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I am new to Switzerland (Suisse Romande, French speaking part) but I do hold a Swiss citizenship so I have to fill the same paper as all Swiss citizens.

Anyway I have to pay my health insurance (prime d'assurance maladie) but I have no idea how to do it, there are a few choices, I chose "bulletin de versement" thinking it would be easy but it seems that I cannot pay using only the 2 series of number they gave me.

I contacted the insurance saying I would like to pay by BVR (at La poste) or by payment card, they told me I can fill an empty BVR with the number they gave me with the bulletin de versement.

Anyone knows how to do it ? In this case can I pay with my card ? (last time I paid to La poste I could only pay in cash...)

Or better, anyone knows how I have to proceed to make a bank transfer or pay with a payment card ?

(keep in mind that the way to pay a bill is very different in Switzerland than in the rest of Europe so any answer from other European countries experience might no work here)

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  • @jcaron I did not know that there was an expatriates SE, anyway I do only hold a French bank account in CHF, I do not think they offer this possibilty, I will contact them just to be sure.
    – stbr
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 7:35
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    You will most definitely need a Swiss bank account if you live in Switzerland. Nearly everything is paid using the "bulletins", and those only work using Swiss bank accounts if you want to use e-banking. As stated in the answer below, you could also just go to the post office with the bulletin and pay in cash. Some providers will allow bank transfers, in which case you need to ask for BIC + IBAN, and they will need a reference to be sent with the payment. Note that Switzerland is part of SEPA but not of the EU (and the payment is in CHF), so fees for bank transfers from FR will be much higher.
    – jcaron
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 7:45
  • Thanks for the answer I will try to pay this one in cash as the due date is soon and will open a Swiss bank account !
    – stbr
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 7:55
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    You are assessing that YOUR situation is the typical expat one. Seems that you forgot that you moved from UK to Asia where culture is A LOT different ! You can be an expat from France to Germany and you'll still have some differences that would lead to relevent questions. And I am sorry but I have to disagree, in Europe NOT everything is different as an expat, paying the bill (exception for income taxes) is only slightly different, if I was not a citizen there would be NO difference in paying my internet, health insurance, water / electricity and rent bill (which is the point of my question).
    – stbr
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 10:55
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    I agree that this is an expat question as stbr has moved to Switzerland for the first time in his life. It deals with the cultural shock of moving to a country you never lived in before and understanding how a person without a local bank account can bootstrap their life "abroad".
    – Diego Sánchez
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 16:28

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I don't understand your situation exactly (are you a swiss expatriate coming back to the country but not speaking the language ?), but let's say this doesn't really matter.

The easiest way, accessible to anyone, is to go to any post office, and pay the bill in cash. They'll do the paperwork for you.

A faster way is to use e-banking and this is what most people do - they pay the bill directly on the internet at their banks website, so that they don't need to use cash nor to queue at the post office. However this requires a bank account and an internet access.

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    I do speak the language and I am moving to Switzerland for the first time, what is the difference between bulletin de versement and e-banking as in my mind the first one can also be paid online. I do have a french bank account in CHF but I am not sure wether it is possible to pay the bill with such.
    – stbr
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 7:29
  • Je ne comprends pas bien ton problème mais le bulletin de versement c'est le papier orange; l'e-banking c'est un service offert par la banque. Dans tout les cas les bulletins de versement sont payables à la poste si tu as l'argent en cash. Je ne sais pas si c'est possible de payer depuis un compte français, mais dans ce cas peut être faut-il utiliser l'IBAN et un compte international.
    – Bregalad
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 7:38
  • J'ai choisis le payement par bulletin de versement sur le site de mon assureur mais je n'ai reçu qu'une facture PDF disponible sur leur portail (sans papier orange donc) avec 2 séries de chiffres (une correspondante au compte si je ne me trompe pas) avec lesquelles je suis censé pouvoir régler ma facture de prime. Peut-être qu'ils se sont trompés et qu'il ne s'agit pas d'un bulletin de versement ?
    – stbr
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 7:41
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    May I ask that you add a summary of this comments in English for everyone to understand?
    – Diego Sánchez
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 16:23
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    To keep it short, you can usually pay your bills in Switzerland at La Poste in cash using a BVR (which is usually an orange paper, but not mendatory, in my case I can use bank account number and fill an empty BVR). Otherwise to use online payment it's required to have a Swiss account (I had a french account in CHF but seems that it does not allow me to pay my bills online with it).
    – stbr
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 6:52

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