N26 vs Revolut

This is our detailed comparison of N26 vs Revolut.

N26 and Revolut are two of the most known European fintech institutions that offer a convenient solution, especially for travelers and digital nomads looking for easy banking with the possibility to arrange everything online from anywhere in the world.

We are digital nomads keeping most of our banking online and have been using Revolut and N26 for several years. At the moment, our preferred one is N26 simply because it works seamlessly, has an excellent mobile app, and integrated Wise feature for sending money abroad, but we have accounts with both. We are using Revolut more for online shopping and traveling money.

This review will take you through some pros and cons of both, their most prominent features, fees and limits, and user experience.

Let's get right into it!

‍

Table Comparison: N26 vs Revolut

Overview: N26

N26 was founded in 2013 in Berlin by Valentin Stalf, and Maximilian Tayenthal as one of the first fintech (digital) bank's in Europe.

N26 is available to 22 countries in Europe, and while being present in the US market for some time, they closed their operations in the US on January 11, 2022. They also left the UK market following Brexit.

Due to the overwhelming demand, as they stated on their site, they put a temporary limit on the number of new bank accounts they offer each month. So depending on the country of your residency, you might need to join the waiting list first.

After joining successfully, you can access your N26 account through their easy-to-navigate desktop or mobile app.

N26 has a full European banking license, and your funds will be covered by the German Bank guarantee (up to €100,000).

N26 offers smart features that make your banking experience on a mobile phone easy and convenient, like easy top-up, direct debits, affordable international money transfers, instant transfer to other N26 users called MoneyBeam, sub-accounts, etc. We'll talk more about the details of the most important features in the following paragraphs.

They offer free and paid personal and also business accounts. You will receive the associated card and benefits depending on which you opt for.

With N26, you get a European BIC and IBAN, supporting Apple Pay and Google Pay.

‍

Overview: Revolut

Revolut is a well-known fintech company founded in 2015 in London by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko.

Revolut offers a popular mobile app, especially among frequent travelers and digital nomads due to the ease of use, cool in-app features, affordable currency exchange, instant transfers between Revolut users, and supporting cryptos.

Customers in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden can upgrade to Revolut Bank and have their deposits protected up to EUR 100,000 by the Lithuanian State company Deposit and Investment Insurance.

In other supported countries, they are licensed as an e-money company by the FCA and not as a bank.

Revolut provides you with a European BIC and IBAN, and there is no sign-up fee.

They offer different pricing plans with four connected cards, so the fees and benefits vary based on your selected plan. One is free; the rest are paid. Like with N26, you can also open a business account.

Revolut supports Google and Apple Pay.

‍

Main features: N26 vs Revolut

International transfers

International transfers are getting way more manageable and convenient with the rise of digital banks. Both N26 and Revolut offer an excellent solution for that.

Fees and limits are highly dependent on your region, so it's always good to check the details on official websites to get the most up-to-date information.

N26 partnered with Wise, formerly known as Transferwise, to make international transfers fast and affordable. You can transfer money under Mastercard's exchange rates and with no additional fees charged by N26. Before sending your money away, you see the overview of all the charges that will occur.

For withdrawals in currencies out of the eurozone, an exchange rate of 1.7% applies.

While local (within SEPA) transfers with Revolut are free, a small fee applies to sending money outside SEPA. Premium customers get one and Metal customers three international transfers for free per month. You can send up to 1,000 EUR each month without exchange fees; a 0.5% fee applies when exceeding this threshold. They also have higher fees during the weekend.

Supported Countries and Cryptocurrencies

While N26 was available to customers in the EU, UK, and the US, they recently stopped serving UK and US markets. Countries supported by N26 are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

On the other hand, Revolut is available in EEA, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan, and the US.

The big plus of Revolut is a feature to hold and trade cryptocurrencies among other Revolut users. The app supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 30+ other currencies. Unfortunately, cryptocurrencies are not supported on N26.

You can't spend your cryptos directly with your Revolut card, but you can exchange it into any supported fiat currency and spend it with your card.

Mobile App and Cards

Revolut and N26 offer intuitive and user-friendly mobile apps from where you can run any feature and transaction.

They both offer different plans that you can select from - free, basic accounts, and paid accounts. You get the assigned card and specific benefits depending on the account you choose.

Revolut offers plastic and metal cards. Depending on the package you select, you can pimp up your account with additional benefits like Overseas medical insurance, Crypto Withdrawal, Delayed baggage, flight insurance, etc. You can compare their packages here.

N26 offers four personal plans: Standard, Smart, Metal, and You. Like with Revolut, selecting higher tier cards will allow you to use benefits like flight insurance, luggage insurance, car rental insurance, unlimited free withdrawals, etc. So if you are a frequent traveler or digital nomad, it is worth looking into it before selecting your card. You can compare the tiers here.

With Revolut, you get a free virtual card for online purchases on a free account, while with N26, it comes with a premium account.

Budgeting and Savings

You can take care of your finances and budget conveniently with both apps. With N26, you can go through your monthly spending under the Insights dashboard, while in Revolut, you can see the details in the Analytics tab along with your budget goal.

They offer sub-accounts where you can send your money for saving purposes; in N26, this is called 'Spaces' and Revolut' Vaults.' You can also keep your cryptocurrency in Vaults.

