The Best Online Banks In Italy | Yore Oyster (2024)

Now that you've seen their overall scores, here's a more detailed look at how each bank scores on those ten categories.

Our Choice For The Best Bank In Italy

N26 Review

N26 is one of the upcoming and most well-known online banks as of the current moment in Europe. It’s especially famous for offering 4 versatile plans, a great mobile application, good customer support and lenient fees designed for foreign spending.

N26 is available in: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US.

Here’s a deeper look into N26’s performance.

#1 Domestic Fees

Most customers using N26 domestically won’t face any fees at all. It offers a reasonable number of free withdrawals per month depending on the plan you’re using, which can range from 3 to 8 free withdrawals per month. Once that limit has been exceeded, a €2 fee will apply for each withdrawal, independent of the amount withdrawn.

N26 also doesn’t charge any fees for your first card when you open your account. Also, there isn’t a delivery fee for your first card or any other card beyond that, though there are replacement fees of €10 for regular cards and €45 for metal cards.

N26 Domestic Fees Score: 9/10

#2 International Fees

N26 has a clear focus on providing great deals when it comes to its national and international use. This is exemplified by its performance in this category, because it doesn’t charge fees for most transactions abroad. The only case where this applies is for users with a N26 standard account, where a 1.7% fee will apply on foreign ATMs withdrawals.

Aside from that, there are no other fees for using your bank account or your card while you’re abroad or making foreign purchases, not even fees for international money transfers or weekend transactions in foreign currencies.

N26 International Fees Score: 8/10

#3 Everyday Usage

With N26 you get access to features like Apple Pay and Google Pay as a means of payment, which makes the use of the bank, as seamless as possible.

You can also deposit cash directly into your N26 account, though there is a 1.5% fee and a €999 limit per day.

The N26 mobile app also offers features like categorizing transactions and real-time spending notifications, which makes everyday usage easier to track and keep in control.

N26 Everyday Usage Score: 9/10

#4 Interface & Usability

N26 recognizes that a mobile banking experience needs to be as seamless as possible, which is why its signup process doesn’t even take 10 minutes to complete.

Also, as we had alluded to earlier, N26 boasts a highly intuitive and well-designed mobile app for everyday use. The app is known to be one of the best among the online banks, with a 4.8/5 score on the App Store and 4.6/5 on the Google Play Store.

N26 also provides a well-developed web version of its banking platform in case you want to take a look at your finances on a bigger screen, which not every bank offers.

N26 Interface & Usability Score: 10/10

#5 Mobile App Functionality

N26 embraces the fact that a mobile banking experience needs to be convenient and powerful, which is why it offers the following features all from the app:

• Online payment toggling
• Foreign payment toggling
• ATM withdrawal toggling
• Setting spending limits
• Setting withdrawal limits

Aside from that, N26 also features sub-saving accounts for personal and group uses, which facilitates the use of online banking with family, partners and others.

However, the free N26 plan only has access to 2 sub-accounts, while the paid plans all have access to 10 sub-accounts, and group saving accounts are not available for the free plan.

N26 also doesn’t have a built-in bill splitting feature for easy money transfers nor easy online subscription blocking.

N26 Mobile App Functionality Score: 8/10

#6 Customer Support

N26 supports its customer in a few interesting ways by offering 24/7 in-app live-chat support and email support in 5 languages. The best part about this is that both channels are pretty responsive, and your waiting time will only last from a couple of minutes in live chat to a single business day with email.

However, phone support is only available on paid plans, with priority phone support available only for N26 Metal users.

N26 Customer Support Score: 8/10

#7 Security & Regulation

N26 is regulated by the German Deposit Protection Scheme, which protects customers for up to €100,000 if the bank ever becomes insolvent. This also means that N26 has a legitimate banking license, which puts it up to par with already established banks.

When it comes to in-app security features, users can freeze and unfreeze their cards and change their ATM pins. The app also has biometric login features, which makes using N26 even more secure. However, N26 does not offer disposable virtual cards for better online spending protection.

