Alternatives to Irish Banks & E-Money

Yggr of Asgard

I thought I make it a little easier to keep track of all those nice EU offerings from Banks and electronic money providers that are offering their services to Irish Customers.

Bunq
Country: Netherlands
Status: Bank
Type: Full € Bank account
Access: App only
Notifications: Real time for any activity
Opening: Via Video Indent in English in the Application
Link: www.bunq.com
Cost: 7.99€ / month https://www.bunq.com/en/membership/premium
Cards: Maestro, 2 Master Debit Cards
Cards Processor: Bunq itself (high availability)
Card Security Features: Several detailed security configurations, 3V number revolving in App
FX: 1.5% based on Mastercard rate on day of payment (not booking)
FX Restrictions: SEPA € transaction in/out only
Special Features: 25 IBAN's, NFC payments via Phone, Direct Debit Rejection
Boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057676464


N26
Country: Germany
Status: Bank
Type: Full € Bank account
Access: App and Web
Notifications: Real time for any activity
Opening: Via Video Indent in English in the Application
Link: www.n26.com
Cost: Basic Account free (additional charge for certain transactions after allowance) or Premium 5.90€ month https://n26.com/eu/pricing/
Cards: Mastercard Debit (basic), Mastercard World Elite Debit (Premium)
Card Security Features: Mastercard Secure Code
Processor: N26
FX Rate: Shops 0%, ATM 1.7% (free on Premium) based on Mastercard Rates at date of booking
FX Restrictions: SEPA € transaction in only, outbound via Transferwise in multiple currencies
Special Features: Premium includes insurance
Boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057531467


Revolut
Country: UK
Status: Electronic Money
Type: Electronic Multi Currency Wallet, Prepaid Mastercard, individual € IBAN to load funds
Access: App
Notifications: Real time for any activity (some users report problems in August 2017)
Opening: Online (possible verification required via upload of documents)
Link: www.revolut.com
Cost: Free basic (Cards 6€ plus 6€ delivery), 7.99€ monthly (Premium)
Cards: MasterCard Debit (Marked as Prepaid)
Cards Processor: issued by Wirecard, processed by GPS (Global Processing Services)
Card Security Features: Online management of location, magnet strip, NFC, On-line Transactions
FX: 0% based on own rates (near market rates for most currencies during the week)
Special Feature: Allows to hold various currency balances
Boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057481488


Monese
Country: UK
Status: Electronic Money
Type: UK Bank Account in £ (now with direct debits)
Access: App
Notifications: Real time for any activity
Opening: Online with validation via their own staff
Link: www.monese.com
Cost: £4.95 month (additional charge for certain transactions after allowance)
Card: Mastercard Debit
Cards Processor: issued by Prepaid Technologies, processed by GPS (Global Processing Services)
FX Rate: 0.5% (account and card) based on Mastercard Rates
FX Restrictions: € in via shared IBAN with reference converted to £
Special Feature: € with IBAN in beta
Boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=98121939


Fire
Country: Ireland
Status: Electronic Money
Type: Irish IBAN and UK account sort code
Access: App
Opening: Online
Link: www.fire.com
Basic Cost: Free but Card usage cost https://www.fire.com/fees-and-charges/personal.html
Card: Mastercard Debit (linked to € and £ at the same time)
Cards Processor: issued by Fire, processed by GPS (Global Processing Services)
FX Rate: 1.25% (Account) 2% (Card)
FX Restrictions: £/€ held separately, no automatic conversion of card payments
Special Feature: on-line conversion between £ and € funds
Boards http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=98341249


Remarks:
This is only based on my experience and information available as of 22 August 2017, I am not making any recommendation to use these nor do I provide financial advise, I'm simply consolidating information, always do your own research before using any bank or electronic money provider.

Wanderer78

Apologise if this is the wrong place to post this, but is it possible for an Irish citizen to open an account with a branch of German's sparkasse savings bank?

Yggr of Asgard

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Apologise if this is the wrong place to post this, but is it possible for an Irish citizen to open an account with a branch of German's sparkasse savings bank?

It's going to be very hard unless you live in the region the regional Sparkasse works and most likely speak German.

The Sparkasse offers a Buergerkonto or a Basis Account (as per EU directive), but you will not to show up in person to open it and it's not going to be cheap either, as they are charging both a fee and per transaction.

If you live in Ireland, you will need to try contacting them beforehand and than most likely travel to them.

Their new yomo application which allows to do this online is not ready for non German Residents yet.

Wanderer78

Yggr of Asgard wrote:

It's going to be very hard unless you live in the region the regional Sparkasse works and most likely speak German.

Thank you very much, to be honest, I just wish Ireland had a similar banking system as sparkasse, as I've very little faith in our current system

Jim2007

Probably worth considering that the status of U.K. banks after March 2019 is unknown, but I suspect at best one can expect to be receiving services from an unregulated provider.

alksander

There's also Monzo in the UK, though requires a UK address. (And a good summary for all the new UK "challenger banks": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_bank) And Monese has launched Euro accounts (in beta).

Another prepaid/app contender in Ireland is Plynk (plynk.me)

Lastly, one could always get a Estonian E-residency card (which is a fancy name for a verified ID card from the Estonian government), with that it is possible to open Estonian bank accounts entirely remotely if one wishes.