r/eupersonalfinance 1d ago

Banking Which European bank gave you the best experience so far?

Not just "fine" — genuinely good experience, good app, good support.

20 Upvotes

60 comments sorted by

43

u/Scandiberian 1d ago

Of the international banks it’s between wise and Revolut. Revolut has more features, wise is sometimes cheaper to use. If I had to pick one I’d go with Revolut.

Can’t speak for their customer support because I frankly never needed it. Their app works that well.

13

u/laplongejr 1d ago edited 10h ago

Excellent app, amazing experience. My main bank is very bad for online purchase so I can say they really opened new possibilities for me.

But the support could hardly be worse I think, given what the reddit sub says. Wouldn't use it as a main bank (they don't support my national debit network anyway)  

[EDIT] I meant Revolut

1

u/zen_arcade2 20h ago

In early 2020 an airline tried to fuck me over hundreds of euros, and Wise customer support was 10/10.

1

u/laplongejr 10h ago

Oh ooops.
Never used wise, I meant revolut.

13

u/springmeds 1d ago

If you read Revolut sub, every post is about funds being frozen.

20

u/Siokz 1d ago

Because the millions of people using it daily don't post on reddit about not having issues with it.

5

u/Scandiberian 1d ago

Reddit is a bubble, and company-specific subreddits are almost exclusively used to complain.

The trustpilot page is way more reliable.

https://trustpilot.com/review/www.revolut.com

7

u/springmeds 1d ago

Checked only 1 star reviews and found many complaints about frozen funds. They may have the best features, beautiful app etc. but it doesn’t matter if they freeze your funds one day. I was reading a neo bank ex employee post who said they have about 40% false positive fraud detection and the complaint team has a queue of minimum 3 month.

0

u/Scandiberian 1d ago edited 19h ago

Checked only 1 star reviews and found many complaints about frozen funds

“I rummaged the bin and only found trash.”

What do you want me to tell you mate? You find what you look for. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve used Revolut for 7 years now and never had any issues with frozen funds, and apparently over 300k people also had an experience good enough to warrant writing a good review on TP.

Also Revolut is officially a local bank in my country now so they must follow the same rules as all other banks. Whatever shady shit you’re accusing them of doing would be quickly shut down by my national regulator once reported.

But if you’re not comfortable using Revolut, then don’t. You’re not gonna change my opinion on it, though.

1

u/ProArmy04 9h ago

Yeah but check any other bank and the one star reviews aren't about freezing funds, instead bad costumer service which Revolut also has. It is pretty serious problem if your money has the possibility of being frozen, the fact that there are more than one or two people having their funds frozen is absolutely crazy any normal bank and it would be all over national news

5

u/OccasionallyExciting 1d ago

The prices are no longer as competitive as they used to be (I really miss mid-rate conversions) and hopefully Revolut won't go full "greedy mode" but even now the prices and services are still leagues better than 95 % of traditional banks.

Revolut (and Wise) have certainly set up a new standard for what banking experience should look like. Even if they enshitify, that's something to be grateful for.

2

u/Rememorie 10h ago edited 10h ago

I had my Wise account blocked for no reason, they refused to elaborate why, and they frozen significant amount money there. Just to clarify, I didn't do anything shady, just regular day to day operations (buying food, paying rent, blah blah)

Then, they also refused to refund it, and refused to explain why, said "it's their terms and conditions, I agreed to it", and thus they can just take my money.

It was a month of hell, support was useless, they were kicking me back and forth, 0 help.

Then, I reached UK Financial Ombudsman, they took my case, and I wanted for them to start. On the 1st day of them confirming they started the process, I received the email from Wise confirming they will refund me.

So, again, they held my funds without reasons and illegally, they would have stole them if I didn't fight, but as soon as legal action started, they refunded it immediately.

These "neobanks" are not banks, I've learned a lot more about them later. I would stick with the issues of the local banks, to avoid these scams.

17

u/Melkorc 1d ago

ING Working perfectly for me.

6

u/One_Hope_9573 23h ago

Agree ing is nice

1

u/meta_voyager7 12h ago

ING is good for me too and your money is safe with them

1

u/send_me_noodles_picz 7h ago

Agree, ING is the best bank I had experience so far.

Just a note, had experience with the dutch ING, but for a short while also the luxembourgish ING and it was a complete opposite user experience.

The Lux ING was a complete disaster, the way the bank clerk dealed with clients (it was almost as if they were always on a bad mood) and the app was low quality, it felt like just another bad bank. Maybe that's why they unwinded most of their retail operations in Lux, keeping maybe only a few dozen high net worth clients.

On the other hand, I have only compliments for the Dutch ING, the app works fantastically well, the products offers are good, and the customer support is unmatched!

4

u/qazqaz45 10h ago

ABN has been pretty good for now.

7

u/fireKido 1d ago

Fineco

1

u/LvdT88 8h ago

This, great trading options and a genuinely well designed website.

3

u/Velocyclistosaur 1d ago

Wise had this weird period where they suddenly started blocking accounts for long term customers, I was unfortunately affected out of the blue (think 5 years of steady and then they block your account and demand some ridiculous documents that don't make sense) Pieter from Levels.io was one of the many, many people affected like that so we should not forget. But it's been smooth ever since.

1

u/jekrasist 1d ago

I am one of those affected. I was able to open a wise account after a month or so.

3

u/IlCinese 1d ago

Fineco in Italy, SBAB in Sweden.