N26 Security & Regulation Score: 10/10

#8 Travel Insurance

One of N26’s biggest features is its travel insurance, or rather the entire insurance package it offers. Here are the main types of insurance you’ll find with N26 and the specific amounts users are protected for:

• Travel medical insurance: Up to €1,000,000 for emergency medical insurance for the user, plus their partner and kids
• Baggage delay insurance: Up to €500 for baggage delays of over 12 hours and €2,000 if it goes missing
• Flight delay insurance: Up to €500 for flight delays over 4 hours of waiting time
• Trip cancellation/curtailment insurance: Up to €10,000
• Rental car Insurance: Up to €20,000 coverage nationally or internationally

It’s worth noting that all of these plans apply only for N26 You and N26 Metal users, N26’s two most premium plans.

N26 Travel Insurance Score: 10/10

#9 Insurance & Purchase Coverage

N26 offers an array of protections that range from extended warranty and purchase protection and cash protection on ATM withdrawals against robbery.

In terms of physical insurances, both N26 You and N26 Metal offer, bike, scooter and car-sharing insurance (up to €20,000 in damages), and snow and mountain winter sports insurances. N26 Metal also offers mobile phone insurance (up to €1,000 for mobile phone theft and damage).

N26 Insurance & Purchase Coverage Score: 10/10

#10 Rewards & Bonuses

Not only does N26 provide a solid service, but it also rewards its users with premium bonuses like these for using its products:

• Metal card for N26 Metal users
• Cashback on certain partner stores (Headspace, Blinkist, Curology, etc)
• Discounts on partner stores (Adidas, Dropbox, Hotels.com, etc)
• Up to 1.38% interest paid on your account balance with N26 Savings.

However, it’s worth noting that N26 does not provide airport lounge benefits.

N26 Rewards & Bonuses Score: 10/10

Now let’s talk about our next bank in question:

Revolut Review

Few startup companies have garnered such fame as Revolut has since its creation back in 2015 throughout all of Europe. Revolut has done so by offering one of the most solid mobile banking applications as of today, great insurance packages and reams of extra features, rewards and bonuses for frequent travellers.

#1 Domestic Fees

When it comes to domestic fees, ATM costs are the first thing to be noticed. Revolut offers a withdrawal allowance per each plan it offers, which consist of the following amounts:

• Standard plan: Up to €200 for free per month
• Premium Plan: Up to €400 for free per month
• Metal Plan: Up to €800 free per month

After that allowance is passed, a 2% fee will apply on each extra withdrawal.

Aside from that, Revolut doesn’t charge users for ordering their first card. On top of that, it offers 1 replacement card per year, and any more than that will result in a €4.99 charge for each spare card ordered, or €40 for metal cards.

It’s also worth mentioning that Revolut charges a delivery fee of €5.50 for standard delivery or €19.99 for express delivery on all replacement cards, which can get pretty hefty.

Revolut Domestic Fees Score: 5/10

#2 International Fees

International usefulness is one of the most promising features of online banks, and something that Revolut heavily markets. Revolut offers the same domestic ATM withdrawal scheme, which works better internationally, although, it derives somewhat in other features.

Revolut charges a special 1% fee on foreign ATM withdrawals that are made during the weekends. It also charges another 1% fee if you perform a foreign ATM withdrawal in any special currencies like the Thai Baht and the Ukrainian Hryvnia.

Another big international benefit that Revolut has in its favour is that it doesn’t charge any fee for transactions on foreign currencies. This is thanks to the fact that it can hold 30+ currencies that can be exchanged at the interbank exchange rate.

However, Revolut does establish a €1,000 limit on foreign exchanges on the free plan. It also only offers a single free international money transfer per month, which will cost €0.50 for each transfer once that limit has been exceeded.

Although, one thing to mention is that Revolut is one of the few banks we’ve reviewed that is able to send SWIFT transfers, with a cost of €3 if the transaction is in USD or €5 if it’s in another currency.

