Neon vs Revolut: Which is best for you in 2024?
| Updated: |(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Neon and Revolut are both digital banks. Neon is a Swiss company, while Revolut is an international company.
Neon also offers free payments abroad with its cards. This feature makes it a direct competitor of Revolut, which everybody uses to save on currency exchange fees.
So, it is interesting to compare the two. Do you need Revolut now if you have a Neon account?
So, how can you choose between the two? This article helps you decide by comparing in detail Neon vs Revolut. The comparison will be made on many levels: fees, security, limits…
If you want to know which of Neon or Revolut is better for you, keep reading!
Note: I focus on the free Revolut account. They also have premium accounts, but they are outside the scope of this article.
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Best App to Pay, Save and Invest
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Good for travelers
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5.0
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3.0
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What is Neon?
Neon is a Swiss digital bank. Neon is one of the first banks in Switzerland to be entirely digital. It means they have no offices. You can only use Neon with its mobile application. Neon is growing very quickly. In 2021, they reached 80’000 customers already.
What makes them very interesting is that they are free. Currently, very few banks are still free in Switzerland. If you use Neon properly, you can use it entirely for free.
Neon also makes currency exchange free when paying with the card. Currency exchange was one of the things that were not free before. They are doing this to be more attractive to people who like digital banks. And this is a great move!
Neon is not a bank directly. But when you use Neon, your funds are held by a Swiss bank (Hypothekarbank Lenzburg). In practice, this is the same as if Neon was a bank. It means that they cannot offer banking services directly, only indirectly. For the final customer, this does not make any difference. The important thing is that your money is protected by law if Neon or the bank holding your assets fails.
If you want more information about Neon, you should read my complete review of Neon.
What is Revolut?
Revolut is a digital bank from the United Kingdom and one of the most famous neo-banks. It is entirely digital, so it does not have offices open for customers.
Their main feature is their very cheap currency conversion services. Many people use Revolut when they travel to avoid the hefty fees that traditional banks have. For instance, in Switzerland, most banks charge at least 1.5% on each currency conversion. Using Revolut can save you a lot of money!
They support many currencies, and you can use them in most countries. You can even hold money in different currencies in your account. It is excellent if you need to receive money in other currencies. Or if you want to bet on the exchange rates.
Now, Revolut is not a bank per see, either. They have a banking license, but they have not implemented it yet. And your assets are not held by a bank either, but directly by Revolut. It means that your money will not be protected by law, either. But they have been operating for several years, and it does not seem like they will collapse soon. But we never know!
For more information, you can read my complete review of Revolut.
Availability
We can compare the availability of both services.
Revolut is available to each country part of the European Economic Area (EEA). It means it is available in 31 countries. It is also available in Switzerland and the United States.
As for Neon, this is pretty simple. Neon is only available to Swiss residents. People from 19 countries can open accounts at Neon but must live in Switzerland. But this makes sense since Revolut is aimed at international transfers and not at being the primary bank account.
So, for availability, Revolut is the winner.
Support in Switzerland
Now, we will compare the support in Switzerland.
Revolut has good support in Switzerland. You can withdraw CHF (although very little for free). You can use a Revolut card in all shops that accept Mastercard. In Switzerland, most shops accept them. Also, Revolut has a Mastercard/Visa and a Maestro, which is sometimes quite valuable for Switzerland. You can also send money directly to your CHF account. Unfortunately, you do not have a personal Revolut IBAN.
Neon has excellent support in Switzerland. You can withdraw CHF at any ATM. And you can withdraw significantly more money per month. You can use the cards in the same shops as Revolut without issue. And you can also make transfers in CHF. Finally, you have a personal Neon IBAN so that you can use this for your salary. You do not need to top it up.
In Switzerland, Neon is the winner. Only the fact that it offers a personal IBAN in CHF is a great plus. It is necessary if you want to use it as your primary account. By that, I mean to use it to receive your salary in CHF. Some companies may be willing to use a reference number to pay to your Revolut account. But most companies will not do that.
Money Transfer Services
Neon is primarily a bank, but it recently started offering free currency exchange. So, I will start by comparing payments and transfers between currencies.
With Neon, your base currency is always CHF. And using your card, you can pay in other currencies for free abroad. You can make transfers in different currencies, but this will not be free. Also, you only have a base account in CHF and cannot hold EUR or USD in your account, for instance.
