What is The Best Credit card in Switzerland for 2024?
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A credit card is a powerful personal finance tool. But it is only good if used correctly. Unfortunately, many people do not use credit cards correctly.
The first important thing is to choose a card with no annual fee. Contrary to what credit card companies want you to believe, getting a free credit card and smaller cashback is often better than an expensive card with a lot of cashback. It is essential to research and compare with your actual credit card spending.
But many options make finding the best credit card in Switzerland challenging. So, this article explores the different credit card options available in Switzerland.
I assume you carry no credit card debt and always pay your balance in full. Otherwise, it is an entirely different issue!
What do I use my credit card for?
To choose the best credit card for your situation, you need to know how you use it. I will use my case as an example. So, what do I purchase with my credit card?
I use my credit cards for all my shopping in Switzerland. As long as the shop accepts credit cards, I use one. Except for tiny amounts when I have the cash on me. Why? The reason is simple. I try to maximize my cashback bonus.
I also use them for all my online shopping, mainly for online shops and travel. If there is no fee for using a credit card, I use it. Again, this is to get some money back. The only case I am more careful about is when I cannot pay in CHF. In these cases, you pay a penalty fee for foreign currency transactions. We will discuss this in detail later in the article.
Never use your credit card to withdraw money! They all have terrible fees for withdrawal. Your debit card is here to withdraw money. And there is no bonus on the money you withdraw. Therefore, there are only disadvantages.
I have checked my credit card statements for the last 12 months and summed up my expenses. I have spent around 15,000 CHF on my credit card, of which about 5,000 CHF were spent in foreign currencies. I will use this as the basis to compare different credit cards.
Keep in mind that I am not a big spender. We do not spend that much overall, and only a few expenses can be paid with credit cards.
And since we are talking about credit cards, it is necessary to mention that you should never carry a credit card debt! You will pay substantial interest rates on any credit card debt. Always pay your balance in full at the end of the month. There is no such thing as a credit score in Switzerland. Do not try to optimize your credit.
PostFinance MasterCard as an example
We should have analyzed my credit card before I realized it was terrible. We will take this card as an example (not a great one!).
I had a MasterCard Standard card from PostFinance. I paid 50 CHF per year for it. The cashback bonus was 0.3%. That means that for every 1000 CHF I spent, I got 3 CHF back. I also had to pay 1.2% for transactions in foreign currencies (USD and EUR for me).
I was with PostFinance for a long time. And I used the credit card they offered me without really comparing. Not comparing offers is a mistake that many people make.
Here is how much it cost me for one year:
- Bonus: 15’000 x 0.3% = +45 CHF
- Annual fees: 50 CHF = -50 CHF
- Foreign fees: 5’000 x 1.2% = -60 CHF
- Total: 45 – 50 – 60 = -65 CHF
I know I should compute the bonus before the transaction fees. But it makes a 50-cent difference. So it is better to keep it simple ;)
So, each year, my previous credit card cost me 65 CHF. All my cashback money was paying my fees. I would have been better off using a free card with no cashback. We should see if we can do better with other credit cards.
To break even with this card, you must spend 16’666 CHF per year and not use it for foreign fees.
Other PostFinance credit cards
PostFinance offers other cards as well. All their Visa offers are the same as their MasterCard offers, so we focus on the MasterCard offers:
- MasterCard Gold: For 90 CHF a year and with 0.5% cashback. This card would cost me 75 CHF a year.
- MasterCard Platinum: For 250 CHF a year and with 0.5% cashback. This card would cost 235 CHF a year.
Unfortunately, I cannot have better fees by changing to another offer from PostFinance. So, we must look at other banks and their credit card offers.
Other bank credit cards
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Since I already had the best fit at PostFinance, we should see how it compares with other banks. I only consider real cashback. Real cashback is cash you are sure you can spend. Most of the other bonus systems are too dependent on your shopping style.
Here are the cheapest cards we can find:
- UBS Basic MasterCard: No fees (for 24 transactions per year), no bonus, and 2% foreign fees: cost 100 CHF per year
- UBS MasterCard Standard: 100 CHF per year, no bonus, and 1.75% foreign fees: cost 187.50 CHF per year
- Credit Suisse MasterCard Standard: No fees (for more than 10000 CHF per year), no bonus, and 2.5% foreign fees: cost 125 CHF per year
- Viseca MasterCard Silver: 100 CHF per year, no bonus, 1.75% foreign fees: cost 187.50 CHF per year
- Valiant MasterCard Silver: 100 CHF per year, no bonus, 1.75% foreign fees: cost 187.50 CHF per year
All these cards are more expensive than the PostFinance card! And these are only the cheapest ones. There are some much more expensive cards out there. For instance, the UBS MasterCard Platinum would cost me 587.50 CHF annually.
