Yeah, it’s a lot to enable mobile payment. Personally, I just bought myself a nice wallet. Much less hassle.

Also, conditions will vary depending on which Sparkasse/Volksbank you look at (they’re all independent and might have very different fee and offer structures), but they’ll likely all have more fees than most large private banks.

The thing is, they have some good projects like these independent mobile payment apps, and are great for giving out loans to smaller, regional businesses, but as banks for private users, they definetely aren’t the best available.

Lol, can see that. But there’s been times I lugged around separate company and private laptops. Two phones is tame in comparison.

No.

Well, it really depends. Both aren’t one single big bank, but a lot of semi-connected local banks. They are huge disparities in what e.g. Sparkasse München and Sparkasse Hinterpfaffenhofen can offer. The bigger ones mostly have proper online services, but might require a letter for some stuff.

Regarding savings accounts - from what I’ve seen, most of the products they offered weren’t really competitive, and mostly relied on you not shopping around. Volksbanken, as a co-op, allow you to buy shares in the bank, which can have a pretty good return, but there is a relatively low limit on how many shares a single person can own, so no one can have outsized voting power.

So, bit of a mixed bag, really.

Here in Germany, it’s pretty much Sparkassen and Volksbanken. One are city/state owned, the others are pretty much a co-op.

This is pretty Germany specific. Heard from friends elsewhere they had some luck with local options, but don’t have a list Handy rn.

Makes sense. I always liked the symbolic act of shutting down my work issued phone when I didn’t need to be reachable, but I see the convenience here.

Yeah, I was thinking of separate profiles in general, and had never encountered the concept of an employer controlled separate profile. When I needed a device for something work related, I usually got issued a phone.

There’s several EU countries that do. Some of them as part of a push for sovereignty, but most, I think, cause they developed their solutions before Google Wallet was enabled in that country.

It’s probably illegal in Germany and some other EU countries. Not that that always stops Big Tech. But this one, at least in Germany, could land the user some jail time.

Oh, you mean a profile set up by your employer. Actually, dunno whether that works. I never let any employer touch a personal device.

That has been working fine for years at this point.

Contactless payments technically work fine, just not via Google Wallet. Banks that have their own tap to pay app usually don’t have that problem.