With Revolut, you have access to the same base services as Neon. However, you can get accounts in other currencies (EUR or GBP). It is convenient since you can receive incoming payments in EUR for free. I do not use this a lot. But it is good to have it.
You can also make bank transfers in other currencies with Revolut. I do it regularly for several EUR platforms.
The advantage of Neon is that you get a CHF IBAN. But with Revolut, you will get a personal EUR and GBP IBAN account. And this is helpful.
Finally, you can use Google Pay and Apple Pay with Revolut and Revolut. And you can even use Samsung Pay with Neon as well.
One cool thing about Revolut is that you can send money directly to other app users, and doing so is much faster than doing a bank transfer. This feature is convenient if you know other people using the app, but you can also do the same thing with Neon.
So, for money services, Revolut has more features than Neon. It is logical since they based their entire business upon that. And they have more years of experience than Neon.
Other Services
We can also look at other services the two companies provide.
For Neon, it is straightforward. They have no service other than their banking services.
As for Revolut, they have added many services to their offers.
For instance, with Revolut, you can trade cryptocurrencies directly from the application. They do not offer a real wallet, but it could still be useful for some people. And they also started offering free stock trading to people from some countries (not yet in Switzerland).
Revolut also supports the concept of vaults. You can use vaults to save some of your virtual spare changes. I do not think this is very useful. But many people seem to like it.
Another feature worth mentioning with Revolut is the use of virtual cards. You can create a new virtual card directly from the application. And then, you can use it on a website you do not trust. After paying, you can delete the card directly from your Revolut account. It is a great way to protect your payment cards.
So, overall, Revolut has many more features than Neon. However, you may not need so many features!
Neon vs Revolut – Who has higher limits?
It is also interesting to compare the limits of both services.
Revolut has high withdrawal limits. You can withdraw up to 3000 GBP daily (or the equivalent in other currencies). You can spend up to 5000 GBP per 96 hours with the card and up to 30’000 GBP per year.
You can also transfer a lot of money with Revolut. You can transfer up to 100’000 GBP each day and 250’000 GBP each week. The limits are pretty straightforward and very high. You also have a limit of 15 transfers per day and 80 transfers per 7 days.
With Neon, you can have up to 30’000 CHF in daily transactions. With your card, you can withdraw up to 1000 CHF each day. With the card, you can spend 5000 CHF online and 5000 CHF in stores daily. But there is a monthly limit of 10’000 CHF with the card.
Overall, Revolut has significantly higher limits than Neon. You can withdraw more money and spend more money each month.
Which is cheaper – Revolut or Neon?
Now, we delve into the fees of both services.
First, both services are free for general usage. You do not have to pay an account fee. It is a great thing!
We can start with withdrawals. With Neon, you can withdraw twice per month for free in Switzerland. After that, you will pay 2 CHF per withdrawal. Abroad, you will pay 1.5% with Neon. For Revolut, you can withdraw 200 EUR (or equivalent in another currency) per month for free. After this, you will pay a 2% fee on withdrawal.
For withdrawals, I feel like Neon is better than Revolut. The only advantage of Revolut is that you can withdraw 200 EUR per month for free. It can be helpful if you travel to Europe. But 200 EUR is not much unless you can avoid paying cash.
Now, we delve into currency transfer, which means using the cards to pay in currencies other than your base currency.
With Neon, all currency exchanges with the card are free with the Neon card! If you transfer money abroad from your account, these transfers will use Wise. So, you will pay 0.40% for Neon, and you will pay the Wise fee. Generally, it will account for about a 0.8% fee for international money transfers.
Unfortunately, the fees with Neon to receive money are still high. You will also pay a 1.5% fee when you receive payment in a currency other than CHF.
It is a bit more complicated with Revolut. Under some conditions, currency exchanges are free with Revolut. The same rules apply to both the card and the transfers from the app. First, there is a monthly limit of 1000 GBP. All amounts higher than this limit will incur a 1.0% fee. During the weekend, there is an extra 1.0% fee as well.
As for the exchange rates, Neon uses the Mastercard exchange rate, while Revolut uses the so-called Revolut Exchange Rate.
- On average, it is estimated that the spread of the Mastercard rate is 0.4% worse than the interbank rate. And it can be worse for currency pairs with high volatility.