Again, there is no better choice for me here.
Now that we have considered banks, we can look at alternatives. And we will see that the best credit cards are not with banks.
Best credit card – Cembra Certo One
A great Swiss credit card with excellent cashback (up to 1%!), very flexible, and with a good mobile application.
- No yearly fee
- 1% cashback in three shops
In the past, the Cembra Cumulus Mastercard was the best card in Switzerland. However, Migros stopped its partnership with Cembra and started its card.
But now, Cembra provides its card: The Cembra Certo One. This great card offers 1% cashback in three shops (the user can choose) and 0.3% cashback in all other shops.
I do most of my shopping at three shops. I estimate I will get an average of 0.8% cashback from this card.
Here is how much this card will cost me for one year:
- Bonus: 15’000 x 0.8% = 120 CHF
- Annual fees: 0 CHF = -0 CHF
- Foreign fees: 5’000 x 1.5% = -75 CHF
- Total: 50 – 0 – 75 = 45 CHF
My card would earn me 45 CHF a year. Compared to the 65 CHF I pay now, this is 110 CHF saved each year! This saving is not a lot, but I’d rather keep the money myself!
I have a review of the Certo One card on my blog.
Highest cashback – Swisscard American Express
If you want more cash back, another option is the Swisscard American Express Mastercard. This card is also free and offers you a 1% cashback. And they even have a 5% cashback for the first three months.
1% is the highest cashback for a free card in Switzerland. Even some non-free cards do not have higher cashback. And this cashback will be counted towards your bills at the end of the year.
But there is a catch! In Switzerland, American Express is not as well supported as MasterCard and Visa. However, I found out that you can still use it in some major places:
- All gas stations
- Aligro, Migros and Coop shops
- Most large shops, but not Aldi and Lidl
- You can use it on a few online shopping websites
If you want to optimize your credit card usage, the Swisscard Amex is the best cashback credit card! However, this would mean having two credit cards instead of one.
For more information, I have an entire article about Swisscard cards.
Neon for Foreign Currencies
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- Pay abroad for free
- Invest with great fees
When you travel, you must pay in foreign currencies with your credit card. With most credit cards, this is very expensive. Fortunately, there are some ways to do that for free.
Neon offers free purchases abroad with their Mastercard. You could use this credit card only for foreign currencies. It could be excellent to save on all the currency transaction fees. In my case, this saves me about 100 CHF per year.
Another idea is to use a prepaid card such as Revolut. They have about the same exchange rate surchage as Neon.
However, there are problems with Revolut. First, topping up the card is not instant. It is a regular bank transfer. It takes at least one working day. I do not want to worry about topping up the card whenever needed. I could consider moving significant money to cover small regular fees in foreign currencies.
Another problem with Revolut is that it is expensive during the weekend. You need to read the small prints because not everything is free with a Revolut card. Finally, there were many issues with Revolut, where accounts were closed. So, use Revolut at your own risk. For me, Neon is now the best payment card for foreign currencies.
To help you choose, I have an article about Neon vs Revolut.
In both cases, you may still have to get another card in some cases. Indeed, both Neon and Revolut are prepaid cards. Some services do not allow prepaid cards.
Travel hacking credit card?
Finally, the last option for a credit card is to use it for travel.
You can read many stories about people traveling for free using their credit card bonuses. These are mainly stories in the United States.
Switzerland’s best travel points credit card is the Swiss Miles & More MasterCard. This credit card will give you one award mile for every 2 CHF spent. You will also get 1000 award miles every year. All this is for 120 CHF per year. If we run the computation once again:
- Bonus: 15’000 x 50% = 750 + 1000 = 8500 miles
- Annual fees: 120 CHF = -120 CHF
- Foreign fees: 5’000 x 2.5% = -125 CHF
- Total: -120 – 125 = -245 CHF
The credit card would cost me 245 CHF per year and give me 8500 miles. My most expensive flight is to Hong Kong, which costs around 800 CHF. I need 70000 miles to get it for free, which I would get after 8.23 years.
