New to Switzerland? How to Set Up Your CHF and EUR Finances

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Your salary may now be paid in Swiss francs, your rent and local bills are likely to be in CHF, and most of your daily spending will gradually move into the Swiss currency. At the same time, part of your financial life may still remain in euros.

You may have savings in EUR, an existing bank account in France, Germany, Italy or Austria, a mortgage or property abroad, family expenses or recurring payments that continue after your move.

Instead of treating CHF and EUR as one pool of money, it can be easier to build a simple two-currency setup from the beginning. The aim is to know which expenses belong in CHF, which remain in EUR and when you actually need to exchange money between the two.

Start with a CHF Account for Your Swiss Income and Expenses

Once you start living and working in Switzerland, the Swiss franc becomes the main currency for most of your local financial commitments.

Receiving your Swiss salary

Your salary will normally form the foundation of your new CHF budget.

For ExchangeMarket transactions, the CHF account you use must be held with a bank in Switzerland and must be in your own name.

Your employer does not send your salary to ExchangeMarket. Your income first arrives in your own bank account, and you decide later whether you want to exchange part of it into euros.

This gives you control over how much of your salary stays in CHF and how much is converted.

Paying your regular Swiss expenses

Before planning any currency exchange, identify the costs you will regularly pay in Switzerland.

Typical examples include:

• rent,
• health insurance,
• public transport or car expenses,
• phone and internet,
• utilities,
• groceries,
• leisure and everyday spending,
• other recurring Swiss bills.

These are the expenses that should be taken into account before deciding how much money is available for conversion.

If your monthly income is in CHF, exchanging too much too early can leave you short of francs later in the month.

Should You Keep Your Existing EUR Account?

Moving to Switzerland does not automatically mean that your existing euro account becomes unnecessary.

For many newcomers, keeping an EUR account can still be useful because financial commitments do not always move to Switzerland at the same time as the person.

When an EUR account can still be useful

You may continue to need euros if you have:

• a mortgage in another European country,
• a property with ongoing expenses,
• family commitments,
• loan repayments,
• subscriptions billed in EUR,
• savings held in euros,
• regular payments linked to your previous country of residence.

Someone moving from Germany may still be paying expenses connected with a German property. A person moving from France may maintain a French account for existing commitments. The same can apply to people arriving from Italy, Austria or elsewhere in the SEPA area.

There is therefore no automatic reason to close an EUR account simply because you have moved to Switzerland.

Separate your CHF and EUR expenses

A useful first step is to divide your regular financial commitments by currency.

Your personal list may look completely different.

The purpose is not to create a perfect budget immediately. It is simply to understand where each currency is needed.

Once that is clear, deciding when and how much to exchange becomes much easier.

Build a Simple Two-Currency Budget

Managing CHF and EUR does not need to mean maintaining a complicated financial system.

A practical setup can begin with three questions:

How much CHF do I normally need?

Estimate the amount required for your regular Swiss expenses before your next salary payment.

How much EUR do I still need?

Add up the commitments that remain in euros.

How much should remain available as a reserve?

Unexpected costs do not always arrive in the currency you expect. If your daily life is now based in Switzerland, keeping some additional CHF available can prevent you from having to convert money back shortly after an exchange.

Calculate your regular CHF needs

Start with fixed expenses such as rent, insurance and transport.

Then add an estimate for variable costs such as food, leisure and unexpected purchases.

Your first month in Switzerland may not give you an accurate picture of your normal spending. After two or three salary cycles, your real CHF requirements will usually become clearer.

Calculate your regular EUR needs

Do the same for your euro commitments.

If, for example, you regularly need EUR 1,200 for payments outside Switzerland, that gives you a much more useful starting point than simply deciding to convert an arbitrary percentage of your salary.

You can then base each exchange on an actual financial need rather than on a fixed percentage that may not reflect your monthly expenses.

Keep a reserve in the currency you need

A reserve is primarily about liquidity, not about trying to predict whether CHF or EUR will become stronger.

If most unexpected expenses are likely to occur in Switzerland, keeping part of your reserve in CHF may be practical. If you know that a larger euro payment is approaching, you may also want enough EUR available before the due date.

The appropriate balance depends on your own circumstances.

When Your CHF and EUR Finances Start to Overlap

Once your income is mainly in CHF but some of your financial commitments remain in EUR, currency exchange can become part of your regular financial routine.

You do not need to convert money simply because you hold two currencies. Conversion becomes relevant when money held in one currency is actually needed for expenses in the other.

