Best EU BANK account for citizen that is traveling around EU

[fcs2525]

@daibhead I finally found time to take a look into your suggestion, and this bank looks amazing in every way - all boxes checked , thank you for your help.

 

[resjudicata]

@fcs2525 N26

 

[wehyee]

@resjudicata I have N26 and my experience has been pretty poor. I struggle to understand why anyone would recommend it, let alone recommend it over other banks like revolut. Am I missing something?

 

[resjudicata]

@wehyee what problems have you faced? For me it just works and it is easy to use.

 

[phananh]

@wehyee Would also be interested in your negative experience. I've been with N26 since very early days (when the bank name was still Number26) and literally had 0 problems in all years

 

[jeremiah3133]

@wehyee It was better in the beginning. As usual, the startups lure you in and later start nickle and diming (e.g. withdraws now).

 

[jeremiah3133]

@fcs2525 What nationality are you? What is your employment status? Are you a freelancer/consultant? You could explore optimizing your finances and banking by creating a company in Luxembourg and having a principal account there.

Luxembourg has major tax incentives, amazing healthcare, and the highest pension payouts in the world (mostly left off those yearly rankings as people forget Luxembourg exists!). etc. Housing is expensive but they do tax domiciles for individuals, not just for the biggest multinationals and family offices in the world.

As the entire economy was based on banking secrecy/private banking for many decades, it is extremely flexible and internationally-minded when it comes to finance. Their financial might is actually pretty terrifying, but they play it very, very low key. It's like the banking world's mysterious, super rich uncle that lives a hermit life.

As they provide exceptional banking services to the biggest fortunes in the world, the services and tools trickle down to the little guy. I lived there for five years and banking was great. My daughter has an ING account there and has no issues moving around internationally.

Only two caveats: 1) you must imperatively consult a EU tax expert in Luxembourg for assistance. I have rarely come across any financial experts that have even a basic knowledge about Luxembourg. 2) Depending on your activity, you may still need to have a local bank account for some countries. I keep the minimum in a couple bank accounts for "emergencies".

 

[numenian]

@fcs2525 Why wouldn’t you use Revolut? It works perfectly, you can make instant free transfers, you can convert currencies to anything you need if you travel with no fees or very low ones, the app works quite well, and they have a good customer service. Once you settle you can open an account in a larger physical bank, but right now I don’t see the point of not using Revolut or N26.

 

[tfosria]

@numenian Just look at all the posts around here of people having blocked or hacked accounts.

If you have few hundred eur there, no big deal, but if you look at overall assets kept in revolut or n26, it paints an interesting picture, nobody is keeping big balance there (on average)... Perhaps for a reason?

 

[numenian]

@tfosria How do you know “nobody” is keeping big balance there? The average doesn’t really paint a picture, lots of people have Revolut accounts that use as secondary ones, and that doesn’t mean that there can be many people that keep big balances there.

And he’s saying he will be travelling so I don’t see him having millions on Revolut.

 

[tfosria]

@numenian Compare revolut/n26 to average bank in your country, that will give you an idea how they're different...

For example n26 globally has the same assets as mid-tier bank in a smaller east European country. Revolut is probably not that different, but feel free to check their annual reports.

OK so question, why do most people use revolut accounts as 2ndary ones? If they're so amazing, people would switch and use then as primary after all these years no?

Sure, if the OP doesnt mind the risk of having their account frozen while traveling, then sure...

 

[numenian]

@tfosria That doesn’t give me an idea of anything. I am telling him why I’d used Revolut for this specific purpose, knowing it’s not a bank where I would keep all my savings, it’s easy to understand.

Revolut is great FOR WHAT HE NEEDS, I’m not recommending everyone to switch to it because it’s amazing or whatever.

 

[tfosria]

@numenian Sorry, I don't understand how having unreliable account while traveling is a good idea and something that anyone would need.

If you're willing to accept such unreliability and have a backup ready at all times, then sure.

 

[tfosria]

@numenian I mean interestingly, Wise has many fewer reports online about hacking or account closures, it is a public company without any crazy compliance issues (check n26 regulatory issues in Germany), it publishes annual numbers and is much more transparent and compliant than n26/revolur and any other private startups which could go under tmrw...

So, any idea why not recommend Wise card/account instead of n26 and revolut.

 

[numenian]

@tfosria I recommended what I use/know. You can recommend Wise on a different comment instead of telling me what to recommend, right?

 

[tfosria]

@numenian Well, I recommend OP and you to stop using n26 and revolut (too much risk) and go with compliant public company that's stable.

I'm just amazed why anyone would recommend highly risky products to others, that's all. Given by average balance kept in revolut/n26, seems like most users are also voting eith their money...

 

[numenian]

@tfosria Perfect, thank you for the recommendation. I recommend you not to draw conclusions based on averages, as they don’t tell much.

 

[tfosria]

@numenian Likewise thanks, same as average gdp doesn't tell us anything about country or average literacy rate, average life expectancy and so on..

Well, but they allow us to compare countries among one another.

Same for banks... Their KPIs allow us to compare them and draw conclusions. You know, how much customers really trust them with their money, for example...

 

[alacrityvirtue]

@tfosria That’s fully bullshit… I work at banking industry and can assure you that the amount of people with fully legit accounts that was ever impacted by freezing/closing accounts are minimal in any bank, and most of them had accounts recovered.

What you see “around here” happens all the time and will happen again.

People love to complain about banks but don’t spend a minute on educating themselves on how a bank works and the types of frauds committed by people on a daily basis.

 

[tfosria]

@alacrityvirtue You work at n26 and revolut and in fraud department and you know how many accounts they each froze?

In normal banks yes, the amount is low, that's why you don't see people from normal banks here complaining about it.

Please read what we are talking about in this post before going on a tirade educating us about how many accounts your bank freezes or not. Thanks