FAQ Advanzia Saving Account

Yes, withholding tax is charged in accordance with Directive 2003/48/EC of 3 July 2003 to avoid double taxation.

You must state your interest income on your tax return. Withholding tax is chargeable for tax purposes. At the start of each year, you will receive a tax certificate for the previous year.

You will receive a confirmation via e-mail for each deposit and withdrawal. You will also receive a monthly statement for your account.

Online statements should be available in 2010.

You can request withdrawals from our homepage www.advanziakonto.com, stating your password. The password required is the password you chose when you applied for your account.

To change your e-mail address, please send us an e-mail from your old e-mail address or contact us by telephone.

Withdrawals can be made to each account from which a deposit has already been received. However, deposits can only be accepted if they originate from an account held in your name. Deposits will not be accepted from third-party accounts.

Advanzia Bank S.A. is a modern European financial services provider registered in Luxembourg, which specialises in standardised financial products as a direct bank. In addition to our range of credit cards, which covers direct sales as well as the launch and processing of individual partner card programs, Advanzia Bank S.A. currently offers an saving account ("Advanzia account").

As a new company, which has been in operation since May 2006, our banking licence was issued at the end of 2005.

For more information, see www.advanzia.com.

Advanzia Bank S.A. is an independent company under Luxembourg law.

Advanzia Bank offers its customers two products: An "Advanzia account" saving account and a fee-free MasterCard Gold.

Simply complete an application form for the saving account on our homepage www.advanziakonto.com. This will then be processed by Advanzia Bank.

If you are interested in our fee-free MasterCard Gold, please complete the corresponding application form on the website www.gebuhrenfrei.com. (only for German and Luxemburgish residents)

Once you have completed your application on the homepage, you will receive confirmation of your application by e-mail.
In order to open an Advanzia account, you must also provide a copy of your ID card or passport. You can send a copy of your ID document by e-mail to:

id@advanzia.com

or by post to:

Advanzia Bank
Postfach 4108
54231 Trier, Germany

or

Advanzia Bank
9 Parc d’Activité Syrdall
L-5365 Munsbach, Luxembourg

Once we have received your ID document it takes between 3 and 4 working days to open your Advanzia account. As soon as your Advanzia account is open, you will receive an e-mail containing your personal account number.

If you have not received anything after 10 days, please contact us.

No. The Advanzia account is only a credit account and so no credit check is carried out.

There is no charge to open the Advanzia account and there are no fees to manage and use the account.

Yes, the Advanzia account is completely fee-free. There are no annual fees and no charges for deposits or withdrawals.

Deposits and withdrawals are completely free of charge. Deposits made within the EU should not cost more than a domestic transfer (ask your bank to find out about the fees for making transfers).

• The Advanzia account is completely fee-free
• The full credit balance is available on demand
• There are no transaction charges
• Your credit balance earns interest on a monthly basis
• The Advanzia account offers a good long-term interest rate This was confirmed in Finanztest 01/2009

The Advanzia account is only for investment purposes. Consequently, there is no bank card connected with the Advanzia account.

The Advanzia account and the fee-free MasterCard Gold are two clearly separate products. You cannot therefore debit your credit card bill from your Advanzia account.

The Advanzia account can only be managed as an individual account. However, you can issue an account authorisation for your saving account. For an account authorisation form, please click here.

The Advanzia account is only available to individuals over the age of 18.  Minors are not permitted to open an account.

Company or trust accounts are not permitted.

You can cancel your application for an account without reason within 2 weeks (the cancellation period commences on receipt of this notification). The cancellation deadline shall be deemed to have been met as long as the cancellation notice is sent on time. Please send this document to: Advanzia Bank S.A., Postfach 4108, D-54231 Trier, Germany, or Advanzia Bank SA, 9 Parc d’Activité Syrdall, L-5365 Munsbach, Luxembourg

The use of modern technologies and effective structures reduces costs and allows us to be able to offer high interest rates.

Advanzia Bank's philosophy is to offer its customers modern and cost-effective products. As a result, Advanzia Bank does not charge any fees.

No. There are no fees charged for the Advanzia account.

Your deposits are protected by the Luxembourg Deposit Protection Fund (AGDL) up to the amount of €100,000.

Information about the Deposit Protection Fund can be found at www.agdl.lu.

You will receive a confirmation via e-mail for each deposit and withdrawal. In addition, at the beginning of each month you will receive an account statement showing all the transactions carried out in the previous month along with any interest earned.

A withdrawal to an account in Germany generally takes two to three working days. A withdrawal to an account in another country can take up to five working days.

