The best (and worst) smartphone bank apps – and why Revolut and N26 are
beating the incumbents
Daragh Cassidy
When it comes to banking apps, Revolut leads the way.
Revolut is now officially a bank in Ireland, which means any deposits up
to €100,000 are covered by the deposit guarantee scheme. And all users
now have an Irish Iban, which means there should be no problem getting
paid by your employer or setting up things like direct debits.
The fintech has pretty much revolutionised what is possible to do with
your money and all the other banks’ mobile apps trail in its wake.
The best thing about Revolut is how easy it is to send money to other
users. All it really takes is the touch of a button. There’s no
searching for long Ibans or waiting a few days for money to reach your
account. And because Revolut has over two million users in Ireland, it’s
rare to find a friend or relative to whom you can’t ‘Revolut’ some money
in seconds.
The app has biometric (face and fingerprint) login as well as the option
to temporarily freeze your card in the app and unfreeze it. So if you
think you’ve lost your card after a wild night out and start to panic,
you can quickly put a temporary freeze on your account as opposed to
cancelling all your cards. Should you happen to find your card the next
day (or maybe the next hour!) you can just unfreeze it again and all
will be good.
Revolut also allows you to disable online transactions if you want to
(while still being able to make payments in stores with your physical
card and to withdraw cash from ATMs). As most fraud is carried out
online, this is another really handy security feature.
You can also disable the contactless feature temporarily and enable it
again at the touch of a button in the app. So if you’re off on holiday,
or just a big night out, and would prefer the added security of chip and
pin only in case you misplace your card, this is a really handy feature.
You can also receive up-to-the-minute push notification and detailed
analytics on your spending. The former is a great security feature also
as if you lose your card or it’s fraudulently used online, you’ll know
the second someone tries to use it to pay for something.
With Revolut you can also take a pic of a receipt with your phone, link
it to your purchase and then save it in the app. So no more rummaging
around looking for lost receipts in case you want to exchange something!
Revolut now offers personal loans up to €30,000 and a credit card and
it’s possible to apply for both of these in the app within minutes.
Revolut also has a good in-app rewards scheme which offers discounts and
cashback on lots of top brands.
There is also an ingenious money saving feature called Vaults. Every
time you make a purchase with your card, Revolut will automatically
round up your transaction to the nearest whole number and place the
difference into your Vault. So every time you buy your morning coffee
for €2.80, €0.20 will go straight into your Vault. Think of it as your
online coin jar.
Revolut also offers a great service to help with shopping online safely
- disposable virtual cards. At the click of a button you can create a
brand new ‘virtual’ card within the Revolut app, which you can use for
one-off purchases online. The card details then automatically expire and
your virtual card is destroyed as soon as you’ve used it so even if the
website you have shopped with turns out to be dodgy, at least the
scammers won’t have access to any more of your money or be able to sell
on your card details. And to make things even handier, a new disposable
card will automatically be generated for you as soon as your card has
been used and destroyed.
And don’t worry about refunds - if you return something the money will
automatically be credited onto your main physical card.
If you’re a parent or guardian, Revolut also has a great feature called
Revolut <18 (previously Revolut Junior). This is an app designed by
Revolut for children between the ages of 7 and 17. Its purpose is to
instil and reinforce good money habits in children from a young age.
It’s made up of three distinct features: An app for kids so they can
check their own balance and get transaction alerts; a card that allows
them to make contactless, chip and PIN and online transactions; and most
importantly, a specially-designed section in the existing adult’s
Revolut app, allowing parents and guardians to manage and oversee all
their child’s spending.
If all the above isn’t enough, you can also buy and sell stocks and
shares and cryptocurrency in the app.
The Revolut app is slick, quick, and well designed. The only small
complaint, and it might seem petty, is that the app receives so many
regular updates and changes with new features, that sometimes finding
your way around the app can be a tiny bit cumbersome.
Nevertheless, when it comes to mobile banking, it’s pretty hard to beat
Revolut.
