N26 vs Wise

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 TransferWise platform. TransferWise 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 TransferWise (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 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 TransferWise Borderless account.
• Cash pick up or international bill payments

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

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

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

N26 personal account types and fees

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 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 TransferWise review for more details on Wise fees.

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 TransferWise platform for international transfers.
 

Where N26 could improve

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

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.

What N26 does well

Supported destination countries for transfers - N26 lets its European customers carry out international money transfer through TransferWise, 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’s supported countries vary with different services having different supported customer countries and destination countries. These are detailed in the TransferWise 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.

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 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.