Personal Features

N26

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N26 provides personal services for residents of the US, the European Union and Switzerland. N26 used to operate in the UK but pulled out of the UK market after the Brexit vote. All UK accounts were closed. N26 offers personal bank account and debit cards to individuals. As N26 has a banking license, deposits are protected up to €100,000. N26 does not offer loans of any kind.

There is a free and paid-for account types that come with a monthly subscription cost. The higher the N26 monthly plan you have, the more perks the N26 account provides. The account types are called Standard, Smart, You and Metal. The You and Metal account also gives the account owner extra perks compared to the N26 Standard and Smart account. N26 You and N26 Metal covers the owner for flight, pandemic travel, luggage coverage and medical and trip insurance as part of the monthly subscription cost.
N26 does not provide their customers multi-currency accounts. The account is in the currency of the country it is opened in. However, the N26 You and Metal accounts allows unlimited worldwide withdrawls in any currency at no extra cost.

Transferring moving overseas with N26 relies on a tight integation with the Wise platform. Wise offers platform integration with many online banks. It's a great perk as N26 customers can take advantage of the lower international money transfer costs compared with the traditional banks high fees and poor exchange rates.

What N26 offers

  • International money transfers through Wise (only for European customers)
  • Debit cards
  • Cashback and exclusive discounts
  • Sub-accounts
  • Direct debits

What N26 doesn’t provide

  • Personal account managers
  • Unique local multi-currency accounts
  • Cash pickup
  • Hedging tools
  • Regular transfers

Wise

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Wise provides a simple easy to use international money transfer service with digital wallet capabilities. Their digital wallet, or Borderless account also gives the individual local banking details in 6+ currencies including, EUR, SGD, NZD, USD, GBP and AUD. Their Wise Borderless debit card backs on to their Borderless digital wallet allowing you to spend directly out of your multi-currency account balances.

What Wise offers individuals

  • International money transfers
  • Borderless multi-currency receiving accounts
  • Borderless Debit Card - FX optimised debit card
  • Android and Apple apps
  • Send money to email address
  • Scheduled and recurring transfers - sufficiently funded Borderless account required for this to work.

What Wise does not offer individuals

  • Personal account management
  • Full support for regular transfers. Currently regular transfers or ‘scheduled transfers’ need to have a Borderless multi-currency account balance. Find out which countries support Wise Borderless account.
  • Cash pick up or international bill payments

Wise wins!

Wise offers more features and more benefits to individual customers when compared to N26. A big difference is that N26 gives free variety of insurance for international travellers on its paid monthly plans. Wise doesn't offer an insurance product. But then again, they are hyper-focused on being the best international money transfer company. Why would they?

What Wise does provide you is a free multi-currency receiving accounts and a debit card that backs on to it and super low cost money transfers. Wise also supports debit cards and recurring / scheduled transfers. 

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Business Benefits

N26

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N26 provides business accounts for self-employed individuals and freelancers in the European Union and Switzerland. N26 does not have services for business customers in the USA. 

N26 for business has similar features and fees to the personal accounts. For the higher paid plans the same insurance types are available. The N26 Metal plan also comes with phone insurance which is handy. The paid plans are useful for business people who travel often given the breadth of insurance included with the N26 You and Metal plans.

N26 Business accounts do have extra features that may be useful for business. Business account holders get small cashbacks on N26 card purchases that the personal account holders do not get. Business accounts can also download transaction reports for manually importing in to accounting or bookkeeping software. It is a pity that they don't have automatic integration into accounting solutions such as Quickbooks and Xero. 

N26 features for business are light especially considering that they charge montly fees. For the cost, we would expect more business focused features and beneifts.

What N26 business account offers

  • Mastercard debit card
  • Cashback on spending
  • No minimum deposits
  • Sub-accounts
  • Automatic categorization of spending

What N26 business account doesn’t offer

  • Hedging tools
  • Account managers
  • Unique local multi-currency bank accounts
  • Solutions for online sellers
  • Mass payments

Wise

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In addition to the services Wise offers the individual, there are some features only available for a business. Unfortunately, as Wise is online only, a business customer does not have support with currency fluctuations and trends. Wise does however offer easy to use transactional foreign currency receipts and payments.

