Loans with a residence permit (B, C, L)

A residence permit does not rule out a loan: the Consumer Credit Act, the Swiss law on personal loans, does not mention permits or nationality. Its credit check is the same for everyone: the monthly payment must fit your budget once your rent, your taxes and your existing credits are counted. Which permits a lender accepts is that lender’s own decision, so ask before you apply.

The permits in brief

Foreign nationals who stay in Switzerland for more than three months need a permit. The rules are easier for citizens of EU and EFTA countries than for people from other countries (third countries). This is how the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (AIG Art. 32 to 34) describe the three main permits:

This guide covers the L, B and C permits. Cross-border commuters (G permit) live abroad and work here; this guide does not cover them.

What the law asks of every borrower

Before a consumer credit contract is signed, the lender must check that you can afford it (KKG Art. 27a). The Act sets the same test for everyone, with or without a Swiss passport:

• You count as creditworthy if you can repay without using the part of your income that cannot be seized. The lender works this out from the rules on the minimum needed to live in the canton where you live (KKG Art. 28).
• The calculation must include the rent you actually pay, your taxes as set by the withholding tax tables, and the credits you already have, as reported to the IKO.
• The lender must assume the loan is repaid within 36 months, even if your contract runs longer.
• It may ask you for an extract from the debt collection register and proof of your salary, or other proof of income if you are not employed (KKG Art. 31).

None of this depends on your permit. What does depend on it is the lender’s own policy, and a few practical points below.

What changes when you have a permit

The lender’s own permit rule

Lenders decide for themselves which permits they accept. Ask about this first, before you fill in any form, and ask whether the time you have held your permit counts. For the other conditions a lender looks at, read Loan requirements.

Your permit and the length of the loan

A loan can run longer than your permit. A B permit for EU/EFTA citizens lasts 5 years and an L permit usually less than one, while a personal loan can run for several years: at Swizeo, 6 to 84 months. Ask the lender how it handles a loan term that goes past the expiry date on your permit.

If your permit is about to expire, you can apply to renew it no earlier than three months and no later than two weeks before it runs out.

Tax at source

If you work and live in Switzerland and do not hold a C permit, you usually pay tax at source (Quellensteuer). The exceptions are people whose spouse is Swiss or holds a C permit. Your employer deducts the tax from your salary each month and pays it to the canton, and it covers federal, cantonal and communal income tax.

The budget check counts your taxes in any case: the law tells the lender to use the withholding tax tables (KKG Art. 28). If tax is deducted from your salary, bring payslips that show the deduction.

A short record in Switzerland

The IKO only holds entries for people who have had a consumer credit under Swiss law, such as a loan, a leasing contract, or a card or overdraft with a credit option. The ZEK records credit requests and contracts reported by its members. If you are new here and have never had any of these, you may have no entry at all. Our guide ZEK and IKO explained shows what each one holds and how to order your free extract.

Your debt collection extract

A lender may ask for an extract from the debt collection register (Betreibungsregisterauszug). Each extract covers one district, so for a full picture you need one from every district you lived in during the past 5 years. If you lived in a district for only part of that time, the extract can say so: the city of Zurich, for example, notes how long you lived in its district. You order it with a copy of an official ID, and Zurich lists the residence permit card among the IDs it accepts. A standard extract costs CHF 17, or CHF 18 if it is sent to you (GebV SchKG Art. 12a). Our guide Ordering a debt collection extract explains how.

If you may leave Switzerland during the loan

Plan for it before you sign. The Consumer Credit Act gives you the right to repay a consumer credit early, and you then owe no interest for the time that is left (KKG Art. 17). At Swizeo, you can pay back early, in full or in part.

Applying to Swizeo with a permit

You need your ID or passport, and your residence permit if you have one.

Every loan has the same interest rate of 3 % a year, fixed for the whole term, an effective annual rate of about 3.04 %. Your permit does not change it.

If you are self-employed as well, read Loans for the self-employed. For how Swiss lenders check credit in general, read What lenders check.

Next step

Check our requirements, and the reason for each one, on the personal loan page before you apply.