For example:

CHF salary → Swiss expenses remain in CHF

but:

CHF salary → EUR needed for commitments abroad → CHF to EUR exchange

The same principle can work in the opposite direction when someone arrives in Switzerland with savings in euros and needs francs for initial Swiss expenses.

There is no need to go deeply into exchange rates every time you plan your monthly budget. What matters at this stage is understanding when your finances actually cross from one currency into another.

For a detailed explanation of how to compare the CHF/EUR rate, the final amount received and the exchange process, see:

Your First Swiss Salary: How to Convert CHF and Transfer Money Abroad

That guide focuses specifically on planning and completing a CHF to EUR exchange.

How ExchangeMarket Fits Into Your CHF and EUR Setup

ExchangeMarket can be used when you need to move value between your own CHF and EUR accounts.

It is a currency exchange service rather than a bank account for receiving your salary or a payment service for sending money directly to other people.

For ExchangeMarket transactions:

• your CHF account must be held in Switzerland,
• your EUR account can be held in Switzerland or another SEPA country,
• both accounts must belong to you as the registered ExchangeMarket user.

The EUR account can therefore remain in a country such as France, Germany, Italy or Austria if that is where you continue to manage your euro expenses.

The basic setup can be thought of as:

Your Swiss CHF account

↕

ExchangeMarket

↕

Your personal EUR account in Switzerland or another SEPA country

ExchangeMarket allows customers to exchange euros and Swiss francs in both directions.

If you have just moved to Switzerland with savings in EUR, you may initially need to exchange euros into francs.

Later, once you are regularly earning CHF, the more common need may become converting part of your Swiss income back into EUR.

The transaction is initiated by you. You choose the amount, review the rate and transaction summary, confirm the exchange and then make the corresponding bank transfer.

Before confirming a transaction, ExchangeMarket shows the exchange rate, how much you pay and how much you receive. Once the transaction has been confirmed, the agreed exchange rate becomes binding.

Check the current EUR/CHF rate and see the amount you would receive before confirming an exchange.

Why people exchanging CHF and EUR use ExchangeMarket

More than 25,000 customers use ExchangeMarket, with over CHF 50 million transferred every month through the service.

Before confirming an exchange, you can see the exchange rate, the amount you pay and the amount you receive. Once the transaction is confirmed, the exchange rate becomes binding.

This gives you a clear view of the transaction before you send the corresponding bank transfer.

Common Financial Mistakes After Moving to Switzerland

Building a two-currency routine is usually easier if you avoid a few common mistakes.

Closing your EUR account too early

If you still have euro expenses, an existing EUR account may remain useful even after Switzerland becomes your main place of residence.

Converting money without checking upcoming CHF bills

Your Swiss expenses should be covered before you decide how much of your income is available to exchange.

Keeping too little CHF available

Unexpected Swiss expenses can result in unnecessary additional conversions if you have already moved too much money into EUR.

Allowing unnecessary double conversion

Pay attention to the currency in which your cards, bank accounts and recurring payments are settled. Moving money from EUR to CHF and later back to EUR can create an additional conversion that better planning might have avoided.

Ignoring your bank's own charges

When planning regular exchanges, check whether your bank applies charges for sending or receiving particular types of transfers. This lets you compare the complete result rather than looking only at the exchange rate.

Trying to organise everything in the first week

Your real spending pattern will become clearer after you have lived in Switzerland for a while.

A simple setup that you review after your first few salary payments is often more useful than trying to predict every future expense immediately.

Create a Monthly CHF and EUR Routine

Once your first few Swiss salary payments have arrived, your finances usually become easier to predict.

A simple monthly routine could look like this:

1. Your salary arrives in your Swiss CHF account.
2. You reserve enough CHF for your regular Swiss expenses.
3. You keep an appropriate CHF buffer.
4. You review the payments that still need to be made in EUR.
5. You decide whether a currency exchange is necessary.
6. If it is, you check the current EUR/CHF rate and the final amount.
7. You confirm the exchange.
8. You transfer the required currency from your registered account.
9. The currency you purchased is transferred to your other registered account.

You do not need to make exactly the same exchange every month.

Your EUR requirements may change, larger bills may appear at different times of the year, and some months may require little or no conversion at all.

The important part is having a repeatable process.

Instead of reacting to every payment separately, you know where your income arrives, which expenses are paid in each currency and when an exchange is actually needed.

Managing money in both CHF and EUR?

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