At this point, I would have spent 2000 CHF in fees. Not a very good deal! Even including the 20’000 welcome miles, it would not be attractive. I do not spend enough on my credit card for this to be interesting. And the foreign fees are way too high.
Note: You can earn more points with the Swiss Miles & More American Express. But it is not well supported in Switzerland. And even with that, it is not worth it.
Do I need cashback?
No, not really. Getting cashback on your credit card is just a small optimization. If you are a reasonable spender, like me, it will not make a massive difference in the long term.
On the other hand, you need a free credit card and a way to cut foreign exchange fees! It is essential to cut your expenses!
With my level of spending, I make between 50CHF and 100CHF per year on cashback. So, cutting my credit card spending is more important than optimizing my cash back. Now, it would be interesting for you if you could spend more on your credit card (with cashback, so no foreign currencies).
So, if you want to keep it simple, use one free credit card! It is perfectly fine. I currently use three credit cards, but I am strongly considering getting rid of my Amex. The benefits are minimal overall. And it means one more card in my wallet and choosing between cards.
For me, the best single card would be either using Neon directly or the Certo One Mastercard. Neon has the advantage of allowing you a single card for every purchase (domestic and foreign), while the Certo One Mastercard has the advantage of being a credit card (emergency money and sometimes prepaid cards are refused).
So, it is up to you to decide how far you want to optimize!
Conclusion
The best credit card in Switzerland is the Cembra Certo One MasterCard. This card saves me 40 CHF yearly compared to my previous credit card from PostFinance. Of course, this is only the best credit card for me! If you spend more (or less), it may be different.
If you want higher cashback, you can use the Swisscard American Express. However, you will need two cards because many shops do not take American Express.
As this article shows, you cannot do much with Switzerland’s credit cards. The best you can do is minimize your fees. Take a credit card without an annual fee, and also minimize spending in foreign currencies.
If you can use a credit card in a shop, use it! If you can use a credit card online without extra fees, use it! Do not think of traveling for free using your credit card unless you spend enormous amounts of money on it. In this case, you are probably not on the correct blog.
One other thing you can do is to change your credit card often. A lot of services are waiving the fees for the first year. And a lot of services are also increasing cashback in the first year. Or giving you a welcome package. If you do the math and be careful, this can save a bit more money.
However, be very careful! And do not forget to cancel the card before the second year. And there could be some minimum time for the contract. I think it is not worth the trouble.
If you want to keep it simple, I recommend using a Neon Mastercard or a Certo One Mastercard (but not for foreign currencies). For more information, read my Review of Neon and my review of the Certo One Mastercard.
If you want to go all-in like me, you should read about my credit card strategy! This strategy will minimize your fees (the most important) and also maximize your cashback. But this will require you to have several cards!
What about you? What credit card do you use? Do you have any tips to maximize cashback?
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Hey,
Is it possible to connect the Migros Mastercard with Google Pay?
TIA!
Hi Jeff,
Apparently not, according to their documentation.
Hi!
I don’t get the logic.
why is it paying 25CHF per year better than receiving 0,2% of what you spent?
If you get the cashback card and never contact them or request papers you literally are recieving money for spending money. so why do you prefer the Cumulus card?
Hi Gabriela,
I do not understand your comment. To what are you referring to?
I am not paying 25 CHF per year since I am using the Neon card for foreign currencies (two sections after Migros card).
Hello, there,
I have just started reading some posts on your blog, and I must say, I am very positively surprised – well-done, substantive content.
As to the topic of the best CCs, I have been using the SWISS Miles&More, since my work is connected with a lot of travelling and, I thought, it was a good way of keeping my miles from expiring, yet I realized it was not so good in the end.
However, it gave me a good starting point and the availability to compare my potential cashback on AMEX and MCard transactions.
Recently, I have made an overview of my spending from 2019 up until now (2020 not being a good reference, and needed more data), to compare the Cashback solution and the Migros CC, and found out the following: If you can focus your spending on AMEX (in my case it is ~80%), the Cashback option from Swisscard is the best.
I have checked multiple scenarios, including additional points from buying my food in Migros with their card, and it was not as good as the Cashback’s AMEX return.
However, an interesting fact I have learned is that a synergy between both Cashback and Migros CC is slightly better than only Cashback.
