Best bank accounts for travellers, expats and digital nomads

Published in

Future Travel

6 min readJun 5, 2017

Last updated on 1 May 2019.

I like to follow what’s happening in the world of “challenger banks” (a terrible name, by the way), i.e. FinTech startups offering a modernised banking experience which often comes with perks such as free ATM withdrawals abroad or card payments with no foreign exchange fees.

I have had the same conversation with my friends so many times… I describe how I save money on currency conversions and when paying for stuff while travelling, and I keep sending the same links and info to everyone. So today I decided to make a post instead. I hope you find it useful!

Before we begin:

The information here may be wrong or outdated. I’ll try to update it from time to time but I take no responsibility for it as things change fast in the FinTech world. Please message me if you find any errors or outdated information! (Last update was on 1 May 2019.)
Some of these companies are banks with full FSCS protection (UK, or equivalent in other jurisdictions), others still have their application in progress, or don’t have any protection at all. I haven’t checked this exhaustively. Your money may be at risk, use them responsibly.
Some links are referral links. Obviously. I’ll mark them as such and if you choose to use them — thank you, good sir!

TL;DR

I use Transferwise (referral) to transfer money, Revolut (referral) to exchange between currencies, N26 (referral) for a EUR based account and Monzo (referral) and Starling Bank (referral) for GBP based accounts. Charles Schwab Bank (a more traditional type of bank though), or either Simple or Moven for the best options for USD.

Some basics

There are a few things you should be thinking about when choosing which of these services to use. First of all, in what currencies do you get paid or have savings? You probably want a service based in one of those currencies to avoid the need for transferring money. (But see section below for transferring money!) Secondly, for many of these companies, you need an address in a country where they are currently operating, which can limit your choice. Thirdly, some accounts offer “real” account details like IBAN, account number + sort code (UK) or routing numbers (US). Finally, you want a card that has the lowest fees on transactions/withdrawals (and preferably no monthly limits). N.B. Unless I say otherwise, “no fees” means that the currency conversion happens at Mastercard rates with no extra fees levied by the company, which is a great deal.

I’ll group the companies according to countries and currencies below. But first let’s mention money transfers between currencies.

Transferring money between currencies

Transferwise

By now everyone has at least heard of this Estonian-founded startup thanks to its vigorous marketing campaigns. Very easy to use, offers mid-market conversion rates and supports a bunch of currencies. Charges 0.5% of transaction amount, or £2 fixed minimum fee. Sign up via this link (referral).

Very recently, Transferwise introduced their Borderless Account — see more information below.

Azimo

Transferwise doesn’t cover all currencies that I have needed to send money to and while there exist many services (and I haven’t bothered researching them all), I personally have had good experience with Azimo.

If you are transferring between your own accounts in GBP, EUR, USD, CHF or PLN, consider using Revolut (referral) as well (see below for more details).

Multi-currency accounts

Transferwise Borderless Account — GBP, EUR, USD and more

This is the newest and one of the coolest additions to my list. You can have proper bank account details in the UK (GBP), Germany (EUR), the US (USD) and Australia (AUD) plus hold 15 other currencies (with their own local bank accounts coming soon!) and convert between them at mid-market rates + 0.5% fee. Here’s the link (referral).

No receiving fees for getting paid to any of the “real” bank accounts in their currency! No subscription fees! You just pay a small fee to withdraw or send money (pricing details).

Recently, Transferwise also introduced debit cards! Basically, it is free to spend currencies you hold, you get cheap Transferwise conversion rates to other supported currencies, and Mastercard rates on the rest. It is a good deal especially for those who are using the Borderless Account to get paid.

Revolut — GBP, EUR, USD, 12 others

You can hold 15 different currencies (and several cryptocurrencies) and interconvert between them at live market rates with no fees (up to £5,000/€6,000/equivalent per month, or 0.5% fee thereafter). You get “real” UK GBP bank account details, and others are in the pipeline. The EUR account supports SEPA payments.

It comes with a Mastercard debit card. Foreign currency purchases are also at live market rates with no fees (above limits apply). ATM withdrawals are free up to £200/€200/equivalent per month, 2% fee thereafter. (There are better options than this, see below!) Also, worth noting that there is a premium version to remove the limits and during weekends (when there is no live market rate) there is a 0.5–2% surcharge, see FAQ for details.

Euro (EUR)

N26 — all Eurozone

One of the first players in this market, used to be significantly cheaper to use but now has started charging various fees. Bank transfers and foreign currency purchases via its Mastercard debit card are still free, so it is the best EUR based option available if you want to spend this currency abroad. However, non-EUR ATM withdrawals are charged a 1.7% fee, unless you go premium for €5.90/month.

Sign up via this link (referral). Available to residents of Eurozone countries (except Malta and Cyprus), but also in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland.

N26 now also have a UK-based GBP account with the exact same pricing, and they are soon launching in the US.

British Pound (GBP)

Monzo — UK

GBP based account (proper account details) with no fees on anything. Pure bliss. Link (referral, you get free £10). You need a UK address. There is a limit of £200 per month on withdrawals.

Starling Bank — UK

No fees on anything, not even foreign ATM withdrawals and proper account details. It even pays you 0.5% interest rate on £2k (and 0.25% above). Link (referral). You need a UK address.

Monese — UK

If you don’t have a UK address but want a GBP based account, and you are not happy with either Transferwise or Revolut, you can try Monese. £4.95/month and you get a Visa debit card and full bank account details. But only 10 ATM withdrawals per month and non-GBP withdrawals and purchases get charged 0.5% fee (see pricing).

Curve — UK

This is not really a proper bank account but instead this is a card that allows you to link your other cards to it and switch between them on a mobile app — so you only need to carry one card with you. I find it useful because of its range of cashback deals with shops like M&S and Boots. Plus an extra useful feature is that all the transactions show on the app immediately, unlike in case of traditional UK banks, where you have to wait several working days for the transactions to appear on your statement…

United States Dollar (USD)

I have not used any of these myself yet, but it seems that there are two almost equivalent players on the market: Simple and Moven. Both offer a Visa debit card and only charge 1% of foreign transactions. Let me know what you think if you’ve used these!

Although not a “challenger bank”, Charles Schwab Bank offers one of the best deals available in the US with a Visa debit card and no fees on anything. They even claim to reimburse all your ATM fees charged by ATM providers around the world!

There are of course many others that didn’t make this list for one reason or the other, such as fees or only offering business accounts. I might include them in one of the future updates. Please let me know if any information is missing, wrong or outdated! I hope this helps you optimise your finances!

Check out this discussion on Reddit for more suggestions of US and Australian banks! Also, this post for some further US options.

How to learn more about all things money?

“Where can I read more? What news sources do you follow?” I get asked these questions a lot so here’s a brief summary. Not related to the article above, so maybe one day I’ll make it into an article of its own.

Subreddits: US and UK personal finance. There is a gold mine of useful info in the sidebars and the top discussion threads.

UK specific money saving tips and deals: MoneySavingExpert.

THE book to read: Smarter Investing by Tim Hale.

For the daily news I am subscribed to Money Stuff (which is brilliant!) and also Finimize.

P.S. If you liked this post and it helped you save money, consider donating some Ether: 0x0C08F9a0D7d756Cd2Fc61e73c3E3Bc0e4581E639. Thanks!