Banking is expensive, especially as you manage multiple accounts in multiple currencies. Luckily, digital banks and FinTech startups have appeared, offering a new banking experience with perks, such as very low currency conversion fees or free ATM withdrawals. In this post, we do our best to give you a quick comparison of the best digital bank accounts for remote professionals and digital nomads.
Service | Residence requirements | Base currencies | Currency conversion | Debit card | Payments | ATM withdrawals | Extra |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transferwise Borderless | not limited | GBP, EUR, USD, AUD & 28 more for virtual accounts | 0.35-1% | Mastercard | Free in currencies with positive balance, otherwise currency conversion fee | Free up to £200/month, 2% afterwards. | Money sending and bank withdrawal (£0.65/€0.80/$1.00) fees. If currencies not covered, try Azimo (one-time £10 off). Transfers also possible. |
Revolut | EU + EEA | GBP (full), EUR (SEPA) | Free up to £5000/month, 0.5% afterwards | Mastercard | Free, with interbank conversion rate | Free up to £200/month, 2% afterwards | |
Monzo | UK | GBP | Mastercard | Free, with Mastercard conversion rate | Free for GBP, free £200/month non-GBP, 3% afterwards | ||
Starling Bank | UK | GBP | Mastercard | Free | All Free | Interest: 0.5% on £2k, 0.25% above. | |
N26 | Some European countries* | EUR, GBP | Mastercard | Free, with Mastercard conversion rate | Free for EUR, 1.7% non-EUR | ||
Monese | not limited | GBP, EUR | Mastercard | Free, exchange rate depends on plan. | Depends on plan. | Deposit fee depends on plan. | |
Simple | US | USD | Visa | Free, except Visa international payment fee (up to 1%) | Free, except Visa international payment fee (up to 1%) | Check also Moven and Schwab. |
P.S. Please note that we uploaded this table on 7 January 2019, and while did our best to keep this table up to date, there might be errors, discrepancies between current and reported rates, etc. Please do not rely on this as financial advice (we take no responsibility if you do) and check beforehand.
Povilas
January 10, 2019 at 13:43
I’m pretty sure N26 do not work in Lithuania and Latvia. They had opened there in 2017, and closed in 2018.
To be super precise: We offer our accounts throughout Europe: in Germany, Austria, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia, the UK, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland (taken from https://support.n26.com/en-eu/getting-started/account/can-i-open-an-n26-account-in-my-country).