Comparison of Blocked Account packages

15 minutes read about Blocked Account packages comparison

All three relevant digital providers Coracle, Expatrio and Fintiba have offerings that combine the products that are required for your visa and stay in just one favourable package. The great advantage is that by combining, great discounts are possible and an application has just to be made once, so that you do not have to insert your personal data several times. The providers will then guide you through the process, seamlessly. It makes completely sense to conclude a bundle, as the products are interconnected and by bundling, all goes hand in hand.

Example for useful combination of products in packages

Just to give you an example concerning the health insurance coverage:

As a University student you need a Travel Health Insurance to get your visa and for the first days after your arrival in Germany. Once the University starts, which might be a few days or weeks later, you need a Public Health Insurance or Private Student Health Insurance and the Travel Health Insurance can be cancelled. This goes automatically in a bundle, without having an insurance gap and without having overlapping coverages. Useful, isn’t it?

Combining Blocked Account with Health Insurance?

DEGIS recommends to conclude a bundle instead of purchasing the necessary products stand-alone with different providers. This ensures, that you have a single point of contact, a specialist accompanying you and that you do not run into any avoidable issues that might influence your visa application or university enrolment.

How to compare Blocked Account packages?

A lot has been written about the different providers Coracle, Expatrio and Fintiba, their offerings, partners and experiences. Our comparison of the Blocked Account is referred to by leading universities and language schools to enable a thorough decision making.
Before we dive deeper, please note that even though Expatrio is DEGIS’ founding partner, we made this comparison objectively based on publicly available data which you can check on the referenced websites. The opinions given are personal as you might have different priorities and preferences. 
DEGIS is taking your very individual situation into account and this is what the providers also do. As our readers are in different situations, like for example being a university student or language student, we divided this comparison accordingly to suit the individual needs.
In general we compare the three different providers with their different packages (in alphabetic order):
  1. Coracle Prime
  2. Expatrio Value Package
  3. Fintiba Plus

Spoiler: who wins the contest of best Blocked Account Package?

We have made an objective calculation based on the publicly available data. We had to take a realistic scenario into consideration about the arrival date in Germany and the start of university / language course. Also, we had a close look at the Health Insurances available in the packages.

According to our research, Fintiba is more expensive than Coracle and Expatrio – the two latter ones furthermore partner with Techniker Krankenkasse which is Germany’s best health insurance fund (Focus Money 07/21) and best health insurance for students (Focus Money 07/21).

Below you will find the comparison for University Students. A comparison for Language Students is in the making and will be published here soon.

Comparison of Blocked Account packages for University Students

 Coracle PrimeExpatrio Value PackageFintiba Plus
BLOCKED ACCOUNT
Opening fee€59€49€89
Monthly fee€0€5€4.90
Cash-back€0€49€0
Example 1: Sum of the fees for a six months Blocked Account€59€30€118.4
Example 2: Sum of the fees for a twelve months Blocked Account€59€60€147.8
DeGiS opinion on Blocked AccountCoracle is the cheapest provider with Expatrio being €1 more expensive. Fintiba is by far the most expensive provider.
CURRENT ACCOUNT
Current account included in package?No, current account can be opened at any bank.Yes, but is not mandatory, thus a current account can be opened at any bank.No, current account can be opened at any bank.
Current account pricingn/aFree Monese "Classic" plan will be free of charge (usually €5.95 p.m.)n/a
DeGiS opinion on current accountExpatrio is offering the opening of a current account from abroad simultaneously while opening the Blocked Account. This is a convenient feature, Fintiba and Coracle do not offer.
PROVIDER & PRICING FOR STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE
Public Health Insurance providerChoice between Barmer, HEK or TKTechniker Krankenkasse (TK)DAK
Rating of Public Health Insurance provider by Focus Money (17/2019) and German Finance-Service Institute (DFSI)Focus Money (17/20) has awarded TK as the "Best Health Insurance for Students" (86,1%), HEK on 2nd place (79,7%), DAK on 9th place (69,6), Barmer far behind on 15th (65,4%). TK also awarded as "Best German Health Insurance Fund" (Focus Money 07/20)
Example 1: Pricing student below 23Barmer €106,91 p.m.
HEK €106,17 p.m.
TK e103,94 p.m.		TK €103,94 p.m.DAK €109,89 p.m.
Exaple 2: Pricing student above 23, no childrenBarmer €108,77 p.m.
HEK €108,03
TK €105,80 p.m.		TK €105,80 p.m.DAK €111,75
Important information on pricing of Public Health InsuranceThe pricing is regulated by the German Government. However as provided, not all contributions are the same, with TK having a clear advantage compared to DAK. TK is also independently awarded.
Private Health Insurance available?No information providedYes, DR-WALTER EDUCARE (S starting from €33 p.m.) and Care Concept College (Basic starting from €28 p.m.)Yes, Mawista Student (Classic from €33.10 p.m.)
Important information on private Health Insurance coverage for studentsPlease be advised that the tariffs mentioned above may not cover all the treatments you wish to have covered. Please also pay attention that depending on the local Foreigners Office handling the residence permit application, the above-mentioned tariffs might not be accepted as they do not qualify as a so-called “substitutive” health insurance, so basically they do not offer the coverage on the same level as the public health insurance. Therefore, DeGiS always recommends concluding a “substitutive” private health insurance for a stay of more than 90 days as presented below.
Substitutive Private Student Health Insurance availableNo information providedYes, the tariff "Care Concept Student" is available on request.No information provided
DeGiS opinion on provider and pricing for student health insuranceExpatrio is the only provider offering a special substitutive tariff for students with Care Concept.
PROVIDER & PRICING FOR TRAVEL HEALTH INSURANCE
Travel Health Insurance providerERV ERGODR-WALTERMawista
Name of tarriff220318, 221318Provisit group insuranceVisum
Pricing for Travel Health InsuraceFree for up to 90 days, worth €58.Free for up to 92 days, worth €69.Free for up to 92 days, worth €95.
Insurance confirmation validityNo information provided185 days183 days
Travel Health Insurance optional?YesYesNo
Travel Health Insurance cancelled with beginning of semester/language course?YesYesYes
Important information on pricing for Travel Health InsuranceThe free Travel Health Insurance is a great plus in the packages. However, the insurance coverage is only needed and therefore only provided for the period of arriving to Germany and the start of the university / language course.
DeGiS opinion on provider and pricing for Travel health insuranceThe Travel Health Insurance is free in all packages and used in the marketing as the differentiating factor. It has however to be calculated on a daily basis, which you can find in the more realistic calculation below.
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
ISIC card for free for University students?NoYes, for one yearYes, for three years
Liability insurance fro free?NoNo, but can be concluded separately for €21 p.a..No, but can be concluded separately for €55 p.a.
Upgrade possible from Blocked Account to bundle?Yes, manual via EmailYes, in log-in portalYes, in log-in portal