To elaborate – use AMEX from Cashback, and Migros MasterCard whenever AMEX is not accepted. In my case, this gave me another 5% more (not so bad, since I am already optimizing stuff anyways).
In conclusion, this scenario works best for me, and if you have been using AMEX mainly, it should work for you too – it is just a little more work to start with.
P.S.
I can without hesitation fully recommend Revolut for abroad spending! It has the best exchange rates by far, and allows you to withdraw money, essentially, anywhere in the world.
And regarding the top-up, I have never had to wait more than 30s to get the money on the account while using a credit card. Perhaps there is some limitation in the one that you were using at the time.
Thanks & keep up the good work!
Hi Xanoso,
Yes, I agree with your conclusion. The Swisscard cashback is really worth it but you need to use it a lot for the difference to be significant.
Now, if you shop at Migros, you actually get 2% cashback (1% from the Amex and 1% from your cumulus code).
This is actually what I am doing unless I did not understand your scenario. I am using both, AMEX whenever possible and then Mastercard. But I am thinking of getting rid of the AMEX. Not because it’s not better, but because I do not want to carry too many cards for a few tens of CHF of difference.
They have improved the top up since I wrote the first version of the article, I should review that part. It’s now possible to top up for free with Credit Card and with bank account. My primary issue now with Revolut it’s their reputation and all the bad press they get.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hey there,
that is correct, at Migros, regardless whether you use the Migros CC or Cashback AMEX, you get 2% return (if owning Cumulus account).
In all other places the Migros CC gives you 0.33% (3CHF = 1point), where the MasterCard of Cashback gives 0.20%.
That is why the synergy is performing better in my case (1% + 0.33% instead of 1% + 0.20%).
Nevertheless, recently I have been reviewing if not to give away the Migros CC, since it does not make much difference, especially when 80% spending are done with AMEX. And it brings another CC company to deal with, more statements, and payments to remember…
We will see what 2021 will bring in this field…
Cheers
Hi Xanoso,
It makes sense indeed if you shop often at Migros. We do not shop much at Migros these days. And most of our groceries are done in shops that do not support AMEX. So, we are probably paying around 50% with AMEX.
If you are able to use the AMEX 80% of the time, you are indeed in a good spot to ditch the Migros CC. You just need to make sure to have a payment option for the shop refusing AMEX.
The credit card offer has become better these last few years, maybe 2021 will become even better!
Thanks for sharing :)
One should take into consideration that Migros CC does not cashback any payments to Migros companies.
E.g. if I pay my groceries at Migros with my Migros CC, I won’t get any Cumulus points for this.
The same applies for paying groceries at Coop with the Coop CC.
In both cases, you only get the Cumulus Points / Superpoints on the loyalty card, which is a 1% cashback only.
As far as I remember this rule has been implemented in early 2020. I only found this out when my cashback became dramatically low, and I found the reason why only in the latest CC contract smallprint. Both retailers claim that otherwise one would become double cash backed… which was no problem in the earlier days.
However, what I realy like to use whenever possible are the multiplying Cumulus checks that double, tripple or even tenfold the cashback on the Cumulus loyalty card. Which accumulates in a 2%, 3% or 10% cashback. Sometimes it is even possible to combine several of such checks, which results in even higher cashbacks – not on the CC but on the loyalty program. I love these cashback checks since they can be used the same like cash in any Migros shop.
Thanks Mr Poor Swiss – helpful as always. Do you know if the free cards have the same ‘protection’ as the more expensive cards? I use the UBS Platinum and the coverage for cancelled flights, delays, accidents, luggage, keys, car rental, purchase protection etc seems very comprehensive. I was under the impression that was what I was paying the fees for. But I have not researched to see if all Swiss cards offer similar protection. Thanks!!
Hi Stoo.d,
That’s a good point.
Yes, free cards have some level of protection. For instance, the cummulus mastercard insures you against canceled trip for up to 50’000 CHF.
However, higher-end cards such as Platinum cards will have much higher limits and much better coverage: luggage coverage, medical expenses, …
So, if this is very important to you, that’s something you can consider. Just make sure that it’s actually worth the cost.
Thanks for stopping by!
I keep it simple : I use my neon MasterCard to spend and purchase abroad and I use my checking account (Maestro + Twint) for purchasing in Switzerland. One more thing, for cashback, I use the Cumulus Card (not the credit card).
