Step-by-step:
Open a Comdirect Joint Account
No wedding ring required: German banks let any two adults share one account, and because Comdirect runs fully online, you both apply from the same couch. The friction shows up later. Who's allowed to empty it, who the Finanzamt taxes, and how two names keep the monthly fee at zero.
Reviewed by Oliver Frankfurth (Bankfachwirt IHK) · Updated September 2026
Jump straight to the application →From application to two cards
Each of you fills the shared form, then books a private VideoIdent slot. The account switches on once both checks pass, normally one to two business days after the second call.
Fill in the shared application
Fill in the shared application
Open the joint-account form on comdirect.de. Holder one types in their full name, birth date, citizenship, and the registered address from their Anmeldung; holder two adds the same set below. It stays a single submission, so nobody keys in their details twice or starts a second application.
Tip: Each person needs a current passport or EU ID plus their own Anmeldung. Living at different addresses while you sort out a shared flat? Comdirect can work with that, but the form carries one account address, so enter the one where both of you are registered right now.
Decide: Oder-Konto or Und-Konto
Decide: Oder-Konto or Und-Konto
With an Oder-Konto, either name on the account can transfer, pay, sign, or request an overdraft (Dispo) solo, and the second holder never has to approve it. An Und-Konto flips that: nothing moves unless both of you authorise it. Convenience pushes most couples toward Oder. Read the warning below before you tick the Oder box.
Tip: Take the Oder option at face value. On any given day, one of you can withdraw every cent without warning the other, and that right survives a breakup. Where trust isn't total, Und-Konto costs you a little daily friction and buys you a lot of protection.
Keep both confirmation emails
Keep both confirmation emails
Two inboxes light up at once. Each message carries the shared IBAN, that holder’s personal VideoIdent reference number, the pre-contract paperwork, and an order confirmation. The reference number is tied to one person, so line up the right one before your video call.
Tip: Nothing after five minutes? Look in spam first. Drop both reference numbers into a shared password manager. Mix them up and one of you ends up trying to verify against the other’s file.
Each holder runs VideoIdent
Each holder runs VideoIdent
Comdirect verifies you by video, and that is the only route: no post-office PostIdent, no branch counter, because there are no branches. Each holder books a separate five-to-ten-minute call, opens the link from their email, and shows a passport or EU ID to the agent. You do it from home, on your own schedule.
Tip: The two calls don’t have to happen together. Say one partner is still overseas waiting on a visa slot: the other verifies now, and the account parks itself until the second video is done, with nothing lost for the gap. Weak laptop mic? Plug in a headset before you dial, since muffled audio is a common reason a first attempt gets repeated.
Turn on photoTAN, separately
Turn on photoTAN, separately
Once both video checks land, often by the next business day, Comdirect issues each of you a personal access number and PIN. Install the photoTAN app, sign in on your own device, and scan the activation image. You end up with two separate two-factor logins guarding one shared balance.
Tip: Activate photoTAN as soon as the access details land. Sit on it and Comdirect falls back to posting a paper activation letter, which sets the slower partner back several more days while the other is already banking.
Two Visa cards, then you are live
Two Visa cards, then you are live
Comdirect mails each of you a free Visa debit card, and the PINs travel in their own separate letters for safety. Tap your first contactless payment or use any ATM to switch a card on. Both cards spend from the one shared balance, so load them into Apple Pay or Google Pay straight away, which also helps hit the free-fee condition further down.
Apply Together Online
Since 2014 we’ve walked more than 10,000 expats through opening German accounts, couples included. Below is the Comdirect process from first click to two cards in the mailbox, plus the tax and liability gotchas that surface long after the account goes live.
Apply Together Online →What couples ask us after opening a joint account
The gift-tax trap for unmarried couples
Expat couples run into this one a lot. When one partner steadily pours far more money into the shared account than the other, the Finanzamt can read the gap as a gift and tax it. Without a marriage certificate, your tax-free ceiling is only €20,000 across any ten-year stretch; married couples sit on €500,000. The fix is simple: if your incomes are lopsided and you're not married, let each salary land in a personal account and move only the shared bills into the joint one.
Shared debt: one overdraft, both liable
An overdraft on a joint account (Dispo) is not split down the middle; each of you is on the hook for the whole thing. If your partner draws the balance €5,000 into the red, Comdirect can chase you for all of it, not half. Comdirect sizes the Dispo at up to three times one holder’s monthly net income, and the variable rate sits at 8.90% p.a., 9.20% once you count it as an annual percentage rate. The account also shows up on both partners’ Schufa files, so a late payment dents two credit scores at once.
Keeping the €0 fee with two names on the account
The joint Girokonto costs nothing in any month you clear one of four tests, and those tests count per account, not per person. A single €700 pay-in from either salary does it. So do 3 Apple Pay or Google Pay taps from either card, or one securities trade plus one savings plan execution in a linked Comdirect Depot. A holder under 28 who is studying, at school, in an apprenticeship, or on an internship counts too. Miss every one of them and the month costs €4.90. If your rent leaves the joint account but neither salary runs through it, the cheapest habit is 3 small mobile-pay purchases a month from either card. A round of coffees covers it.
Two tax IDs, and what happens if one of you leaves Germany
A joint account still has two named holders, so each of you keeps your own German tax ID (Steuer-ID). Opening it together never merges them, which matters if you file your taxes separately. Both partners also need an active Anmeldung to open in the first place. If one of you later deregisters or moves abroad, that condition no longer holds, so tell Comdirect to update the address and holder details or convert the account rather than leaving it in limbo.
Breaking up: how you close or convert the account
If the relationship ends, a joint account doesn't just vanish. You either close it together or convert it into a single-holder account, and both signatures are required either way. Contact Comdirect support before you touch the balance. Whatever is left gets divided the way you two agreed; with no prior arrangement, the default is an even split.
Before you both sit down to apply
Line up both passports and both Anmeldungen before you open the form. Settle the Oder-versus-Und question now, because changing it afterwards means a formal contract amendment, not a toggle. Budget roughly half an hour once you count both video calls. The moment photoTAN is live, set standing orders for rent and utilities, since sharing those bills is the reason the account exists.