Detailed financial comparison of packages for University Students

 Coracle PrimeExpatrio Value PackageFintiba Plus
MANDATORY PRODUCTS
Blocked Account €59€60€147.8
Current Account1€0€-71.4€0
Travel Health Insurance (92 days)€-58€-69€-95
Public Student Health Insurance €1247.28 (TK)€1247.28 (TK)€1318.68 (DAK)
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
ISIC card €0€-15€-15
Conclusionabc
Sum for one year€1248.28€1151.88€1356.48
COMPARISON
If you compare Expatrio to Coracle, with Expatrio you can save€96.40
If you compare Coracle with Fintiba, with Coracle you can save€108.20
If you compare Expatrio with Fintiba, with Expatrio you can save€204.60
If you compare Expatrio with Fintiba and deduct the Monese Current Account, with Expatrio you still save€133,20

Financial comparison for University Students made more realistic

Please note that the Travel Health Insurance will automatically be cancelled by the providers once you have activated the Public Health insurance (or the Private Student Health Insurance), which is usually at the start of your studies. Therefore, the actual benefit of the free Travel Health Insurance can only be calculated for the actual period you are insured! From statistical data collected by DEGIS, it is evident, that Students arrive on average 10 days prior to the start of their studies, which as said goes hand-in-hand with the start of the Public Health Insurance (or Private Student Health Insurance) and the cancellation of the Travel Health Insurance. Therefore, please take your actual situation into consideration by calculating for how many days you will need the Travel Insurance and how much this is worth!

Detailed and more realistic financial comparison of packages for University Students

 Coracle PrimeExpatrio Value PackageFintiba Plus
MANDATORY PRODUCTS
Blocked Account €59€60€147.8
Current Account€0€-71.4€0
Travel Health Insurance (10 days)€-6.44€-7.50€-10.33
Public Student Health Insurance €1247.28 (TK)€1247.28 (DAK)€1318.68 (DAK)
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
ISIC card 0-15-15
Sum for one year€1299.84€1213.38€1441.15
COMPARISON
If you compare Expatrio to Coracle, with Expatrio you can save€86.46
If you compare Coracle with Fintiba, with Coracle you can save€141.32
If you compare Expatrio with Fintiba, with Expatrio you can save€227.77
If you compare Expatrio with Fintiba and deduct the Monese Current Account, with Expatrio you still save€156.37
CONCLUSION
for the realistic scenario (10 days)		Expatrio is ~€13 cheaper p.m. compared to Fintiba and includes the best public health insurance (TK) and a fully integrated current account (Monese).
 

Please also refer do our DeGiS info package for international university students in Germany with a step-by-step guide and a more in depth explanation.

Comparison of Blocked Account packages for Language Students

## A detailed financial comparison will follow soon ##
Coracle is not offering a package for language students, therefore only Expatrio and Fintiba will be taken into consideration for the comparison of packages for language students. The difference to the situation as a university student is, that you are required to have a health insurance coverage, but you can not get insured in the Public Student Health Insurance, as you are not a University student. Therefore you need a Private Health Insurance, which is only included in the offering of Expatrio and Fintiba.

Comparison for Language Students made more realistic

## A detailed financial comparison will follow soon ##
Also, as mentioned above, the Travel Health Insurance will be cancelled by the providers once you have activated the Private Health Insurance, which is usually the day your language course starts. Also here, to allow a realistic comparison, we again calculate that the language student arrives 10 days prior to the start of the language course at which moment the Travel Health Insurance gets replaced by the Private Health Insurance. Therefore, please take your actual situation into consideration by calculating for how many days you will need the Travel Insurance and how much this is worth!
Please also refer do our DeGiS info package for international language students in Germany with a step-by-step guide and a more in depth explanation.

DeGiS conclusion about Blocked Account packages

We hope you find this information helpful to compare the packages available. Please take your time and make a sound decision as this is a decision which will impact your visa process, the arrival to Germany and your entire stay.