The blocked account (Sperrkonto), explained

What a blocked account is, in one paragraph

A blocked account — Sperrkonto in German — is a German bank account holding a year of living costs that you cannot touch until you arrive. It exists for one reader: the visa officer. German law requires you to prove you can support yourself (Finanzierungsnachweis), and a blocking confirmation (Sperrkontobestätigung) is the proof almost every mission accepts without argument. After you land and activate the account, it pays you a fixed amount each month.

It is not a fee and it is not lost money. It is your own money, held for you, released to you monthly.

How much, exactly

€11,904 for twelve months — €992 per month — is the 2026 requirement. It is tied to the maximum BAföG grant, so it moves when that moves, not on a calendar the embassies publish in advance; no 2027 amount has been published yet, so confirm the figure with your mission before you transfer.

If your course or Studienkolleg is shorter than a year, the requirement scales to the length of stay you are applying for, but most missions still want the full twelve months for a degree programme. Your mission's own checklist is the authority for your case — not this page, not a provider's marketing, and not a blog post from a previous year.

• —€992 per month is the monthly payout ceiling, not a suggestion — you cannot withdraw more.
• —Provider fees sit on top of the €11,904. Budget for them separately.
• —A shortfall of even a few euros at the time of the blocking confirmation can bounce the appointment. Transfer slightly over.

The providers, and what each one actually publishes

Three names come up constantly, and the honest comparison is shorter than most sites make it, because two of the three do not publish a price where you can check it. Everything here was read off the providers' own pages on 2026-09-24 — no affiliate table, no number copied from another blog.

• —Expatrio — publishes its price openly: €119 one-time setup plus €9 per month, so about €227 on top of the deposit in year one (read off its page 2026-09-24). Bundles health insurance and a German current account. The only one of the three whose cost you can confirm before you commit.
• —Fintiba — the long-standing, embassy-familiar option, and the fastest if you pay by card: the blocking confirmation can be issued within the hour, against 1–5 business days for a bank transfer. Its own blocked-account page shows the setup and monthly fees as literal '€XX' placeholders (checked 2026-09-24 and again 2026-10-11, unchanged), so ask for the current figure in writing before paying.
• —Coracle — its own site currently lists the opening fee as 'Coming Soon' rather than a number (checked 2026-09-24). Treat it as unconfirmed rather than as a live third option, and verify directly with them before planning around it.
• —Deutsche Bank and other traditional banks — genuinely work, and cost less in fees, but run on paper and postal timelines from abroad. Realistic only if you have months, or someone in Germany who can act for you.

Opening one, in the right order

The order matters more than the provider. The single most common reason a blocked account costs somebody their intake is not choosing the wrong company — it is starting the process after admission instead of alongside it.

• —Start the week you send your first application. You do not need an admission letter to open a blocked account.
• —Open the account and get the IBAN, then transfer. Use a low-fee route such as Wise; keep every receipt, because the funding trail can be questioned.
• —Wait for the blocking confirmation — same day by card with Fintiba, 1–5 business days after a transfer arrives, longer from some corridors.
• —Book the visa appointment. In busy missions the appointment itself is the longest queue, so book as early as your mission allows.
• —After arrival, complete the provider's activation and register your address (Anmeldung) so the monthly payouts start.

What this costs from your corridor

The €11,904 is the same everywhere. The friction is not.

From India, the Liberalised Remittance Scheme covers this comfortably, but your bank will want the admission or provider documents and will add TCS on the outward remittance — build in a week for paperwork, not a day. From Nigeria, the constraint is FX access rather than the transfer itself, and students routinely need several weeks and more than one channel; start earlier than anyone tells you to. From Bangladesh and Vietnam, banks ask for the university and provider documentation before releasing the amount, which is another reason to open the account before you have your admission letter rather than after.

Traps that cost people their intake

• —Opening too late. Transfers from Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan routinely take longer than the brochure says.
• —Using last year's number. The requirement changes; an old figure in a blog post is not evidence, and an underfunded account is a refused appointment.
• —Assuming it is the only route. A sponsor's formal obligation (Verpflichtungserklärung) and a recognised scholarship both work — expect more questions at the visa stage.
• —Paying an agent to do it. Every provider here is a direct online signup. Nobody needs to be paid to fill in that form for you.
• —Forgetting activation. The money does not start paying out because you arrived; it pays out because you completed the provider's activation step.