Revolut International Fees Score: 5/10

#3 Everyday Usage

Being an online bank, Revolut complements its ease of use by offering the following features:

• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Spending insights
• Categorizing transactions
• Real-time transaction notifications

However, Revolut somewhat misses the mark here and deliberately decides not to incorporate a common feature like being able to deposit cash into your bank account, which does limit its usage.

Revolut Everyday Usage Score: 8/10

#4 Interface & Usability

The overall signup speed of Revolut usually takes less than 10 minutes, which is a great time on its own. Now, when we couple this with the fact that the app is extremely powerful and intuitive, we end up with a pretty compelling sell.

To cement this feeling it’s also worth noting that the Revolut mobile app has a current rating of 4.8/5 on the App Store and 4.7/5 on the Google Play Store.

On top of that, Revolut recently launched a web platform of the app, designed with some of the functionality of the mobile app but adjusted to a bigger screen.

Revolut Interface & Usability Score: 10/10

#5 Mobile App Functionality

Since Revolut is only available on mobile devices, its app needs to have killer features for everyday usage, which it does have.

Revolut offers the ability to set up online recurring payments and toggle them on or off. The same thing applies to setting up and toggling spending limits, all from the app, which grants a lot of customizability to how Revolut can be used.

Revolut also lets users open sub-saving accounts called vaults, which can be used by multiple Revolut users. Users of this online bank can also share expenses like bills, track their online subscriptions and block them as they like depending on their monthly spending.

However, Revolut does not permit limiting ATM withdrawal or toggling them right from the app, which is a slight disadvantage.

Revolut Mobile App Functionality Score: 7/10

#6 Customer Support

Revolut has an interesting focus when it comes to customer support. The online bank focuses too much on the mobile part of it and forgets what conventional customer support consists of.

Revolut has no access to phone nor email support, relying only on the live chat included in the app. The chat is available on a 24/7 basis, but it only does so in 2 languages. It does offer priority customer support, but again, only through live chat, which can limit its effectiveness.

Revolut Customer Support Score: 3/10

#7 Security & Regulation

Revolut offers features like freezing and unfreezing your card through the app while letting you choose to sign in with or without biometric authorization. It’s also regulated by the FCA, which protects customers for up to €85,000. This means that Revolut has a pretty solid regulation package, but it’s certainly missing some features.

Revolut does not permit pin resets in the app, meaning that you have to manually change them in ATMs. It also doesn’t offer disposable virtual cards to the premium and metal plans only.

Revolut Security & Regulation Score: 7/10

#8 Travel Insurance

Another big step up that online banks have against regular banks is how versatile they are with frequent travellers. Revolut offers an array of travel insurances for frequent travellers that like to stay relaxed and not worry too much during their trips, those being either for leisure or business. Here are the travel insurances it offers:

• Travel medical insurance: Overseas medical and emergency dental coverage of up to €15 million and €300 respectively
• Flight and baggage delay insurance: Up to €320
• Rental car insurance.

It’s also worth noting that Revolut grants users access to LoungeKey Pass access as well.

However, the only weakness here is that Revolut doesn’t offer any trip cancellation insurance whatsoever.

Revolut Travel Insurance Score: 8/10

#9 Insurance & Purchase Coverage

In order to assure that its customers are protected, Revolut offers the following insurances and protections:

• Purchase protection / extended warranty: Protection for up to 180 days after theft or accidental damages
• Mobile phone insurance: From €1 a week
• Winter sports insurance: Included in Revolut Metal.

However, Revolut also falters by not offering cash protection on ATM withdrawals nor bike, scooter or car sharing insurance.

Revolut Insurance & Purchase Coverage Score: 6/10

#10 Rewards & Bonuses

Revolut knows that choosing an online bank over a regular institution isn’t necessarily an easy choice for everyone, which is why it decides to rewards its users with the following features:

• Metal card for Revolut Metal users
• 0.1% cashback within Europe and 1% outside of Europe on all card payments
• Partner discounts at global restaurants, hotels and more
• Airport Lounge access for you +1 or 3 friends if your flight gets delayed by more than 1 hour.