- The Revolut Exchange Rate is all but transparent. Users have estimated that they have a surcharge of about 0.40% compared to the interbank rate.
Therefore, both Neon and Revolut will generally have an extra hidden fee of 0.4%. Since Neon is more transparent than Revolut, Neon has a slight advantage on fees.
Example of exchange fees
We should directly compare the prices for a few examples of conversions. I will consider the monthly amount and use 1000 CHF as the free threshold for Revolut. So, a 5000 conversion will be 1000 CHF free and 4000 CHF paying.
While it is not a direct fee, we also take into account Revolut’s and Neon’s 0.4% average surcharge, to be fair.
| Amount | From | To | Neon Card | Neon Transfer | Revolut | Revolut Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | CHF | EUR | 4 CHF | 8.84 CHF | 4 CHF | 14 CHF |
| 5000 | CHF | EUR | 20 CHF | 41.97 CHF | 60 CHF | 110 CHF |
| 10000 | CHF | EUR | 40 CHF | 83.37 CHF | 130 CHF | 230 CHF |
From this table, we can draw two conclusions:
- For payments by card, Neon is better than Revolut. The base fee is the same (about 0.40% surcharge) and Revolut has extra fees for weekends and high amounts. With Neon, you do not have to worry about the kinds of currencies you use. It is more convenient to use Neon since it gives you better fees on average, regardless of how much you spend per month.
- For transfers, Revolut is better than Neon. However, Revolut is more expensive than Neon during the weekend or if you use more than 1000 GBP (1100 CHF).
Reputation
You do not want to put your money into a bank without knowing its reputation.
Neon has an excellent reputation in Switzerland. I have never heard of any controversy regarding their services. However, we need to keep in mind that it is relatively small. And also, it is relatively new. It was founded in 2017. Neon is significantly younger than Revolut.
On the other hand, Revolut does not have an excellent reputation. For instance, there have been several controversies with Revolut blocking user accounts without reason. They have also been accused of being too lax in preventing money laundering. Finally, some people think they have close ties to the Kremlin.
I never had any issues with Revolut. But taking into account what I hear, I would not keep a large amount of money in my Revolut account. But I am still using it. And I do not think my money is at risk.
So, from a Reputation point of view, Neon has a better reputation than Revolut. However, it is a relatively new service, so the reputation may change over time as they scale.
Which is more secure? Neon or Revolut?
We also need to examine the security of both systems. We will consider two forms of security: insurance in case of bankruptcy and technology security.
First, only Neon has any protection for insurance in case of bankruptcy. Neon is a Swiss bank. Your money is insured for up to 100’000 CHF if something terrible happens to Neon.
On the other hand, your money at Revolut is not insured. Revolut has a banking license, but it has not been implemented yet in Switzerland. In the European Union, they provide bankruptcy protection, but not in Switzerland. If Revolut fails, your money is most likely lost.
As for technical security, both banks are using MasterCard 3D Secure (3DS) technology. It means they will ask you a question (generally an SMS code or a password) to secure the transaction on some websites. It is to protect you from the lousy usage of your card. It is a great thing and is a must for each payment card.
From a technical point of view, both banks offer the same level of safety. However, there is more risk with Revolut since your money is not insured. If Revolut goes bust, you will lose your money. On the other hand, your cash at Neon is insured for up to 100’000 CHF.
Given that, I would say that Neon is safer than Revolut.
To improve your online security, learn about nine things you can do to secure your online personal finances.
Usage as a primary bank
It is essential to mention that I am not comparing Neon vs Revolut for their usage as your primary bank. I am focusing on features for using abroad and sending money in foreign currencies.
The reason is simple: Revolut is not suited to be your primary bank account. Revolut does not offer you a Swiss IBAN, so you cannot get your salary there. Also, they do not have support for e-bills or QR Bills.
This is not to say that Revolut is bad, but it is best suited as a companion bank account.
Neon vs Revolut Summary
We can now summarize the different points of our comparison in this table:
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Best Digital Bank
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Good for travelers
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5.0
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3.0
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Free
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Free
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yes
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yes
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no
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yes
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- Great support in Switzerland
- Pay abroad for free
- Free withdrawals
- Money is insured
- International transfers are not free
- Cannot hold several currencies
- Great worldwide support
- Great transfer fees
- Hold many currencies
- Not transparent exchange rate
- Very limited withdrawals
- Expensive during the weekend
- Poor customer service
- Poor reputation
- Money is not insured
Overall, we can see that both services have strengths and weaknesses.
