Here you will find everything you need to know about banking in Austria. If you have any additional questions, need help or want to give us feedback, just send us an email to info@fincomplete.com. We wish you a great time in Austria – your fincomplete.com team.

Austrian banking system in a nutshell

The Austrian banking sector has a very high density of banks and bank branches although the total number of banks and branches is continuously decreasing.

All banks operating in Austria are supervised by the Austrian central bank (Österreichische Nationalbank, OeNB) which is safeguarding financial stability in Austria. By law, deposits up to EUR 100.000,- per customer and bank are covered by the Austrian deposit protection scheme.

The Austrian banking landscape consists of different types of banks like savings banks, mortgage banks or joint-stock banks. The most important banks are UniCredit Bank Austria, Raiffeisen Bankengruppe, Oberbank, Erste Bank und Sparkassen. There are also some purely online banks like Easybank, DADAT or ING-DiBa, which usually do not maintain branches.

All Austrian banks provide online bank services for fast and easy transactions like money transfers. Most of them have English language interfaces.

One peculiarity of most Austrian banks is that every customer gets a dedicated bank advisor (Bankberater) which helps you with all your financial needs.

Bank account and costs

Opening a bank/current account (Girokonto) is a pretty easy procedure. As banks need to prove your identity, you have to show your passport and your Austrian residence registrations form (Meldezettel). Some banks also want details about your employment contract, especially if you want an overdraft.

Banks usually charge an annual activity fee to run your account. The yearly costs vary between free of charge for purely online bank accounts (under certain conditions) and EUR 85,-. Services on the cash desk like withdrawals or money-transfers usually cost an additional fee. But most banks with a branch network offer free self-services areas on machines.

Current accounts usually also include a Maestro Card. With this card you can withdraw money in self-service-areas and at ATMs (also from other banks) for free. You can also pay with it in shops.

Credit cards are usually not covered by the account fee, so you have to pay extra. Issuing a credit card has to be approved by the bank - some won’t issue credit cards to unknown customers.

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