to ask friends to withdraw cash for me and transfer them, often incurring fees for using other services. I can't book my flights for a summer holiday, meaning my tickets are already considerably more expensive. I can't buy anything online! And to make matters worse I get an automatic email yesterday saying it will be 10 more days! No apology or explanation given, just the usual lies and garbage. Do yourself a favour and choose a real bank with a physical branch and some accountability, Fidor is clearly incompetent as a real alternative even with the most basic of services and customer support.

They closed my account within 2 months without explanation. After the account was closed, a bank transfer arrived for me. My Fidor App confirmed this. Normally, if an account is closed, the bank should return the money to the sender. Fidor accepted this money, even though they said the account was closed. My login was useless, because they closed the account. I could not access my money.

Now, many emails later, wI am still trying to get the money out of Fidor. Each time I call, the ladies tell us that we should write an Email...but they also tell us the money will be sent to us soon...then they confirm that they already received all my emails, then they say the department is too busy. If I ask to speak to the department, they say it's not possible. When I said I will call my lawyer, they say "if you think that's a good idea, then do it".

CONCLUSION. You can Bank at Fidor, yes, but get a good lawyer first. Because if you don't you will loose your money!

UPDATE: Fidor transferred my money after 16 days. 7 emails + 7 phone calls with Customer Service. Thanks.

I would like to share my very unpleasant experience with this banking institution as a warning to their potential future clients.

I have opened my account with Fidor Bank AG in 2018 as it was advertised as a completely free cryptocurrency-friendly bank (it was at the time also heavily promoted by bitcoin.de as the "best option" for crypto traders). I have used their banking services for a while in association with the bitcoin.de and Kraken crypto exchange. Then, I did not mind my account for the next 3 years since I wanted to use it only for bitcoin.de and Kraken. I have even forgotten that I have opened an account with them in the past since I did not really need it for such a long time.

Yesterday, after almost 3 years, I logged into my account and to my horrification, I have found out that there are fees accumulated in my account in the amount of -43,72 € for the recurring account management fee even though the account was advertised by the bank as completely free at the time I opened it. They also started to charge me a debit interest of 8,5 % p.a. of this amount.

I must say that I have NEVER received any email nor mail letter from them announcing any price list change nor they informed me about any of the fees or debit interest accrued. If I knew about it, I would have closed my account a long time ago. This way if I did not log into my Fidor account by a chance, I would not even found out that there is a debit balance on my account thanks to this account management fee that they arbitrarily applied to my account, and after a few years, I would have found out I have a huge debt with them as they charge you recurring fees even without letting you know about it.

When I tried to contact their customer support asking for an explanation, and also with the request to close my account, I received basically a very straightforward reply, where they stated, that everything is basically my fault. That they are not obligated to inform their clients about T&C or pricelist change by e-mail nor mail letter, that they announced some pricelist change two years ago on the homepage of the bank and in some internet banking box (so far, I still do not know what that actually is), and that it is good enough that way, and also finally, that they are sorry if I did not found out about the pricelist change, but if I want to close my account I need to settle the account management fee debt first. I was also told that it is not possible to file a complaint about any of the fees they charge.

I believe that this approach is heavily unfair and unethical trying to rip off clients who have obviously dormant accounts by quietly introducing various recurring fees which can cause them a debit balance which they in addition subsequently continuously charge with debit interest. All that without letting them know about it. In our country, this would be illegal. I have never ever in my life experienced such bad behavior with any other bank around the world. I am genuinely disgusted that something like this is even possible. All the more so in civilized Europe. The only thing I want right now is to terminate my account and to get away from this bank as fast as possible which unfortunately seems impossible.

Take this as a heads up what you can expect when you open an account with this "bank".

UPDATE: After publishing the review, the matter was solved by refunding me the fees and interest and closing my account. Thank god. Fidor bank is not that bad afterall, however I would certainly expect a more proactive approach when communicating with clients who have provably dormant accounts as in that case messages sent by the bank to the client's "internet banking message box" are definitelly not going to be received and acknowledged by the client.