Basically I’m using two cards (three with the cumulus) because I’ve never spent a lot with my previous credit card (less than 2000 CHF a year) so the cashback is not interesting in my point of view. In addition, I preferred to have a prepaid credit card to avoid problem of hacking or stealing, at least they could only steal the amount on the prepaid card (often less than 500 CHF).
Hi Yanikuza,
It’s true that prepaid cards have an advantage if they are stolen unless you have a ton of money on them.
As you said, if you do not spend too much, the cashback won’t make a ton of difference. Even for me, we are talking about 100 CHF per year. This is not life-changing.
So keeping it simple makes total sense!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi, you propose the Cumulus Mastercard as the best for 20/21. I might agree with the addition “ONLY in Switzerland. ONLY in CHF.”
Cumulus is issued by Cembra Money Bank (former GE Money Bank). The bank it self is no problem, but they add a hefty 2.5% for Forex. So only CHF.
..
But biggest problem: The IT of Cembra is completely OUTDATED. You cannot manage your acct online, nor do they have an application for your smartphone.
It ‘s unbelievable that they survive with this stone age standard. You can not even use e-Bill to pay the invoice.
..
I used Cumulus / Ceembra for many years. But now Viseca, SwissCard AECS, Neon, Zak, TFW all come up with modern and very usefull applications (some even with Webclient), Cembra really got so much outdated.
Therefore I cannot imagine why you propose it as Card of the Year.
What about the Coop CreditCard, issued by TopCard owned by UBS? No application, a little better IT, supports e-Bill, free to get, the only with unlimited partner cards, but also very high fees on Forex.
Hi Rasmuss,
I agree you should never use your Cumulus Mastercard for foreign currencies. I mentioned using Neon for that.
And I also mentioned Coop being the same as the Cumulus Mastercard. I just do not shop at Coop ever, so I would not know what to do with the points.
Regarding the IT, I could not agree more, it really sucks. It’s just plain bad. Since I only touch the interface once a month to pay my bill, I can deal with that. But they are really in need of a refresh.
You cannot compare the Cumulus master with Neon, Zak or TFW, these three have no cashback. And I already mentioned Swisscard that has higher cashback.
Hidden secret of the Cumulus credit card: you can withdraw cash for free at any Migros counter (the shopping counter, not the atm).
0% interest, 0% fees, I don’t know if there is an annual limit, a possible practical limit is how much cash a specific counter at Migros has in that moment (they refused my withdrawal of x*10^2 francs a couple of times).
Best
Hi wandering,
Thanks for the tip. I had no idea you could do that. I will have to ask the next time I am in Migros.
I have withdrawn cash several times in Migros with my Maestro but I have never tried with the Cumulus Mastercard.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi.
Great article. Really helpful. A question: so if I just moved to CH and I use my credit card for online purchases let’s say for a website based in UK, it will count as a foreign transaction?
Hi Zhaan,
It depends on which credit card you are talking about. If you are talking about a Swiss credit card, anything abroad or in foreign currencies will count as a foreign currency.
If you are coming from the UK and still have a UK credit card, you should be OK for the website in the UK, but will pay foreign transactions in Switzerland.
Does that make sense?
hi there
Hasn’t this stopped working now – the Cumulus Mastercard + Revolut Mastercard combo? I mean, Cumulus will no longer reward you credit for spend on charging Revolut card.
What is the best way to download statements such that they can be consolidated in an Excel file for annual overview? The Excels I download are only by month and contain merged cells….
Thanks
Simone
Hi Simone,
It still works in the sense that it’s free. But if there are no rewards, the only advantage is that you will get your money instantly and will not have to wait until the wire transfer.
As for the statements, I have no idea, I have never download an excel statement from any card, sorry.
Thanks for stopping by!
Late comment here, but I use the Cumulus Mastercard + Revolut Mastercard combo. I get between 4 and 10 CHF of Migros points as cashback per month. I grocery-shop there anyway so that works well for me.
For trips in Europe : Revolut & I withdraw Euros in cash from UBS before leaving. I’ll have to see how it works out with the new Revolut limit for free payments
Hi Claire,
Thanks for sharing :) That’s nice cashback results!
If you do not have enough with the new Revolut limits, you have alternatives:
* Convert some money in advance. If you convert 1250 CHF the month before, you will have 2500 CHF ready for your vacations :)
* Use Neon as a secondary (or primary) travel card.
Thanks for stopping by!