Deposits can only be accepted if they originate from an account held in your name within the EU/EFTA. Please note that in some cases only one account holder is named on joint accounts. If you are not sure whether or not this is the case, please send us proof of your right of disposal (e.g. copy of a bank statement, confirmation from the bank, etc.) before arranging the deposit.

Withdrawals can only be made to an account from which a deposit has already been received. Withdrawals cannot be made to third-party accounts.

The password required is the password you chose when you applied for your account.

If you have forgotten your password, please contact our customer service team.

Your password is used for identification on the telephone and for making withdrawals. Please do not pass on your password to a third party.

You can request withdrawals from the "Deposits/Withdrawals" section of our homepage www.advanziakonto.com. Unfortunately, we cannot accept withdrawal requests by fax or by e-mail.

Deposits can only be accepted if they originate from an account held in your name. If this is not the case, we will be forced to reject your deposit.

In order to be able to allocate your deposit correctly, please follow the instructions below:

Transfers to Germany

You can transfer money easily from a German account to your Advanzia account. Deposits can only be made from accounts that are held in your name. Deposits and transfers from third parties to your Advanzia account are sadly not permitted.

1. Beneficiary: Advanzia Bank
2. Account number: 7401555896
3. Bank sort code (BLZ): 600 501 01
4. Bank of the beneficiary: LBBW Landesbank Baden-Württemberg
5. Enter the requested amount
6. Reason for payment: Your 13-digit Advanzia account number (please enter correctly)

Transfers from other European countries

Please use an IBAN transfer to make a transfer to your Advanzia account. Transfers can only be accepted from accounts within the EU/EFTA that are held in your name. Deposits and transfers from third parties to your Advanzia account are, unfortunately, not permitted.

1. BIC/SWIFT: BLUXLULL
2. IBAN: LU60 0081 5030 6501 0003
3. Reason for payment: Your 13-digit Advanzia account number (please enter correctly)
4. Enter the requested amount
5. Bank of the beneficiary: Banque de Luxembourg
6. Beneficiary: Advanzia Bank, 9 Parc d'Activité Syrdall, L-5365 Munsbach, Luxembourg
7. You can use "shared costs" (SHA) to avoid any additional fees with your bank

You can close your Advanzia account at any time in writing (e-mail/post/fax).

Our e-mail address is advanziakonto@advanzia.com.

You can contact us from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on:

• 00352-26 38 75 75 (from Luxembourg, by mobile and from other countries)
• 0043-12 530 840 580 (from Austria).
• 0800-880 21 20 (freephone number from Germany)
• 0031-(0)20 708  4773 (from the Netherlands)

Deposits cannot be made by direct debit. A deposit can only be made by bank transfer.

Interest is always paid on the 28th of the month respectively the last working day before the 28th. Any missing interest days are added to the following month.

You can make deposits and withdrawals at any time and have access to your full account balance without notice. The maximum investment amount for the Advanzia account is €1,000,000. The minimum investment amount for the Advanzia account is €5,000.

The minimum deposit for the Advanzia account is €5,000. As long as you deposit €5,000 to your Advanzia account, your full credit balance will earn interest from the very first euro.

As interest is paid monthly and earns interest in the following month, this creates the so-called compound interest effect. This gives a nominal interest rate and an effective interest rate.

As banks pay interest at different times, you should only use the effective interest rate for comparison.

Interest is calculated using the following formula:

Interest = (deposit x nominal interest rate x interest days) / 365

Please note that interest is always paid on the last working day of the month. As a result, there may in some cases only be 28 interest days in a given month. The remaining interest days are added to the following month.

You have the option to choose between two tax profiles:

1. An anonymous notification is sent to your local tax authorities: 35 % withholding tax is automatically deducted by Advanzia bank and paid anonymously to your local tax authorities. Withholding tax is chargeable for tax purposes. The deduction of withholding tax does not satisfy your tax liability. Your interest income must be stated on your tax return.
2. Notification to the local tax authorities: Advanzia bank reports your interest income to the tax authorities. With this tax profile, no taxes are deducted by Advanzia bank. If you exceed your annual tax allowance, the tax authorities will contact you directly.

For a form to change your tax profile, please click here.

As Advanzia Bank is registered in Luxembourg, it is not possible to submit a declaration for exemption from withholding tax. However, interest income can be reported to your local tax authorities. No tax will then be deducted. This is similar to a declaration for exemption from withholding tax, but there is no limit on the amount. If you exceed your statutory allowance, the tax authorities will contact you directly.

The current interest rate for the Advanzia account can be found in our fee schedule on our homepage www.advanziakonto.com.