Revolut’s latest upgrade allows customers to set up joint accounts
A long overdue step on the right to make your own decisions
A close second
N26
N26 isn’t nearly as popular as Revolut in Ireland but it too has a slick
and well-designed app which has many of the same features as Revolut.
Like Revolut you can easily send and receive money to other users in
seconds. N26 calls this ‘MoneyBeam’. But with ‘only’ around 200,000
customers in Ireland – compared to 2 million or so for Revolut - this
feature isn’t quite so handy. You can of course send money to non-N26
customers in the app. It’s just a little more cumbersome.
Online, contactless and ATM payments can all be easily turned on and off
within the app for added security and you can also temporarily freeze
and unfreeze your card.
There’s biometric login but somewhat annoyingly you have to re-log in
with your password around every one or two months. And N26’s version of
Revolut’s Vaults – called Round-Ups – is only available with premium
accounts.
As with Revolut, you can also receive up-to-the-minute push
notifications and detailed analytics on your spending. And you can now
buy cryptocurrency.
N26 also has a rewards scheme for customers but this is now limited to
premium paying users too.
As a German bank you’ll get a German Iban so you might still find it
difficult to set up certain payments or get paid.
N26 doesn’t offer any credit services such as loans, credit cards or
even an overdraft for now though.
All in all, it’s a great app. Though perhaps not quite as colourful or
‘fun’ to use as Revolut’s. And the lack of any credit services means it
won’t be suitable as a ‘main bank’ for some people.
Best of the ‘big ones’
AIB
Out of the three remaining large retail banks, AIB probably has the best
mobile app. But it’s by no means perfect.
It’s not a patch on Revolut or N26 but the number of features has
increased over time and the app is fairly slick, quick and user friendly.
There’s biometric login, the freeze and unfreeze card feature, and it
now allows you to pay someone who’s also an AIB customer just by using
their phone number. So similar to Revolut and N26. But only for amounts
up to €1,000 - mind you that should be more than enough for most people!
However, contactless or online payments can’t be temporarily turned on
or off within the app (as with Revolut and N26) nor does AIB offer
customers any type of in-app rewards scheme.
The big negative is that certain transactions can only be done on
internet banking (your desktop or laptop) and require the dreaded card
reader. A device that looks like a mini calculator and which will
invariably go missing when you need it most!
For example if you want to add a new payee, a new bill, or set up a new
direct debit or standing order, you’ll need to do it on internet banking
with your card reader. However, once you’ve set up the new payee or
direct debit/standing order you can then pay someone from within the app
going forward and view or cancel the direct debit/standing order in the app.
AIB also has a handy ‘Quick Balance’ feature which allows you to view up
to two account balances at the touch of a button without logging in.
The Worst
PTSB
There aren’t many positive things to say about the PTSB mobile app
unfortunately. And I’m a customer so I know…
You can do all the basic things you need to do. And in most cases the
account will only cost you a net €1 a month, which is good value. But
the app is slow, not very slick looking and doesn’t even offer the most
basic of features such as face or fingerprint login. The freeze/unfreeze
card feature also isn’t available. And you can’t turn on or off any
types of payments such as contactless or online payments.
There are no push notifications on your spending or detailed analytics.
Needless to say you can’t buy any stocks or shares or cryptocurrency either!
Unlike AIB, there’s no card reader. So that’s something positive at least.
You can also apply or at least start to apply for things like loans and
overdrafts and even a mortgage within the app. But personal experience
shows that the functionality is often buggy with applications not going
through. Besides, for the vast majority of people day-to-day
functionality is more important than a feature which they might only
carry out every few years at most.
Could do much better
Bank of Ireland
Bank of Ireland has been slow to innovate where technology is concerned.
It was slow to even launch Google Pay and Apple Pay while the quality of
its mobile app and online banking services still lag behind its main
rival AIB.
Last year the bank launched some handy new online features. Though they
were hardly ground breaking.
Customers can now freeze and unfreeze their card within the app. You can
now also view your PIN instantly (in case you forget it) and order a
replacement card online without having to call the bank. And customers
can easily send each other money just by using their phone contacts.
The most recent update finally included biometric log-in – that it took
until 2023 for this to happen is pretty damning though.
