Paid accounts are not that common in France. Also, it’s always a small event when a bank (or a neobank in this case) announces one for the general public. And it is N26 which has been offering a new offer for just a few hours. Concretely, the rate served will depend on the type of account held with N26. Customers of the N26 Meta premium offer will benefit from the highest rate at 4%. For holders of N26 Smart and You intermediary accounts, the rate will be 2.8%. Please note that these are paid accounts. However, even customers of the free N26 Standard offer will not be forgotten with a remuneration of 2.26%. One of the main advantages highlighted by N26 is the great flexibility of this savings account. No minimum deposit amount is required and there is no cap. In addition, interest is calculated daily based on the evolution of the balance, then paid each month. Customers will be able to access their money at any time without restriction according to the information communicated by the neobank.
More profitable than Livret A
With rates that can climb up to 4% gross, the N26 offer appears significantly more attractive than the French’s favorite investment, the Livret A, blocked at 3% until January 31, 2025. However, it should be noted that the Interest paid by N26 will be subject to income tax and social security contributions, while Livret A is net of tax. You will therefore have to do some small calculations before you start, to see from what amount the business can become profitable for you. To subscribe to this new savings offer, you must obviously be a customer of the German neobank. Then, the deployment will be done gradually from June 4, 2024, via the N26 application. Eligible customers will only need to open their “express savings account” from the Finance tab, at no additional cost.
Freed from its chains, N26 goes on the offensive
The sky is indeed clearing for N26. We recently reported that the German neobank had been fined for repeated delays in transmitting suspicions of money laundering dating back to 2022. For several years, the German regulator had restricted the bank’s growth possibilities online, for example by imposing a number of new customers not to exceed each month. But the financial watchdog announced the lifting of all restrictions last week, effectively validating the reforms undertaken by N26 to comply.
Unable to recruit customers as it intended, N26 launched the N26 Crypto offer last March, which allows you to instantly buy and sell nearly 200 cryptocurrencies directly from the N26 application. © N26
It is probably no coincidence that the offer of paid accounts arrives so soon after the lifting of these restrictions. The online bank has free rein to massively recruit customers and intends to take advantage of this with this new, particularly aggressive offer on the French market and its three million N26 customers. The objective is clear: to encourage more customers to make N26 their main bank, while attracting new users attracted by the prospect of making their money grow. An important issue as the neobank aims for profitability at group level from the second half of 2024.
The battle of neobanks for personal deposits
N26 is not the only neobank to rely on the savings card to relaunch commercial conquest. Its French competitor Sumeria (formerly Lydia Comptes) has also recently offered to remunerate its customers’ current accounts, up to 4% until August then 2% thereafter. An offer subject to a few conditions, such as making at least 15 transactions per month with your Sumeria card. This race to collect deposits remains the perfect example of how online banks hope to differentiate themselves from traditional players in the sector, by capitalizing on high interest rates. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to convince the French to entrust them with their savings. According to the Banque de France, more than 500 billion euros are currently “sleeping” in current accounts in France, a windfall that neobanks intend to capture.