Scheduled transfers is a recently added feature. This can reduce admin for those standard monthly, weekly payments to suppliers and staff. A sufficient balance in the Business Borderless account is required. Wise will remind the account owner to make sure there is sufficient funds in the multi-current account. What is not supported is standing orders from a business bank account through Wise. This may mean that businesses need to alter their business structure to ensure continuous sufficent Borderless account funding.

What Wise offers businesses

  • Batch payments
  • Xero and Quickbook integration
  • FX optimised business debit card
  • Multi-user account access
  • Regular and scheduled transfers

What Wise for business doesn’t offer

  • Business account management
  • Risk management tools

It's a draw!

N26 business features are light when compared to Wise. Wise allows business accounts to integrate seamlessly with online accounting serices like Xero and Quickbooks. Businesses can delegate access to the account for basic admin and bookkeeping and perform mass / bulk payments. Wise also provides access to their API for integration if businesses decide to automate more of their international payment / receipt workflows.

Something to watch is that Wise doesn't have a banking license and so cash deposits are not protected. But this shouldn't stop business customers leveraging the full featured platform for international commerce. Perhaps until Wise does get a banking license and deposit protection, business customers should use the Wise platform as a service and not a store for cash deposits.

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Fees & Exchange Rates

N26

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N26 EU fees

N26 fee structure is quick simple. Free accounts have less features and benefits to the monthly paid accounts. These fees are listed below for your convenience.

N26 personal account types and fees

Personal account typeMonthly fee
N26 Standard€0
N26 Smart€4.90
N26 You€9.90
N26 Metal€16.90

N26 personal account types and fees

Business account typeMonthly fee
N26 Business€0
N26 Business Smart€4.90
N26 Business You€9.90
N26 Business Metal€16.90

Fees for ATM withdrawals 

  • N26 Standard / Business - 3 free withdrawals per month in Eurozone.
  • N26 Smart  / Business  Smart - 5 free withdrawals per month in Eurozone, free ATM withdrawals worldwide.
  • N26 You  / Business  You - 5 free withdrawals per month in Eurozone, free ATM withdrawals worldwide.
  • N26 Metal  / Business Metal - 8 free withdrawals per month in Eurozone, free ATM withdrawals worldwide.

Foreign transaction fees

Pay no foreign transaction fees when you use your N26 card overseas.

N26 USA fees

Account keeping fees

There is no ongoing monthly or annual account keeping fee.

ATM withdrawals 

  • Free at all Allpoint locations across the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the UK and Australia.
  • Two free ATM withdrawals per month from any network in the US.

Foreign transaction fees

Pay no foreign transaction fees when you use your N26 card overseas.


Wise

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Wise offers the real time exchange rate at the time of your transfer. Therefore fees are visible in addition to the transfer amount. The fee structure is complex as it differs depending on the currencies you are sending from and to. Fees also apply to the type of Borderless account transaction. Fees can also apply on the use of the Wise Borderless debit card. Fees are briefly summarised below. Read the detailed Wise review for more details on Wise fees.

Wise ServiceWise fee
Simple International Money Transfer

0.4% - 2% 

Varies on currency and payment type

Adding to Wise Borderless account0.4% - 0.5%
Converting between Borderless account0.3% - 0.6%
Sending money out of Borderless accountLess than 0.1% in most cases
Borderless Account Debit Card

No fee for card issuance

Fee free cash withdrawal limit of US$250, 2% thereafter

Zero cost on spend from existing currency balance, 0.24 - 3.69% fee if there is no existing balance


It's a draw!

Both N26 and Wise has a low cost model for their services. Although N26 does have monthly plans, the additional features included in the paid plans can make cost saving sense for the customers who need the additional services. N26 does offer a basic free plan and all plans leverage Wise low cost international money transfer fees. This could be perfect for the individual or business that does not need international multi-currency receiving accounts.

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Ease of Use

N26

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What N26 does well

Sign up process - Fairly simple.

Payment options -  Bank account transfer, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Transferwise.

Mobile app - Available for iOS and Android.

Internatioanl money transfers - Can be performed within their website and mobile app even though N26 uses the Wise platform for international transfers.
 

