N26

N26 is a German mobile bank headquartered in Berlin. Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal founded it in 2013, and since 2016 it has held a full German banking licence under the supervision of BaFin. Accounts are opened and run entirely in the app, which N26 offers in 24 European countries.

Features

• Account plans Standard (free), Smart, You and Metal (paid), with a free virtual Mastercard in the Standard plan
• Instant Savings account with interest and a Flexible Cash Fund option
• Investing in stocks, ETFs and ready-made funds from 1 euro
• Deposits protected up to 100,000 euros by the German deposit protection scheme

Good to know

N26 has no branches, so support and everything else happens digitally. In 2021 BaFin limited the number of new customers N26 could take on per month because of weaknesses in risk management, and the cap was lifted on 1 June 2024. Interest rates, fees and the exact feature set differ by plan and country, so the current price list is worth checking before opening an account.