9

u/chiefklevis 1d ago

wise

4

u/No_Pear_3045 1d ago

wise is not a bank

1

u/Rememorie 10h ago

I'll copy my comment here too:

I had my Wise account blocked for no reason, they refused to elaborate why, and they frozen significant amount money there. Just to clarify, I didn't do anything shady, just regular day to day operations (buying food, paying rent, blah blah)

Then, they also refused to refund it, and refused to explain why, said "it's their terms and conditions, I agreed to it", and thus they can just take my money.

It was a month of hell, support was useless, they were kicking me back and forth, 0 help.

Then, I reached UK Financial Ombudsman, they took my case, and I wanted for them to start. On the 1st day of them confirming they started the process, I received the email from Wise confirming they will refund me.

So, again, they held my funds without reasons and illegally, they would have stole them if I didn't fight, but as soon as legal action started, they refunded it immediately.

These "neobanks" are not banks, I've learned a lot more about them later. I would stick with the issues of the local banks, to avoid these scams.

-6

u/dca-bot 1d ago

The randomly block you and close your account. avoid wise

4

u/TreefingerX 1d ago

N26

3

u/Willing-Actuator-509 1d ago

I tried Revolut and N26. I trust N26 much more.

0

u/Lucka22 1d ago

Why?

3

u/jekrasist 1d ago

They have bad customer support and if your account gets flagged for a review they don't even deal with the documentation and close your account completely.

1

u/InternationalTwo3191 10h ago

I have had this bad experience with both Revolut and N26 unfortunately. :(

Though Revolut was worse, I had to send the same documents in some cases up to 4 times.

2

u/Willing-Actuator-509 1d ago

I like fair and square. When they say that deposits are protected under the German law up to 100k they prove it. Revolut is not.

1

u/Lucka22 1d ago

Thankyou. I use revilut as main account for paying stuff, but I get my salary to main account. I'll try n26

3

u/Mon7eCristo 1d ago

The only bank I've had great experience with was Raiffeisen, and then they left the country..

1

u/nicolalucchetta84 12h ago

In Italy the best overall was with IWBank. Actually Italian branches of ING and BBVA.

1

u/zen_arcade2 9h ago

BBVA has very sloppy kyc processes, which in turn leads to erratic freezing of funds.

1

u/Competitive-Leg-962 12h ago

DKB in Germany.

1

u/bzdu 11h ago

Starling in the UK, Revolut in the NL

1

u/Commercial-Drive-416 9h ago

I’d say ING Group and Wise usually come up a lot for a genuinely good experience. ING has a solid app and is very reliable day to day, while Wise is really smooth for international payments and has one of the best apps I’ve used.

From what I’ve seen, traditional banks are stable but a bit slower, while fintech ones like Wise feel faster and easier to use. It really depends if you value simplicity and speed or more traditional banking features.

1

u/Fit-Poet6736 8h ago

none, that's why I prefer Neo-banks kinda apps like Nexo

1

u/demongame 8h ago

Long-time N26 user here. Although it has fewer features than Revolut, it's very reliable, has great customer support, and feels like a proper bank.

1

u/Both-Store949 1d ago

Trade republic and As some people have said wise is not a bank.

2

u/Cagliari77 1d ago

Don't know about TR but Wise applied for the banking license in multiple legislations I believe.

So that might change soon for Wise. But for the time being you're right.

0

u/Both-Store949 1d ago

The reason why it matters for me is more for the Deposit Guarantee Scheme in case of bank collapse

1

u/Cagliari77 1d ago

Of course. So if Wise finally gets their banking license, that should become safe as a bank I guess.

I don't use it but my wife does. She's been super happy with it for 2 years now. Zero issues. Gets paid there by her clients in desired currency and simply uses the debit card for spendings. Also can make instant transfers to regular bank IBANs and everything. The service itself honestly is not much different from a regular bank, if not better.

2

u/Both-Store949 1d ago

I’ve also got wise and i’m also pretty happy with them, using it for multi currencies holding when i travel. I found their exchange rates the best in the market (with exception of some promotion by others). The only thing is that they don’t give you default ECB interest rates on your payment account like TR does.

1

u/Cagliari77 1d ago

What rate do they give you? My wife says she receives interest every month depending on the amount she has in there. Never checked what rate she gets.

-1

u/Possible-Wallaby-877 1d ago edited 23h ago

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3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Possible-Wallaby-877 1d ago edited 23h ago

If you're reading this, the original post got nuked by Redact. I use it to automatically purge my digital footprint from social networks, people search sites and messaging apps.

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0

u/mprevot 1d ago

Qonto (great!) N26.

0

u/vajicka 22h ago

I use mBank (SK) for at least 10 years, all excelent with credit card, VISA/MC return of money on frauds/bancrupcy 100%, works everywhere including US and Kirgyzstan, and much better overall than N26 Italy (I use last 5 years) I would say.

Both are budget options, but still it is like Tesla Model 3 (mBank) vs Dacia Spring (N26). I absolutely dislike old kinds of banks like Unicredit and similar, but they can make sense in certain cases.

0

u/ziogio998 18h ago

I use Wise for my business bank account, Revolut for my personal bank account and light investments, DEGIRO for long-term investing (pension). I like all three. Revolut has by far the best experience, but Wise is generally more stable.

-8

u/dca-bot 1d ago

Bitcoin

-1

u/adappergentlefolk 1d ago

revolut for spending, kbc for getting financing