Welcome Nomad!

[E. Christian Trejo]

My name is E. Christian Trejo, author of Flight of Fancy Life Formula and I love this forum.
A long story made it short.

I am from Mexico, I have a permanent residence in Spain, I studied in Switzerland and I have been a nomad for the last 7 years.

So, I know the struggle with banking solutions when you get your card lost, stolen, cloned, eaten by a dolphin, whatever. And the same with ATM fees, currency exchange fees, withdrawal fees, payment fees, oxygen breathing fees, etc.

I had a Mexican bank account, a Spanish bank account, a DISTINGUISHED SWISS bank account and a US bank account and I must say, none of them was good enough, (Swiss banks are not that cool anymore) no matter the bank so I am super proud and happy to announce that 5 months ago I opened my N26 bank account online using the app in my iPhone and it took me literally 10 mins and my password (including 5 minutes video conference with a representative of the bank using the N26 app).

I AM AMAZED ABOUT THIS GUYS.

In less than a week I got my debit Mastercard in my address delivered by DHL. It includes a TRAVEL INSURANCE by Allianz in case something happen with your trip or if you have an accident or lost your baggage.

In less than 24 hours, the bank granted me 500 euros credit (overdraft) without even building a credit check or something similar.

I can check all my expenses online and I got notifications every time I pay for something. Seriously, it's great. And because it's so great I made an article about it to give you more detailed information about it:

Why Every Traveler Or Nomad Should Bank With N26?

NO MORE ATM FEES!

Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks for visiting my first post.

[Steve Calvert]

I read this and thought it may work for me. Then I did some checks and discovered you can only open an account if you have a residency address in a Eurozone country. I am no longer an official resident of any country. Many nomads may be in the same boat.

[E. Christian Trejo]

Well, actually you just need an address in the euro zone so they can deliver your card. When I open it, I did it only with my Mexican passport and I gave the address of a german friend. They sent me the card to her address and I am using now the bank account without problem. They never asked for my visa or residence or anything at all. If you have a friend in a European country you can ask as a favor if you can receive your debit card there, that’s it. Also, N26 is about to open its services in USA.

[Steve Calvert]

Nope. I'm still not convinced I would want to put my money with N26. From their website: "You can open an N26 account if you are at least 18 years of age, are permanently resident in any of the countries supported by us and own a compatible smartphone." The whole idea of being a nomad is that you are not "permanently resident" in a particular place. It's clear that this bank account is not intended for people living a nomadic lifestyle and it certainly is not the best option.

I did some research. N26 also penalizes people for making too many withdrawals per month. In 2016, they made the news (not in a good way) when they started closing customers' accounts because they were making 15 or more withdrawals per month. So if you go to the cash point three times per week you're screwed. They also accused people of money laundering. Source: Number26 closed accounts because customers made too many ATM withdrawals

I've seen the affiliate links on your site and can see you are obviously trying to promote N26. I checked their site. There's a lot of things I like, and I can understand why it may work well for you because you have a permanent address in Spain, but I still don't think it's N26 is a good option for nomads.

[E. Christian Trejo]

Yeah why not? I can tell my friends about the last movie I liked in the cinema and I will try to make some some cents from that if it’s possible. (That’s how many nomads make money) I promote products I used and I believed in. I don’t promote things I have never used. Fair enough if you don’t want to try it. I mean “trying something for free” can’t hurt you. You don’t have to put all your millions there, but it’s worth trying with some bucks. If you have a better option that allows you to open a bank account online without having an address to send you the debit card and that gives you ATM withdrawals worldwide for free and travel insurance for less than €5 a month please tell me, I will try it right now.

[Steve Calvert]

Unfortunately, I can't suggest a better option at the moment. Your post caught me attention because I was hoping it would be something I may be able to use. At the moment, I'm using bank accounts in countries where I no longer have an address and am anticipating problems in the future. I did read about a "business solution" that would provide me with an office address and bank account and is designed specially for nomads. Everything seems to check out, but I have not done anything about it yet. There's no hurry. I don't have any immediate problems, I'll explore that option later, unless I learn of a better alternative. The thing with bank accounts is, I need to have complete faith in them. Don't get me wrong. If I was an official resident in Spain, Germany, etc., and could be sure I wouldn't need to make too many withdrawals per week, I may consider this option. I move around though, and, although I only make one withdrawal most weeks, I like to think I could make as many as I like if the need arose. Nobody should be penalized for accessing their own funds.

[E. Christian Trejo]

I understand. But consider that the info you read was in 2016, the company has grown a lot since then.

I haven’t had any problem with withdrawals, must of the time I pay with card but in South Asia I prefer to use cash since my cards have been cloned multiple times while traveling in South Asia. I have done 2 or 3 withdrawals sometimes in a day (not always of course) usually I made one withdrawal every 2 days and everything works perfectly. I even tried to withdraw when I was using the overdraft that the bank gave me and no problem.

Companies improve and get better. Also, about the money laundry.... well if you deposit cash in your account in big amounts, at some point the bank will need to know where is that money coming from; the same would happen with any bank. If you get transfers from companies or other banks, I don’t think you will have any problem. Thanks for sharing and if you find something, share it here.

[WGroleau]

I don’t have a home, but I do have a US mailing address. Both of my US banks have no objection to using that address, especially since all my communications with them are electronic. Schwab reimburses all ATM fees anywhere; the other bank is the backup for card/ATM problems. I’d like to have one more, but I haven’t found a US bank that doesn’t want to do a credit check on me when I am loaning my money to them. (My credit records are locked and unlocking them is not worth the trouble.)

Revolut sounded good, but their false advertising (at least twice claiming to already have things they’ve only applied for) makes me reluctant to deal with them. A similar online bank (forgot the name) sounded even better, but it was started by folks with a reputation of not lasting very long.

[Ermint Twizel]

Another vote for N26.com I have one of their cards and current account. Though I am a little concerned at the dishing out of free overdrafts with so few controls.

EU payments are VERY easy, just an IBAN required and a paired phone to approve transactions. Going well so far. As above, just an EU address is required for service.

Good for € EU use.