👉 Summary of bill types (p. 7)
- QR-rechnungs → Need a Swiss bank account to pay those
Orange slips→ Don't exist anymore.- ✝ Replaced by QR-rechnungs (Feb. 2023)
Red slips→ Don't exist anymore.- ✝ Replaced by QR-rechnungs (Feb. 2023)
✅ Most companies accept that you pay QR-rechnungs with a normal SEPA/SWIFT wire transfer in which you put the IBAN and the referenz from the QR-rechnung instead of using the QR code
⛔ Note that it doesn't apply to all the companies so it's safer to pay with a Swiss bank to avoid bad surprises (they all support QR-rechnungs)
ℹ️ You need a bank account mostly to:
- Pay QR-rechnung bills (electricity, phone, internet, etc.)
- Pay with TWINT → very rarely mandatory. Can use it to pay friends and in some shops
- Receive your salary
❗Banks that have physical offices (UBS, UZH, Crédit Suisse ✝, etc.) are a ripoff, they have lots of hidden expensive fees. Avoid them
👉 I use Wise for converting to/from CHF (e.g. in my case mostly EUR ↔ CHF) 👉 I use yuh for credit card payments, bills, and receiving my salary
- Wise
- 👉 (Optional) You can use my referral code pauld3240 for a welcome bonus
- ✅ Cheapest EUR → CHF conversion rate on the market
- ✅ Can receive a credit card to pay in Switzerland
- ❗No Swiss IBAN
- ❗Can't pay QR-rechnungs
- ❗No TWINT
- yuh
- 👉 (Optional) You can use my referral code ndc277 to get free Swissqoins
- ✅ Free
- ✅ Swiss IBAN
- ✅ Can pay Swiss QR-rechnung bills
- ✅ No need for permanent residency
- Can even open a bank account as a French resident
- ✅ TWINT is available
- ✅ Mobile app is great (4.6/5 on the Play Store)
- Neon
- ✅ Free
- ✅ Swiss IBAN
- ✅ Can pay QR-rechnungs
- ✅ Can use the UBS TWINT app for TWINT payments
- ✅ Can convert between currencies for cheap (they use Wise underneath)
- ⛔ Requires a permanent B or C Swiss permit (L permit is not accepted)
- ❗ Mobile app is less reliable than yuh (3.7/5 stars on the Play Store)
- Revolut
- 👉 (Optional) You can use my referral code paul0vec8 for a welcome bonus
- ✅ Free for converting up to 300 EUR to CHF per month
- ✅ Getting a SWISS IBAN is possible, but your Revolut account needs to be based in Switzerland. If you already opened a Revolut account abroad you need to close it and reopen a new one in Switzerland (account transfers between countries are not possible in Revolut).
- ⛔ Can't pay QR-rechnungs
- ⛔ No TWINT
- Cheap
- Lidl
- Aldi
- Denner
- Bulk
- Aligro (Schlieren)
- Normal
- Migros
- Coop
- SPAR
- 🔵 Blue zones (Stadt Zürich parking map)
- Free
- Sunday — Always free
- Monday → Saturday
- From 9am to 6pm
- Max duration: 1-1.5 hrs
- Parking clock needed
- Put time of arrival
- Round up arrival to the next half an hour (e.g. 11:17 → 11:30)
- From 7pm to 8am — Always free
- No parking clock needed
- If you have a parking clock you can stay longer:
- Free from 6pm to 9am
- You need to set the parking clock to 9am on arrival
- From 9am to 6pm
- Daily parking card
- 15 CHF/day with a daily parking card
- Yearly resident parking card
- 300 CHF/year
- Only on blue zones
- Limited to your plate number
- Restricted to a limited zone around the place of living
- Free
- ⚪ White zones
- If “Besucher” is marked next to the white lines then it's free for visitors of a specific shop or building lot.
- Otherwise it's a paid zone where you need to pay by the nearby parking meter or a special app such as ParkNow, Parkingpay, EasyPark, etc. Some only accept coins but they are rare.
- 🌕 Yellow zones
- Those are Private zones, don't park there
👉 More info about parking zones in Zürich
- Map of commercial parking lots: Parkopedia
- Shows prices, max parking times, etc.
- Blue zones are not shown on the map
✅ If you are from a country in the Schengen area, you can stay 3 months without a visa and without health insurance
❗If you stay more than 3 months in Switzerland, you'll need to subscribe to a Swiss healthcare insurance (300-450 CHF/month)
- Explanations (fr): https://www.travailler-en-suisse.ch/assurances-sante-suisse.html
- Official overview of how healthcare works: https://chch.scs.scs-sdweb.ch/en/health/health-insurance/health-insurance-benefits/
- Official gov website comparing the prices of basic insurance: https://www.priminfo.admin.ch/fr/praemien
- EU students:
- exempted.
- but they are not allowed to work (internship is OK).
- Non-EU students:
- Swiss insurance is mandatory.
- can apply for a special exemption if has private insurance with sufficient coverage.
👉 See the official information.