I have used Fidor bank for almost 2 years as my daily account and had no issues with them.
During this time I made 11 transactions each month and followed all guidelines etc.
I decided to close the account and have so far sent 2 emails and 1 fax and the account remains open. I even received one response stating that is is closed - over 2 weeks now and the account is still open and my requests are ignored.
What do I have to do to close the account!?

Closing a bank account in Germany generally takes 2-3 days.

Note: I will update this to 4 stars if the account is finally closed. Fidor is not an awful bank as the general functionality is fine, they just seem to have awful customer service.

Update: Account closed a day after posting this review. Updating review to 4 stars which reflects my overall experience with Fidor.

Help me! they steal my money. How can i get my money back, they just robbed me??!

I got one transfer From my father and they just stole this money and closed my account. Ne ver seen my money anymore.
Can anyone help, how many weeks you have been waiting to get your money back, or do i just contact local Police office?

Impossible to record the identification video. When I click on Zurück, the possibility of recording just disappears. Besides, all is in German.... They write the emails in German also. So, what is this? They don't even offer a good technology to record a video? Are we talking about an international Bank or what!. German think they are the best or the only ones? Fortunately, there are other fintech banks to choose.

I have opened an account with this bank which was advertised as free (and heavily promoted by bitcoin.de). Then didn't mind it for 3 years since i literally only wanted to use it in combination with bitcoin.de and suddenly I had fees accumulated of 76 Euro. They told me they sent an email with their updated terms and prices. Great, which I never read or confirmed.

Update: after my initial review, the fees were refunded, and my account successfully closed. Thanks.

In response to Fidor's blatant lies below.

On 2/10/2020 you received an email from my mother, with the letters the police have sent her. So you know full well she has contacted the police yet you still insist on telling her to contact the police. (this was done the second she realised)

You have been sent the CHAPS transfer payment form with your customers account details on there, this was most certainly an actual account. Yet you are claiming you cannot locate it.

Are you aware that Fidor are legally obliged to keep records? - See Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2015/847

In regards to you constantly hiding behind data protection laws to refuse handing over information about the account you allowed a criminal to open.

Please read - Data Protection Act 2018 - Paragraph 5(3)(a-c) of Schedule 2, Part 1, which reads:
The listed GDPR provisions do not apply to personal data where disclosure of the data is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings (including prospective proceedings), ..

So the "LAW" allows you to release all data for a potential civil court claim. The fact I have yet again quoted the "specific law" in relation to data protection and you have not responded directly to this "law" speaks volumes.

But you should also be aware that at this stage I am happy for Fidor to merely send the transaction history of the account, as this can be done without giving away any personal data, despite the law allowing you to.

If you could also provide full details of the process by which the account was opened and exactly what documents and other references were used to validate the ID of the person who opened the account? Again no item of data that would identify the person is needed to answer this.

If Fidor bank would also tell me what systems are in place to in relation to The Terrorism Act 2000, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Money Laundering Regulations to identify fraudulent transaction?

Guidelines under Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2015/847 read:
30. PSPs’ and IPSPs’ systems should be configured in a way that triggers alerts should a high-risk indicator be detected. High-risk indicators may include, but are not limited to:

a) transfers of funds that exceed a specific value threshold. When deciding on the threshold, PSPs and IPSPs should at least consider the average value of transactions they routinely process and what constitutes an unusually large transaction, taking into account their particular business model;

Is your average transaction really more than £30,000? As if not it seems you have breached EU guidelines by not having a system that triggers alerts when high risk transactions are made.

Fidor claims to be at the cutting edge of banking technology, a leader in Fintec... yet you seemingly have no system in place to detect high-risk transactions.

This account had been open a matter of weeks, and £30,000 arrived in the account, with no checks whatsoever, and then £30,000 left the account 4 minutes later. Yet you have no system to alert you to this.

So as I have proven your response below is incorrect, I ask will you now start responding in a helpful way?

Fidor has one of the most idiotic "support" or customer care centers ever seen. Sending E-mails as SPAM / Phishing. Closing accounts w/o reasons. Cannot recommend as a serious banking service. Customer care people are uneducated and unfriendly !

