Expatrio offers a great service for expats and their app is user friendly. Be aware, however, that for the account activation process you will need a German phone number and proof of residency to complete the process, not just your passport. And while the acceptable document list gives several options, the residence permit option is the only one that worked (for me anyway).

When I was getting ready to move to Germany, this seemed like the perfect choice. I have had nothing but issues with them since I activated my account. For starters: THERE ARE NO HUMANS TO TALK TO. You have to send an email and then wait forever. There’s no emergency number when something unexpected, hard to explain, or confusing to put into a question comes up. It took them a month to actually grant me access to my funds. Now I’m at the end of my stay in Germany, and they automatically closed my account because they paid out all of the scheduled payments. I wasn’t worried about it because the notification said I could keep using my card like normal as long as there were funds available. They said they would charge 5 euros a month as a maintenance fee, or that I could extend my account, and that seemed fair, so I left it alone. I didn’t need to extend it. I had a little over 2k left in my account to cover my expenses until I moved. They closed my account in September. By October, I had 10 euros in my account as a buffer and absolutely no sign as to where the rest of my money went. I went to the chat bot for help (because you can’t call and emailing takes days and sometimes weeks), and it also was completely NOT helpful. Finally, I had to send an email to customer service and now I have to wait for someone to get back to me. In the meantime, I have no way of accessing MY MONEY and will have to figure out a way to feed myself for the next month and a half until I move. DO NOT GO WITH THIS BANK. ANYTHING ELSE HAS TO BE BETTER THAN THIS. IT’S THE WORST!

While this service seemed all inclusive and super easy to use it has turned out to be the opposite. To activate your account you need a German +49 phone number. However, to get the phone number you need the IBAN from the bank account. This leads you in a never ending circle. After scouring their website for help I found their article on cell providers, and sure enough…they ALL require an IBAN to make the purchase. Until the either contract with a company to provide a German phone number upon entry to Germany, or change the requirement for the required phone number to activate the account with YOUR money in it I will be leaving a 1 star review and telling everyone to avoid this service if at all possible. After contacting customer support I got a silly automated message giving me the exact same information I already found in their website, and I doubt the human response is going to be much different. Extremely disappointed by a product that seems so amazing until I actually need it to do things and survive. I’m glad I’m not in a medical emergency, because you can’t use that either! Pathetic how they gloss over all of these details during the entire process until the very end when you need them the most.

Agree 100% with 1 star review. I‘ve tried to activate my account for the last 4 days. Nothing. Technical problems, no human response. Undecided to go ahead and proceed with the activation to the vesting my abilities bc I gave up on anyone answering my W9 tax question. I can only activate it on my phone, not sure why I can’t use my laptop. Once someone video called me, their connection was horrible, I could hear all them arguing, talking , but they couldn’t see me, and just like that hang up on me. So I tried to change activation method to post office, the app when blank and I did not get an email. At this point, not sure how I will get my money. Hope I don’t get a health emergency, sadly, I’ll need family support. Unbelievable, not one person has reached out. Email answered by a bot, phone number never answered, not a choice to leave a voice message. Service email is ALWAYS answer by a bot.