Where N26 could improve

Phone transfers - You can not carry out transfers over the phone.


Wise

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The Wise app design and user experience of their technology is great with simple, intuitive processes.

Registration - Fast and easy account creation

ID verification - Instant in some countries

Transfer speed - It can be instantaneous in some countries. Fast payments to Wise comes at an additional cost.

Minimum transfer amount - $1

Mobile app - Simple and easy to use. Probably the best designed app of the international money transfer companies.

Payment options - Wise has the broadest range of payment options. Local bank transfer, debit / credit card and country specific solutions such as POLi.


N26 wins!

Wise and N26 have been built from the ground up to be focussed on the customer. Both are extremely easy simple and easy for account creation and day to day use. 

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Support & Countries

N26

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What N26 does well

Supported destination countries for transfers - N26 lets its European customers carry out international money transfer through Wise, to all its supported countries.

Business account - The N26 business account is available in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Customer support - Customer support is available via chat and email in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.
 

Where N26 could improve

Supported registration countries - N26 could increase the number of countries from which customers can sign up for new accounts. In addition, it has pulled out of the UK after Brexit.


Wise

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Wise’s supported countries vary with different services having different supported customer countries and destination countries. These are detailed in the Wise Countries and Currencies article and is summarized below.

Send from - 23 countries plus the Europe SEPA countries

Send to - Over 60 currencies

Borderless account and debit card - Over 6 countries can sign up to their Borderless services.


Wise wins!

No competition here. Wise supports more customer registration countires and foreign currency denominated accounts. 

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Trust & Transparency

N26

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N26 has done well in attracting over seven million active accounts. It is comforting knowing that N26 has a banking license and so deposits are protected up to a limit. What is concerning is UK market exit. This was quite disruptive to their loyal UK customer base and would be of a concern going forward for their USA customer base if N26 decides that the USA market is no longer a market it wishes to participate in.

What N26 does well

  • The N26 account in the US is offered by Axos Bank, an FDIC member.
  • N26 has a full European banking license, and funds of European customers are protected up to €100,000 by the German Deposit Protection Scheme.
  • Rates as Great on Trustpilot.

Where N26 could improve

Addressing customer problems quickly - There are some N26 reviews on Trustpilot that mention accounts being blocked and customers being unable to access their money. N26 could respond to such issues in a timely manner.


Wise

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Wise is fully regulated by the FCA and their customer funds are segregated from their business banking activities.

Wise is rated on TrustPilot as Excellent. Unfortunately there have been some poor reviews on TrustPilot indicating sudden account closures with funds being returned with no explanation.

Wise continues to raise capital through private funding. This could be a concern for the future when the shareholders are looking for aggressive growth and / or a return on their investment.


Wise wins!

N26 score points for their banking license and cash deposit protection. But with the rushed UK market exit, this can cause quite the concern for new customers in the USA or new markets it may enter. 

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The Result

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 Wise

Wise wins overall compared to N26 for individual and business international money transfers. Being a direct Wise customer gives you access to their Borderless multi-currency account and all of it's additional benefits. This includes the unique multi-currency bank accounts and Borderless debit card with no monthly fee! 

On the otherhand, N26 has a banking license and leverages Wise's technology to allow its customers to send money internationally with low cost inside of the N26 app environment.

The choice is simple. If you need to regularly send, spend and receive money internationally, Wise is better. If you intend on holding cash for the long term in an account, N26 is safer due to it's deposit protection that comes with a banking license.

FAQs

Does N26 have multi-currency accounts?

No. N26 operates in Europe and the USA. N26 USA provides an USD bank account and N26 EU provides a euro bank account. N26 does not offer a multi-currency account.

Is N26 available in the UK?

N26 has pulled out of the UK market after the Brexit vote. N26 have no plans to currently re-enter the UK market.

Does N26 use Wise?

N26 has integrated the Wise international money transfer platform in to the N26 banking app. So N26 customers can send money internationally with Wise's low fees. However, N26 customers do not have access to the Wise borderless multi-currency account features.

Does N26 have a banking license?

N26 has a EU banking license and therefore cash deposits are protected up to €100,000.