If you trade on Bitcoin.de because they offer express trading, this is the good point with this bank.
The weak point is their customer support which is extremely slow. But generally you would not need it.
I will give 5 stars if the support improves.

not dependable against identity theft. had my card fraudulently used on audible. when i got in touch with audible they were quick to alert me on what to do re my bank as well as the process for getting a refund (police case nr etc)
i got in touch with fidor via email and telephonically, and they only responded to me 7 days later telling me to deactivate my card. i cannot stress enough, it took them SEVEN DAYS to respond. and nope....i got no refund from fidor either! ***update*** after being ignored by fidor on this issue for many months, the day after this review is published, suddenly they are interested in resolving the issue. proof again, they are a bank best avoided

EDIT 01-10-20 - ANOTHER technical glitch. login not possible on the website for about the past HOUR. no warning on the website, customer service email ignored, helpdesk call no answer (after 12 minutes hold)

Fidor started to charge my account without notice and do not want to reimburse the fees. Would recommend N26 for easy and customer-friendly banking

Become bad when it got took over by French company. Now I try to cancel the account but even the confirmed twice the account is still open and the keep charging !

Let them make the additional 5 EUR. The will be soon out of business anyways

Very bad experience my account is locked in balance over 2000 eur and bank not replay to me looks not serious.
At first bank as me document I sent it after that they told me your account will be close by 2020/08/03 but account still locked so I can't use my balance.
Looks I should contact to BaFin and EBI to fix situation not recommended use it !
2020.06.08 Update:
Problems still not resolve just ask me proof of asset translate to German ( who cover translation fees) that okay i paid translation fees over 100 euros but my balance still hold on Fidor. If bank closed account should be option transfer money to others bank ??
Today spend 2 hours try to call Fidor anybody cant talk in Eglish why if bank take international client cant hire English agent 😡 i will update my story.. but be Carefully with Fidor now around 1 month and happens nothing...
2020/06/09
Looks like fidor support ignore me every time i got same answer apologies and bank account will be close. I ask 3 or 4 times transfer my remain balance to others my bank but they ignore me every time looks not serious.. i will keep update
2020/06/11
Still waiting Fidor confirmed as received translation of documents but nothing happens yet.
I will keep update
2020/06/15
What wrong with bank support still nothing happens.
Looks I should go to my lawyer I hope he can boast process.
I will keep update
2020/06/17
Ask me selfy to unlock account i sent but nothing happens
2020/06/18
I'm not sure how this bank work but today received email account will be unlocked but try login and account still locked...
If you wanna wasting tons of your time welcome to work with fidor
2020/06/22
Still waiting nothing happens..
Worst bank ever
2020/06/24
I can confirm account bank to normal standing after long story

I was in the process of making a video verification with Fidor. They wanted my latest electricity bill as proof of address, which I produced. In the country where I live, electricity bills are issued every three months, and each bill clearly states that it covers three months. Mine was issued three months ago.

Due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, many businesses are on lock down here, and therefore, I haven't received a bill this month. However, a bill issued three months ago should be sufficient to proof my address, especially since I also showed them my ID card with the same address.

Fidor continued to insist that the bill was too old. In retrospect, maybe they are unable to read English, since they insist on sending every email and communication in German. It may come as a surprise to Fidor, however many people who don't live in Germany, don't understand German. It's only professional and polite to send communication to potential international customers in English.

Fidor also refused my bank statement, which was sent this month. The reason for this is incomprehensible.

Do Fidor think that I'm happily hopping from residence to residence during a bloody pandemic? Moreover, our airport is on lock down, which highlights the critical situation we're in.

The people working for Fidor seem very inefficient. To me that indicates that the company is untrustworthy.

This bank is blocking my account and ignoring all communication and support since beginning of the year for 3 months now. They scam you by blocking your access, denying all communication and then charging new maintenance fees for an account that you cannot use and you even cannot transfer funds from them. Avoid this scam bank!!!

Fidor bank,
I want to transfer all my money to another bank and close my account in your bank. Now you limited my access to online banking so I cannot use it anymore. I still can use app but there is a daily limit that I cannot change... What I should do to transfer all my money to another bank and close my account as soon as possible???