Although, it’s also worth mentioning that Revolut has no way of paying interest for the balance of its users’ accounts, which some online banks do offer.

Revolut Rewards & Bonuses Score: 9/10

Now let’s talk about our next bank in question:

Monese Review

Monese is an upcoming online bank that was founded back in 2015, the same year as some of its competitors. In the online bank industry, it’s especially known for how easy and powerful its mobile application is to use. It also shines with some of the best and broadly available customer support, its regulation and some other bonus features like the highest interest paid on the account balance of all online banks.

#1 Domestic Fees

The first thing to mention in this category is the withdrawal fees, which work based on an allowance. Here’s how they compare in each plan that Monese offers:

• Simple Plan: up to €200 for free per month
• Classic Plan: up to €900 for free per month
• Premium Plan: unlimited fee-free withdrawals.

After said allowance is surpassed on either the Simple and Classic plans, a 2% fee will apply for each following withdrawal.

It’s also worth noting that Monese doesn’t charge anything for ordering your first card. However, it does charge a €4.95 fee for each replacement card beyond that, accompanied with another €4.95 fee for delivery of the card.

Monese Domestic Fees Score: 5/10

#2 International Fees

As we did in the first category, the first thing to mention here are the withdrawal fees, which surprised us since Monese uses the same scheme as in domestic withdrawals. On that same front, Monese doesn’t charge any extra cost for withdrawing or using your card during the weekends nor for withdrawing in any special currencies.

However, Monese’s performance takes a hit here because it establishes a foreign spending limit of €2,000. After that limit has been surpassed, a 2% fee will apply on all transactions for the Simple and Classic plans, which is something that no other online bank does.

The same 2% fee also applies for foreign exchange fees for users of the Simple plan. Classic plan users are also subject to a fee, but to a much lesser degree with Monese only charging 0.5%.

Monese also charges for sending money internationally with a 2% fee, which, again, makes it the only online bank to do so.

Monese International Fees Score: 6/10

#3 Everyday Usage

Monese really shines in this category due to how seamless its app is to use. This is thanks to features like these:

• Apple pay
• Google pay
• Being able to deposit cash
• Transaction categorizing and insights
• Real-time spending notifications.

All of these features help Monese’s users to have to worry less at the moment of payment. Although, depositing cash into an account comes with a fee that ranges from 2/3.5% fee depending on the retailer you use to deposit your cash.

Monese Everyday Usage Score: 8/10

#4 Interface & Usability

Here’s another category where Monese holds its ground firmly, thanks to a well-developed user interface. The UI just works in a seamless manner every time it’s used. Signing up is an example of that, because doing so with Monese doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes.

Not only that, but the mobile application has garnered a score of 4.7/5 stars on the Apple store and 4.6/5 stars on the Google Play Store. On top of that Monese is one of the only banks to also offer a web version of its platform that’s almost as intuitive as its original mobile counterpart.

Monese Interface & Usability Score: 10/10

#5 Mobile App Functionality

Monese’s app works exceptionally well for what it was designed for, letting users toggle online recurring payments on or off according to the user’s budget, while also permitting to set spending limits as well.

However, it runs into some shortcomings by not letting users toggle foreign payments and ATM withdrawals on or off from the app. It also doesn’t permit setting withdrawal limits, nor tracking and blocking subscription payments.

In terms of other features, users can create sub-accounts called pots in order to save more efficiently. However, Monese has no way of creating group sub-accounts nor sharing bill expenses in an immediate way with other Monese users.

Monese Mobile App Functionality Score: 5/10

#6 Customer Support

Monese picks up the slack in this category and offers the best customer support of most online banks according to our scoring system. The bank offers 24/7 live chat, email and phone support, all of which work exceptionally well.

