Opening a German bank account.

Check with his bank in the UK- Uk banks eg Barclays have a presence in Germany.

Also as a short term thing,it would be better linked to his UK account .

Or just get a UK Bank (Barclays) Euro account which links to a Euro denominated Visa and cash machine card.  As RGD suggests, he should first talk to his regular bank as to what services they can provide before getting into complicated 'know your customer' and 'anti money laundering' steps to open an account in Germany.

He has been told he needs a German Bank account as they will only pay money into this.

And Barclays have German offices/accounts.If you don't listen to the information received.....(our company has a UK and German Euro account )It's Bank holiday ,so you (or he)can not have investigated sufficiently.It's a Hifi forum not a financial  advisory service(although I think it's getting there.)

 

He could just wait till he gets to Germany and open an accout at Sparkasse, they've got branches and ATM's everywhere

fing Sparkasse they have got right up my nose. The card hey issue is Maestro which is a waste of time as you can do very little with it. You can do EDITED all on line and I could not use it to fill up at a Jet station in the UK. they will not give you a credit card until 3 months wage slips have been paid in. Otherwise tey are ok. ING DBA ( I think) seem to be good they also have cash machines at most Aral petro stations.

 

But what I would do is as you UK bank which German bank they have ties with as it will make things easier.

 

Where is your mate working?

My mate has been in to the local branches(including Barclays) in our town and they have told him they cannot help him.
He was told to wait until he gets to Germany and open an account when he gets there.
He will be in Koln, Stuttgart and Nurnberg and maybe somewhere else, he will not be driving.

Yes he can open a bank account without travelling to Germany for example at the DKB...more Information i saw here.