PostFinance: the route through the post office account

Reach and demand do not match

PostFinance is among the most used account providers in Switzerland. In the keyword data «postfinance casino» still sits at 50 searches a month. The likeliest explanation is the same as for the card: anyone with a post office account does not search for it, they try it — and then finds the cashier does not carry the route.

What actually works

PostFinance appears as a payment route in none of the cashiers read. What remains is the route through an intermediate stop, as with TWINT: a transfer from the post office account to a trading venue, the purchase there of the unit the cashier carries, and sending it to the address shown.

1. Transfer to the trading venueThe amount leaves the post office account in francs. Up to here nothing has been converted.
2. Buying the settlement unitAt the venue you convert into the unit the cashier carries. This is where the trading fee falls.
3. Sending to the cashierOn top comes the network fee. On the way back, the same three steps read backwards.

Card instead of account

A PostFinance card is a card like any other on the card network — for the deposit the points under card then apply, including the asymmetric way back. Whether one particular card goes through at one particular cashier is shown by the cashier window before the deposit.

What that means for choosing

For a reader with a post office account, the number of settlement units in the cashier matters more than it does for someone with a card: the more units a cashier carries, the likelier one of them is cheaply available at your own trading venue. That number stands in every row of the ranking — and it counts towards the points there as well.

Two accounts, two speeds

Anyone with a post office account and a card has two different routes at different speeds: the card deposits at once, the transfer to a trading venue needs its banking day. For the way back the picture turns, because a withdrawal to the card is often not provided for at all and a transfer then falls due anyway. In practice that means: plan the route through the account for both directions; if you use the card, look in the cashier window first at which withdrawal routes are there at all. That list is visible without an account and costs a minute.

The first three places with number, status and score.

Small search volume, large reach — a contradiction worth reading. Which cashiers carry which route stands in the ranking; the overview of all the routes is under Payments.

PostFinance is one of five routes that come into question from a Swiss account. Which one is cheapest depends less on the name of the route than on the number of conversions it demands — and on whether the way out and the way back are the same.

Common questions