Monese also gets some credit here thanks to the fact that they’re able to provide support in 6 languages. Priority customer support also exists for Premium plan users, which is guaranteed to be top of the line in most cases.

Monese Customer Support Score: 9/10

#7 Security & Regulation

In terms of regulation, Monese does a pretty good job of being regulated by the FCA and the Cifas, both strong regulators. Monese also performs pretty well thanks to the implementation of biometric login in its app and letting users freeze or unfreeze their cards as well.

However, Monese lacks some rather important features like being able to change ATM pins from the app and not being able to use disposable virtual cards when shopping online.

Monese Security & Regulation Score: 7/10

#8 Travel Insurance

Monese offers no travel insurance whatsoever, meaning that this might not be the account you’re looking for if you plan to travel with insurance under your sleeve.

Monese Travel Insurance Score: 0/10

#9 Insurance & Purchase Coverage

The only feature that Monese offers in this category is purchase protection/Extended warranty, which is helpful to some degree, but not enough to carry the score to a better place.

Monese Insurance & Purchase Coverage Score: 0/10

#10 Rewards & Bonuses

Here’s an interesting development, because even though Monese doesn’t offer too many rewards, it probably offers the best single interest rate paid on account balance.

Through Raisin, Monese manages to offer up to 2.20% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) of your balance on a monthly basis, which is the biggest percentage of the online banks we’ve reviewed.

Monese also has select partner discounts with Avios as its only partner, which is better than nothing, at least.

On that same topic, another interesting feature that Monese has is that it’s able to hold up to 3 different currencies natively, EUR, GBP and RON. Most other competitors are only able to handle either EUR or GBPs, which is a nice feature to have from Monese.

Monese Rewards & Bonuses Score: 7/10

Now let’s talk about our next bank in question:

Bunq Review

Self categorized as “The bank of the free” Bunq was founded in 2012 in Amsterdam, which predates other more famous online banks’ creation. What makes it stand out is the seamless use it presents for users who are constantly travelling within Europe, thanks to its highly intuitive app, its low abroad fees and its top-notch customer support.

#1 Domestic Fees

Bunq seems to fall back a step by offering no free domestic withdrawals for the free plan with a €0.99 fee. The free plan, also called Travel, comes with an international debit card, however, it requires a €9.99 initial charge to order your first card and to open your account.

It’s also worth noting that you can only have a single Travel plan card at a time and every replacement will run you another €9.99 per card. And if you order a metal card with the higher tiered plans, a replacement will cost you around €130.

Although, Bunq does not charge card delivery fees whatsoever, which is something in its favour, but not by much.

Bunq Domestic Fees Score: 2/10

#2 International Fees

Bunq’s name is synonymous with travelling, which really shows its focus on international fees. The online bank applies the same domestic scheme for its foreign ATM fees, which makes using Bunq locally a bit expensive but relatively inexpensive when abroad.

Bunq also doesn’t charge any fees for weekend foreign withdrawals, transaction nor exchange fees, which is surprising. However, it’s also worth mentioning that Bunq users are not allowed to make international money transfers, at least on the free plan, nor emit a SWIFT transfer, only receive them.

Bunq International Fees Score: 6/10

#3 Everyday Usage

When it comes to this category, Bunq exceeds most expectations, for a relatively unknown online bank. With Bunq you can enjoy features like:

• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Real-time transaction notifications.

It’s also noteworthy to mention that Bunq is one of the few online banks that accepts cash deposits without any actual fee on their part. However, these require the use of external ATMs which may charge their own fee.

Also, Travel plan users don’t get access to categorized spending, which is a big disadvantage when compared to other competitors.

Bunq Everyday Usage Score: 7/10

#4 Interface & Usability

Bunq also surprises other competitors’ users by offering a sleek and easy to use mobile application. This complements itself with the fact that Bunq’s signup process will take less than 10 total minutes of your time. General reviews reveal that the app performs pretty well, with a solid score of 4.3/5 on the App Store and 4.4/5 stars on the Google Play Store.

