Once you arrive in Germany and you are ready to start receiving your Blocked Account payouts, you must activate your Blocked Account through the Expatrio User Portal or directly from the Expatrio app.
To start to receive your monthly payouts from your Blocked Account to your connected bank account, go to your Expatrio Portal or App and click the "ACTIVATE" button under the Blocked Account section.
Our activation tool is built smartly to adjust to your individual situation and will always give you clear instructions on how to proceed.
Let’s go through the details step by step.
Prerequisites to Activate Your Blocked Account
SEPA (for example, German) current bank account
To receive your monthly Blocked Account payouts you need a personal bank account (a so-called current account) in Germany or another SEPA country.
We can open a bank account for you at the same time when you activate your blocked account. Expatrio can offer you a German bank account*. You can read more here.
Having a standard bank account on top of the blocked account is a must because the money in the Blocked Account is not directly accessible. You will not be able to use the blocked account to pay for rent or cover your daily expenses with a card like you would with a normal current bank account ('Girokonto' in German). You will also not have a debit/credit card coming with your Blocked Account. Instead, we will send monthly payouts from your blocked account to your standard bank account.
Note: you can easily open a German bank account* directly on the blocked account activation flow. We highly recommend this option as you will have to go through the banking processes only once if you choose this.
You will find some additional recommendations for convenient current account providers in your Expatrio User Portal.
If you choose to open an account with a different SEPA bank account provider instead of through Expatrio you will need to confirm the IBAN of your account and your bank's BIC/Swift code. Please make sure that your bank account is activated and ready to receive funds; otherwise, your bank will return the transfer from the blocked account, and you will receive your funds with a delay.
German address
Besides the current account details, you will also need to confirm your address in Germany.
Activating the Blocked Account
Visit the Expatrio User Portal and go to the 'Blocked Account' page. If you already have the necessary funds in the blocked account you will have an 'Activate' button on this page. You have to click on this button to start the activation process.
Our activation tool will walk you through the process step by step. Please follow the instructions carefully and submit the correct documents and information.
Depending on what kind of Blocked Account you have with Expatrio, you might have to download the Expatrio App to proceed with Blocked Account Activation.
The process may also include identity verification with ID Now or Postident.
You will be asked to provide relevant information and some documents necessary for activating your blocked account. Below you can find a list of documents you might need to upload.
Please note that you may not be asked for all of the documents listed below.
Whether you will need to upload a document or not will depend on your personal data and account type. Our activation tool will ask you for the document only if it applies to your individual case.
- Proof of residency/visa document:
- if you have an Aion powered blocked account this can be a valid German visa document or residence permit
- if you have a Mangopay powered blocked account then in addition to the visa or residence permit this document can also be an address registration form (Anmeldung, can not be older than 3 months) or an enrollment certificate from a German university for the current semester
- Passport entry stamp:
- entry stamp from your passport from when you arrived in Germany
- in case you did not get this, but our activation tool asks for it, you can upload a copy of your flight ticket or similar documents as proof of your arrival date
- Proof of address:
- the document has to have your full name and your German address
- it can not be older than 3 months
- it can be:
- a utility bill
- a letter from your insurance company
- a rental agreement
- an official municipality document (for example the Anmeldung/address registration form or a letter from Deutsche Rentenversicherung)
- Passport
The payout start month
You can choose your preferred payout start month on the activation flow. Please note the below:
- The payout start month can be up to 2 months in the past or up to 3 months in the future.
- You can get a maximum number of 3 payouts at the time of activation, the funds for the current month included.
- The payout start month can not be earlier than the month in which you arrived in Germany.
If you arrived in Germany some months ago and would like to receive the funds for those past months that you have been in Germany, please choose the payout start date on the activation process accordingly. In your first monthly payout, you are eligible to get up to 3 monthly disbursements.
Please note: You can only receive two past months' payments. If you arrived in Germany earlier than two months ago and would like to receive funds from earlier than two months n the past, you need to send us a written confirmation from foreign offices that approves the same.
Completing the activation
Expatrio verifies activation requests every workday (Berlin calendar).
We will activate your account as soon as you completed all the necessary steps and we verified your information and documents. Afterwards you will receive your first monthly payout within two business days, or even immediately if you have opened a German bank account via Expatrio.
Should you have transferred more than the required Total Blocked Amount, you will receive the excess amount with the first disbursement.
The monthly payouts for future months are scheduled automatically. We send the funds for each usage month on the last days of the previous month.
Your buffer will be transferred with the last disbursement.
Once all the monthly payouts are done, your blocked account will be automatically closed.
* Banking services are provided by our partner Aion Bank