Neon is a perfect candidate for spending money abroad with a card. Making payments with other currencies with Mastercard is always free, but you also have to take the Mastercard exchange rate into account.
However, Neon does not let you hold other currencies or transfer money for free in currencies other than CHF. For this, Revolut is much better.
Here are the main differences between Neon and Revolut:
- Neon currency exchanges are cheaper when paying with a card!
- Your money on Neon is insured for up to 100’000 CHF!
- Bank transfers in other currencies are generally cheaper with Revolut.
- Neon uses a more transparent exchange rate.
- Revolut lets you hold money in many currencies.
- Revolut has more features.
- Revolut has higher limits than Neon.
- Revolut has a web application, while Neon only has a mobile application.
Neon vs Revolut Conclusion
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- Pay abroad for free
- Invest with great fees
Neon and Revolut are quite different. However, there are many advantages to Neon. Since it is a real bank, you can keep your money there and use your single debit card directly. It means you will not need a bank or travel card.
For most people in Switzerland, Neon is better than Revolut. Your money will be insured, and you can use it as your primary bank account in Switzerland. Then, you only need to take your usual card abroad. It is a great thing! But you need to remember that the limits are lower than Revolut.
But there are still some cases when Revolut is better than Neon. First, if you want to hold different currencies, you will need Revolut. Neon only lets you hold CHF. Second, if you want to receive money in other currencies (EUR or GDB, for instance), you will need Revolut.
For instance, I sometimes receive some money in GBP and EUR from various services on the internet.
Regardless of Neon vs Revolut, having a card for travel can save you a lot of money. And this should be an essential part of your credit card strategy. It is likely what can save you the most money with your card usage.
And finally, if you use Neon or Revolut, you will not get any cashback in Switzerland. If you want cash back, you still need a second (or third) payment card. You can read about my credit cards to see what you could use.
What about you? Do you use Neon or Revolu? Or both?
Download this e-book and optimize your finances and save money by using the best financial services available in Switzerland!
Download The FREE e-bookRecommended reading
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- Revolut Review in Switzerland 2024: Pros & Cons
- How to create a Neon account and use the mobile application
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Thanks for the detailed comparison. One thing I missed is what foreign exchange rate do they use? Revolut has interbank exchange rates which seem very good. Does Neon use Mastercard FX rates or also interbank rates?
Hi Daniel,
I believe Neon uses the Mastercard exchange rate.
Thanks for stopping by!
I am confused. On the Neon website, it says they use the interbanking rate. Which rate does Neon use in the end (to withdraw money from ATM and to pay by card)? Thanks
Hi Sylvain,
Indeed, it’s weird. Their PDF mentions the Mastercard rate but their webpage mentions the interbank rate. So, I actually do not know which one they use.
I will try to get an answer.
Thanks for stopping by
Hello,
I’ve been with Zuger Kantonalbank for a good number of years now and have always been pleased with their service, but it’s certainly not free, and moving to Neon would probably save me in the region of CHF 200 per year. This would mean giving up my Maestro card, as Neon doesn’t use them. Do you find this is much of a problem? I know pretty much every company has moved away from imposing credit card surcharges but there are a few places where Maestro cards are accepted and credit cards aren’t.
Have you found it to be much of an inconvenience?
Also, there’s a piece of me that feels the general move to credit cards impacts smaller businesses negatively. I’m aware that’s not a question, just me putting a thought out there.
Many thanks for your excellent website!
Hi Expat Teacher,
I have not found this to be much of an issue these last few years. It’s true that some administrations are only accepting Maestro cards and not credit cards. But this is getting increasingly rare.
I have had to use a Maestro card once in the last five years.
It’s true that small businesses do not like credit cards much. You could always pay them cash if you wanted to (inconvenient of course).
You could also use Migros Bank which is free if you have 7500 CHF on your account. And they have a Maestro card.
Or, you could give a try to Zak which provides a Maestro (if you speak one of the Swiss languages). I am planning to talk about it on the blog soon. You can use my code JJB3HN to get 25CHF free.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi and thank you for all your articles!
Every month I have to transfert about 1000 chf to an eur bank account .
My ubs bank is applying a big fees.