- Useful sites
- toppreise.ch — Compare prices
- Preispirat — Good deals posted by the community + voting
- Equivalent to Dealabs (France), MyDealz (Germany), Chollometro (Spain), preisjäger (Austria), HotUKDeals (UK), etc.
- New items
- Amazon DE
- Some products require you to get delivered to Germany, see [[Import from Germany border to Switzerland]]
- Digitec
- Mediamarkt
- Galaxus
- Amazon DE
- Second-hand items
- Second-hand stores (furniture, etc.)
- Good double mattress (400 CHF for 140×200cm)
See:
👉 This summary from the city of Zürich.
📆 This page to get your personalized waste disposal calendar based on your zone.
📍 This map of collection points for different types of waste near you.
Summary:
- Normal waste — Costs money 💸
- Mandatory: buy special blue trash bags. You can find them in any grocery shop. They are very expensive because they are a tax on waste disposal that finances the processing of the city trash.
- Dispose of blue bags in big grey trash containers.
- Plastic bottles — Free
- You have to bring them to a shop.
- All shops have a trash for plastic bottles (often inside the shop).
- Any shop will do: you don't need to bring the bottles at the shop where you bought them.
- Food waste & vegetation — Free
- Throw them in the big green containers without using any bags.
- Cardboard — Free
- Collected once every 2 weeks (check the waste calendar for your zone).
- You need to put them on the street the evening before the collection day. They need to be nicely tied up.
- Paper — Free
- Collected once every 2 weeks, on a different day compared to cardboard (check the waste calendar for your zone).
- You need to put them on the street the evening before the collection day.
- Glass bottles, metallic cans, textiles — Free
- Bring them to one of the 150 collection points.
- Other items — Free*
- Waste treatment facilities
- Bring your trash by car.
- * The city of Zürich sends free coupons every year in your mailbox. You need to bring them or you will have to pay for the disposal of your waste. If you bring a reasonable quantity of trash every year you shouldn't run out of your free coupons.
- 📆 Locations and opening times:
- Recyclable waste (Recyclinghof)
- Non-recyclable waste (Sonderabfall-Sammelstelle)
- Cargo-Tram
- Special tram for disposing waste. The trash that they accept can just be disposed elsewhere: milk cartons, plastic bottles, aluminium, textiles, etc. There is one notable exception: you can also dispose of your polystyrene there.
- 📆 See the Cargo-Tram calendar. They pass every ~1 month in a given location.
- E-Tram
- Same as Cargo-Trams but for electronics.
- 📆 See the E-Tram calendar. They pass every ~1 month in a given location.
- Waste treatment facilities
- Buy stamps online: https://webstamp.post.ch/#/webstamp
- 🚨 When sending/returning a package abroad you need to fill the customs export form:
- Online declaration: https://ead.webstamp.post.ch/mobile#/en
- 🚨 When sending/returning a package abroad you need to fill the customs export form:
- Stamp types:
- B Mail — Lettre simple
- 0.90 CHF
- Delivery in 2-3 working days
- A Mail — Lettre prioritaire
- 1.10 CHF
- Delivery within 1 working day
- Registered (R) — Lettre sur signature
- 5.30 CHF
- Registered (R) + Return receipt — equivalent to LRAR (Lettre recommandée avec avis de réception)
- 10.60 CHF
- ✅ Legally-binding
- B Mail — Lettre simple
- Misc information & events: https://newinzurich.com/
- Zürcher Kantonal Bank coworking space
- Crédit Suisse coworking space
- Auer & Co.
- Bar for coworking, you can buy drinks (and probably are expected to)
- BRIDGE
- Grocery store with free coworking space inside. Buying stuff isn't mandatory
- Placid Hotel free coworking spaces
- UB Law Library
- C permit (settlement permit for life)
- Required: 10 years of residence in Switzerland (or 5 years of marriage (uninterrupted) to a Swiss national or a C-permit holder)
- Required: A2 (oral) + A1 (writing) German level
- Naturalization
- Required: lived 10 years in Switzerland
- with at least 3 years in the past 5 years
- including having lived for the past 3-5 years in the current canton or commune (legislation is specific to location)
- Required: C permit or married to Swiss citizen
- Normal procedure: https://www.zh.ch/de/migration-integration/einbuergerung/ordentliche-einbuergerung.html
- Simplified procedure for special cases: https://www.zh.ch/de/migration-integration/einbuergerung/erleichterte-einbuergerung.html
- Required: lived 10 years in Switzerland
- Zürich subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/zurich
- Lots of cool info: https://zurich.esn.ch/w/public:start
- Awesome practical articles (fr) e.g. https://www.travailler-en-suisse.ch/emploi-suisse/salaire-suisse
Thanks to the r/zurich community for your feedback and suggestions!
Very helpful list Paul!
In terms of healthcare and extended stays of more than three months. After three months, you must apply for residence and obtain insurance. You will also be required to pay for insurance for the previous months, from the time of your arrival up to applying for residency.
The only thing I'd add here is the list of great gyms in the city.