There are no push notifications on your spending.
The design, look and feel of the app could also be better, and this is
where a lot of criticism from users come in. Many comment that the app,
despite its recent expensive upgrades, feels dated, is slow and
difficult to navigate, and freezes too often. Clunky is perhaps the best
way to describe it.
For a bank of its size making over a billion in profit, Bank of Ireland
could do much better.
The Challenger
An Post Money
An Post Money first launched a current account back in 2017 and in 2021
completely redesigned and updated its app, which now comes with some
novel features.
For example, customers can easily save by setting money aside in
dedicated sub-accounts or ‘Jars’. You can set savings targets and
deadlines and pay bills right out of a Jar.
Customers can also avail of the Round Up function, which rounds up your
debit card payments to the next whole number and puts the difference in
a Jar. So this is similar to Revolut’s Vaults feature.
The account also lets you easily stay in control of your finances and
avoid nasty surprises with helpful alerts for transactions like direct
debits, credits to your account or failed payments. You just decide what
alerts you want to receive and how you’d like to receive them – by
email, text or online – and you’ll be kept up-to-date. You can also set
budgets and stick to them with automatic alerts whenever you nearly
reach your limits.
Customers can also access An Post Money Mate. This is a current account
aimed at kids between the ages of 7 and 15. With this feature, parents
can set up an account for their child from their own app. With each
account a child receives their own debit card allowing them to make
contactless, chip & PIN or online payments - but fully overseen and
controlled by their parent or guardian from their own account. This is
similar to Revolut <18.
There is also a budget management tool called Money Manager which gives
you a detailed, daily view of all your spending and payments. And
through the power of Open Banking you can link any other current
accounts to the tool to get a wider overview of your finances.
You can also freeze and unfreeze your card and there is biometric login.
It’s a good app by all accounts and it’s great to see An Post step into
the gap which Ulster Bank and KBC are leaving.
Is there still a need for a traditional bank?
With so much banking being done online, the big question is whether
there’s still a need for a traditional bank at all.
Though many Irish people still value the personal touch, there’s
probably a misperception around how much we actually visit or need
branches. And many people under the age of 30 in particular may never
have stepped into one at all.
But where traditional banks have an advantage over online banks is
customer service.
There’s a feeling of comfort knowing you can always call into a branch
and talk to a human should anything happen to your account or your money.
With N26 and Revolut, all customer service is carried out online, mainly
via an in-app chat function. As neither bank has any branches, you won’t
be able to meet anyone in person should you need help. Instead you will
have to go in-app to discuss an issue. And sometimes it can be tedious.
Especially as you’ll have to type everything out.
Another issue to be aware of is some customers getting locked out of
their accounts for ‘fraud’.
Increasingly strict anti-money laundering legislation and big fines for
companies that breach it means online banks in particular often take a
heavy-handed approach to even the slightest suspicion of fraud. The fact
that online banks usually use artificial intelligence and machine
learning to monitor accounts, as opposed to real people, means
legitimate accounts can sometimes get incorrectly flagged.
What’s more, under money laundering laws, if suspicious activities are
being investigated, bank staff are not allowed to tell customers why
they have frozen their account, which can leave many frustrated, as they
don’t know what to do to regain access.
This issue, although rare, seems to affect Revolut users more so than
N26 customers but that may just be because Revolut has far more users in
Ireland. But it’s something to note if you’re thinking about ditching
traditional banking altogether.
One to watch
Synch
Mindful of the threat posed by online banks, and Revolut in particular,
a consortium of Irish banks has launched a venture called Synch. It’s
developing a new app and infrastructure that will allow users to send
and receive payments instantly regardless of who you bank with.
It initially ran into competition concerns with the CCPC. And others
have raised eyebrows as to why the banks are launching this venture when
another technology, Sepa Instant, would appear to already do the job.
And, as outlined above, the likes of Revolut and N26 do far more than
just allow instant payments. So Synch will need to offer more than this
too if it’s to really challenge the dominance of the online-only banks.
Daragh Cassidy is head of communications at bonkers.ie
Sunday Independent
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