I would like to have your opinion how is the best way to save some money .
Thank you
Giuseppe
Hi Giuseppe,
What I would do is use Revolut. You can transfer your 1000 CHF from UBS to Revolut and then convert it to Euros and then sent to Eur bank account.
Neon will not help you for that.
You could also use Interactive Brokers if you do not want to trust Revolut for such amounts.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, we’ve been binge reading your site with my boyfriend because are are trying to learn as much as possible about investment and start investing asap. Thanks for the content!
I realize this may be a comment under a wrong topic but I was not sure how else to reach you. In light of USA funds like Vanguard no longer being available to Swiss investors, do you think going with an actively managed fund at one of Swiss banks such for instance UBS and choosing a fund which has USA focused equities could be an alternative? E.g. UBS strategy fund focused on world/USA equities? Why yes or no?
We were quite set on going for Vanguard via IB or Degiro but it doesn’t seem to be an option anymore so we are unsure.
I am sorry if the question stupid and/or in wrong place/under wrong article(s) and thanks in advance if you decide to reply.
Hi Bluebell,
For next time, you can use the contact page if you have a question unrelated to a post :)
So, U.S. Funds are still available to Swiss investors, but only on Interactive Brokers, not on DEGIRO. And Vanguard has European funds that are still available in Europe through DEGIRO for instance.
And no, you should not use UBS funds or any other Swiss banks for that matter. Their fees are simply too high.
So, you can still go with Vanguard U.S. Funds on IB or Vanguard EU Funds on DEGIRO.
Thanks for stopping by!
Revolut has iban
Hi Jg,
Yes, they have a Swiss IBAN. But they do not offer you a personal Swiss IBAN. You need a reference number. This means you won’t be able to get your salary to it for instance.
Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve been planning for some time to make such a comparison. And now you made it! Great, thank you:)
Hi Anne,
I am glad this comparison is helpful :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Hey Mr., congrats for the blog, I’ve been reading it for a while and have been learning lots of useful tips :-)
In regard to this topic, I’m wondering if there are fees or not for using the neon credit card to buy on the internet in other currencies?
Let’s say I buy in amazon France or Germany for example, or paying for hotels or renting cars on the internet:
Would there be fees for that with the neon credit card?
Hi Felipe,
Yes, it is also free on the internet. I have not tested it, but according to their pricing pages, it will be free.
Normally, cards do no discriminate between purchases on stores or on the internet. What is important is the currency and the location of the seller.
Be careful for renting cards that something they ask for a deposit and many of them are refusing debit cards. They only want a credit card for that.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for your answer
What about Transferwise? I’ve been using their transfer and card services for a few years. Their fees are pretty low I believe.
Hi French,
I have also compared TransferWise and Revolut.
TransferWise is an interesting option. The only issue is that it’s never free, there is 0.3% fee on all transfers. But if you need to transfer more money than Revolut free limits, then TW is a really good option.
Both TW and Revolut can hold foreign currencies and make bank transfers in other currencies. This is not possible with Neon.
Thanks for stopping by!
I use Revolut and Neon also but I use Revolut as a proxy for my swiss credit card. I have the chargeback cards from swisscard and if you pay with them abroad, you have to pay an exchange fee. I use the CB Mastercard to top up my Revolut account and I pay with the Revolut card abroad.
Hi Andras,
You can indeed use both, this is what I am doing too. By CB you mean Cembra? It’s indeed quite good to be able to top up Revolut with a credit card and then use Revolut abroad for free! This is something that we cannot do with Neon.
Thanks for stopping by!
I meant the chargeback credit cards from swisscard.
You only can send money to your neon account by domestic payment via bank account? Not with your debit/credit card like with revolut? Thanks in advance for clearing up.
Hi Eston,
That’s correct, it’s a standard Swiss bank account, you need to transfer money to it.
In chapter Examples of exchange fees, you state that:
For transfers, Revolut is significantly better than Revolut.
That is not necessarily the truth. Probably 2nd Revolut is to be replaced by Neon.
In chapter Reputation you praise Neon (starting with “Neon has an excellent reputation in Switzerland.”) and only mention as the potential drawback that the service is new. Then in the Neon vs Revolut Summarry you list both services’ reputaions as Bad. Makes no sense.
Hi Joze,
Thanks for catching these two mistakes. I have fixed them in the article.
Thanks for stopping by!