Although Bunq also offers a web version of its platform, it’s severely stripped of the mobile app’s unique features and should only be used as a failsafe, which hinders its performance a bit.

Bunq Interface & Usability Score: 8/10

#5 Mobile App Functionality

Bunq performs averagely well in this category due to the fact that it offers the basic features you would expect while lacking on some of the more unique ones we expected.

The online institution lets users toggle online payments and set spending limits in the app, which is to be expected. It also provides the ability to share or split bills, subscription tracking and blocking if needed for your monthly budget. Although, it’s not able to toggle or freeze foreign payments nor ATM withdrawals whatsoever.

Travel plan users also don’t get access to personal sub-saving accounts, only group saving accounts, which require a €9.99 one time charge, which is something to think twice about.

Bunq Mobile App Functionality Score: 5/10

#6 Customer Support

Bunq offers 24/7 live chat and some of, if not, the best email customer support out of all online banks, which is available in 6 languages. On average, Bunq always takes less than 10 minutes to answer email queries and even less than that in its live chat, which is a record time in this industry.

However, on the other side of the pond, Bunq doesn’t offer telephone support nor priority customer support, even for its higher-tiered plans.

Bunq Customer Support Score: 7/10

#7 Security & Regulation

Bunq offers both security and protection thanks to its banking license emitted by the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), which regulates the online bank and protects customers for up to €100,000.

Bunq also offers security features like offering PIN resets directly from the app and being able to freeze and unfreeze your card in there as well.

However, Bunq’s performance takes a little hitch because it doesn’t incorporate biometric login and doesn’t offer any disposable virtual cards on the free plan.

Bunq Security & Regulation Score: 8/10

#8 Travel Insurance

This is one of the categories where Bunq performs the worst since it doesn’t offer any travel insurance whatsoever, not even on its most premium plans at all. This states Bunq as a hard sell if you’re a frequent traveller looking for insurance

Bunq Travel Insurance Score: 0/10

#9 Insurance & Purchase Coverage

Bunq also performs poorly in this case scenario since it only offers extended warranty/purchase protection for up to 365 days made with your Bunq account. Severely lacking in this category.

Bunq Insurance & Purchase Coverage Score: 2/10

#10 Rewards & Bonuses

Bunq doesn’t really offer much in this category. The only features that could be called bonuses are the fact that it emits metal cards for its most expensive plan, the Super Green plan. It also lets users gain an interest rate of up to 0.27% on a monthly basis for users of the same plan.

It also mentions it offers discounts at certain partners, but these are not that widely known.

Bunq Rewards & Bonuses Score: 8/10

Our Choice For The Best Bank In Italy

At the end of the day, all of the online banks in Italy are great options if you want a regular spending account or just somewhere to keep your money. However, one bank's online experience outperforms the rest. Here's a quick recap of the four banks we scored in Italy, plus our final recommendation.

Revolut is certainly a feature-rich bank. It has access to investing in stock and commodities with no commissions, a kids account and more. However, for these features, Revolut does charge more than other banks. One example of this is the fee for withdrawing cash during the weekends or only having 1 free international transfer per month on the free plan.

Monese is a great bank altogether, but its shortcomings are particularly present in terms of its domestic and international fees, the overall functionality of its mobile app and its lack of insurance packages. Most of these categories are critical to the functionality of online banks, so Monese has a lot of work to do before reaching the same heights.

Bunq certainly thrives in terms of its highly intuitive interface, its regulation and security features and the overall bonuses it offers. However, its domestic and international fees are not that competitive and its app is still missing features to really reach the height of the best online banks out there.

N26 is the best online bank in terms of a regular banking experience, both domestically and internationally. You get access to a multitude of plans, great domestic and foreign fees, and possibly the most complete insurance package that an online bank offers. All with premium rewards, annual interest, cashback and discounts with no extra charges included.

We’re convinced that the best online bank in Italy is N26. Apply with confidence today.