💡 We use Spaces and Vaults also for different reasons, not just saving. For example, you can move some of the funds to Space for safety when you have more money in your account. So in case, your card gets compromised, you don't have all your in the main account from where somebody can withdraw it from.

Revolut also offers a Spare Change feature that you can set optionally, meaning every time you pay with a Revolut card, they will round up the payment, and the difference goes to your Vault as savings.

Revolut offers 0.7% annual interest paid daily for your savings in Vaults to all Metal account users. In addition, N26 has the EasyFlex Saving feature but is currently only available to customers who have their legal addresses registered in Germany.

Split the Bill

You can split your bills with N26 and Revolut, which a convenient for traveling in groups, so you can easily split the expenses between your friends.

Both applications also make sending the money to your friends and family using the same apps easy. N26's feature is called MoneyBeam, where you can quickly send or receive money to any of your phone contacts in seconds. If your contact is not an N26 user, it takes a bit longer, or you can pay a small fee for instant transfer if urgent.

Revolut lets you send money to or request money from any of your contacts, whether they use Revolut or not.

Revolut offers a Near Me technology that detects any Revolut users near you and lets you send or request money even though they are not in your contacts.

Exchange Fees and Limits: N26 vs Revolut

The table below will compare the fees and limits on the free N26 plan with the free standard Revolut plan.

Fees and limits are highly dependent on your region, so it's always good to check the details on official websites to get the most recent information.

Safety: Revolut vs N26

While banking with fintech is effortless, fast, and cheap, some people are still a bit reluctant as they are afraid that their funds are not protected as when having an account with a brick&mortar bank.

We are at the weirdo.rocks are big fans of fintech banks, especially in daily life, but we normally do not keep bigger amounts of money in these accounts.

We trust in N26 and Revolut and their multi-layered security.

N26 has had a full European banking license since 2016 and is ruled by the same laws and regulations as any other bank. Revolut protects your money by the Bank of Lithuania. They keep the money in these accounts until you pay it out.

They both support biometric authentication and 3D Secure technology. In addition, N26 and Revolut both allow their customers to control their security settings, like freezing the card, enabling/disabling online payments, ATM withdrawals, setting the limits, etc.

N26 has a Discrete Mode that you can blur the balance when using the app in public.

With both, you will get real-time push notifications that will inform you immediately if somebody is making transactions on your behalf.

Revolut uses location-based security (your GPS has to be on) and N26 3D secure, which means users have to confirm any high-risk payments in the app.

N26 app is paired to your smartphone, which means that nobody can log into your account using the app on any other device, even if knowing your login credentials.

User Reviews and Customer Support: N26 vs Revolut

N26

N26 has 20,912 reviews at the moment with an overall score of 3.3, which falls into the category of Average.

Customers like N26 customer support, the ease of use, and a good and reliable experience with their app. They are not normally experiencing unexpected bugs or other troubles with the service.

If anything goes wrong, you can reach out to their customer support via live chat, email, or phone if you are on a premium account. In addition, they have solid help docs, FAQs, and other articles to help you answer basic questions about the service.

Revolut

Revolut has 106,738 reviews at the moment with an overall score of 4.4, which is slightly worse than Wise but still falls into the category of Excellent.

Customers are giving kudos to ease of use and their mobile app, numerous supported features, and fast transfers. However, they are unhappy about the slow customer support, higher rates during the weekend, being locked out from accounts, and occasional bugs.

You can reach out to Revolut via live chat and email or get in touch with them on social media via links available in the app. Like N26, also Revolut has a detailed help section that will help you address any questions related to their service.

Opening the Account: N26 vs Revolut

The best thing with most fintech banks is how easy it is to open a bank account. No paperwork or visiting branches in person. Who wouldn't like this?

When opening an account with N26, you will have to fill out the online registration form, confirm your email, log into your account and choose your N26 product. After this is done, you have to go through the verification process on your app, and you are ready to start using your account.

Revolut has a similar process where you have to download the app, follow the instructions, enter the mobile number, create a passcode, add personal details and in the end, verify your identity by using your ID document.

Our Verdict: Which one is better Revolut or N26?

Again we came to the tough choice, as we like both, and we use N26 and Revolut daily. So depending on your preferences, you can safely decide on either of them or follow our example and use both.

What we like with N26 the most is that they partnered with Wise to offer faster and cheaper international transfers compared to Revolut. If you would like to learn more about Wise, formerly known as Transferwise, you can check out a comparison of Wise vs Revolut.

N26 is an excellent alternative to a traditional bank as they offer reliable services for your everyday banking needs, including the deposit guarantee scheme. Revolut, on the other side, is an app that provides more features relating to holding and exchanging currencies, international travel, and quick online payments.

Revolut is a better choice if you want to hold cryptocurrencies, as they are not supported in N26 yet.

Both offer saving accounts, but no interest is earned for users on standard free accounts.

Both have great and easy-to-use mobile apps, convenient features like budgeting tools, the possibility to freeze your card at any time, and a good overview of all your spending.

Unfortunately, N26 is not available in the UK and US markets, so Revolut would be the choice for you if you are located there.

The bottom line is that you can't go wrong with either selection as they are both safe to use and come with many cool features that will make your experience smooth.

‍

‍