8 min read 1. How do you pay your rent guarantee before having a Swiss account?
You must pay the rent guarantee into a Swiss blocked bank account, even though you do not yet have an account or a B permit. This is the expat's financial paradox, and it is solved by transferring your funds from your euro account to the letting agency's Swiss escrow account, at the real rate.
Finding housing is often the most complex step, particularly in highly sought-after cantons such as Geneva, Vaud or Zurich, where the rental market is extremely tight. Once the lease is signed, the letting agency requires the blocking of a rent guarantee equivalent to a maximum of three months' net rent, in a Swiss blocked bank account opened in your name. It is an absolute condition for the keys to be handed over.
At this stage, you have neither a B permit nor a physical residence in Switzerland, which makes opening a traditional Swiss bank account almost impossible. Yet you already have to mobilise several thousand francs to unlock your housing.
The solution is to transfer significant amounts from your euro savings to the letting agency's Swiss escrow account. However, traditional international transfers combine two costs: prohibitive fixed fees and, above all, an opaque exchange margin (the "spread") applied by banks, which is often between 1.5% and 3% of the amount transferred. On a deposit, this gap can represent a dead loss of several hundred francs, and may even cause an inexact amount to reach the agency's account.
For a rent guarantee of 6 000 CHF, using ibani lets you transfer the exact equivalent from the euro zone — around 5 526 EUR at the market rate of 0.921 — and guarantee that the agency receives the precise amount in Swiss francs, with no surprise fees. The correct amount arrives down to the cent, which validates the handover of the keys without back-and-forth with the landlord.
By creating a free account with ibani, you obtain a personal Swiss IBAN to which you send your euros: we convert them at the real rate with a very low, transparent margin, then transfer the francs directly to the agency's blocked account. For the details of this mechanism, see our dedicated guide: Swiss rent guarantee: how to block funds from abroad. And to build a strong rental application, see our tips on how to rent an apartment in Switzerland.
2. What is the deadline to register with the municipality and obtain the B permit?
You have a strict deadline of 14 days following your arrival to register with the residents' registration office (contrôle des habitants) of your municipality of residence, and this step must be completed before your first day of work. It is what triggers the issuance of your B permit.
As soon as you physically enter Swiss territory, the legal countdown begins. Registering your arrival at the residents' registration office is not a mere formality: it is the founding act of your resident status. Until it is done, your address is not validated and the production of your residence permit cannot start.
- An employment contract (permanent, or fixed-term of more than one year);
- A valid identity document;
- The Swiss lease agreement (hence the importance of having settled the deposit beforehand);
- A few passport-format photos.
The B permit is the standard residence permit for foreign workers settling in for the long term. For EU/EFTA nationals, it is issued on the basis of a long-term employment contract and remains valid for 5 years. Good news for families: under family reunification, the spouse of a B permit holder obtains an equivalent residence permit, including the right to work in Switzerland.
The B permit also determines your taxation for the first year: unless you have very high wealth or income, you will be subject to withholding tax, deducted directly by your employer from your gross monthly salary according to a cantonal scale. For an overview of all the statuses (B, C, G, L), see our complete guide to residence and work permits in Switzerland, and to forget nothing when you move, our complete checklist for moving to Switzerland (customs, vehicle, insurance).
3. How do you open your salary bank account in Switzerland?
Once the certificate of residence is issued by the municipality, opening a salary account with a cantonal or national bank becomes a simple formality. This certificate serves as proof while you wait for the physical B permit card to be printed, and it is what the bank will require.
Around D+15, your banking integration can therefore be finalised. Your employer will need your Swiss IBAN (starting with "CH") to pay your first salary, and this account will serve you day to day to pay your bills, which are settled in Switzerland via the "QR-bill" system. Whether you opt for a traditional bank (UBS, BCV, BCGE, a cantonal bank) or a neobank, the municipality's certificate remains the triggering document.
🔁 And after opening the account? Many expats keep financial ties with their home country: repaying a loan in the euro zone, supporting family, or repatriating residual savings. Rather than enduring your bank's exchange fees on every operation, you can set up recurring transfers via ibani to connect your new Swiss IBAN to your European IBAN, with zero or minimal conversion fees.
This bridge between your two accounts is just as valuable in the other direction: to automate the payment of your Swiss bills from abroad or smooth out your conversions, see our guide on how to automate the payment of Swiss bills (LAMal, etc.). And if you are still unsure which institution to choose, our comparison on how to open a bank account in Switzerland details the options.
4. When should you take out LAMal health insurance?
You have exactly 3 months (90 days) from your date of arrival in Switzerland to choose a health insurer and take out basic health insurance (LAMal). It is a legal obligation, and affiliation is backdated to the first day of your domicile.
Switzerland has a private but mandatory healthcare system, run by competing health insurers. Unlike many European countries, basic health insurance is not deducted from your salary by your employer: it is up to you to actively take it out and pay the monthly premiums. The cost of these premiums also varies greatly from one canton to another — living in Geneva or in the canton of Vaud is generally more expensive than in Valais.
Affiliation takes effect on your date of entry into Switzerland, not on the date you sign up. If you wait until the 89th day to enrol, you will immediately receive the bill for the first three months of premiums. It is therefore better to affiliate as soon as you arrive, to spread out the cost.
The choice of insurer and deductible deserves genuine comparison, as the differences in premiums are significant for identical cover. Once affiliated, paying the monthly premiums becomes part of your recurring bills in Swiss francs: here again, if you still finance part of your life from a euro account, optimising the exchange on each transfer prevents banking fees from eating into your health budget. Insurance is one of the most structuring topics of your relocation, on a par with housing and the permit.
💡 The ibani solution: from the rent deposit to your recurring transfers, move your funds between the euro and the Swiss franc at the real rate, with no hidden margin, using a free personal Swiss IBAN.
Open an accountibani SA is a Geneva-based fintech company, a financial intermediary affiliated with SO-FIT, a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) recognised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).