neon experiences (2025): Where the Swiss smartphone bank is unbeatable

Whether you’re traveling or shopping online: paying by card abroad is convenient, but usually involves high fees. Not so with neon: no exchange rate surcharges and no processing fees! But is neon also suitable for your investments? And what are the new “free ETFs” good for? We have critically tested the newly launched trading platform and have come to some astonishing conclusions. We have summarized everything about our neon experience in terms of paying, saving and investing in this detailed neon review.

neon promotion code “SFB20”

If you are convinced by neon’s offer, secure a starting bonus worth CHF 20 now, consisting of a cash balance and the gift card fee of CHF 10 each. At the same time, you’ll be supporting our blog.

How to benefit from the bonus: Enter the neon promotion code “SFB20” when you register. Then transfer an amount of at least CHF 1 to activate your new neon account. If activation is successful, you will receive a cash credit (CHF 10) and your new neon card without a one-off issue fee (CHF 10) after a few days.

But let’s start now with our neon experiences.

What is neon?

The Swiss smartphone bank was founded in 2017 with the aim of being the first independent account app in Switzerland . The guiding principle behind it: unbeatably cheap, super simple and completely secure.

The four founders behind neon are Jörg Sandrock, Julius Kirscheneder, Simon Youssef and Michael Noorlander. The official launch took place in March 2019.

With around 200,000 customers, neon is now one of the largest neobanks in Switzerland. This market success is all the more astonishing given that neon – unlike other competitors such as Yuh or Zak – was not launched by wealthy, established banks, but by a handful of innovative minds with a comparatively small budget.

neon offers an attractive mix of banking services with payments, savings and investments. You can find out more about our experience with neon in the next section.

What does neon offer?

As already mentioned, neon offers the following three services:

• Figures
• Saving
• Invest

In this neon review, we will explain and assess all of these services and attach a price tag to each. True to our mission, we will pay particular attention to the topic of “investing”.

And one more thing: neon offers three different accounts: “neon free”, “neon green” and “neon metal”. In this neon review, we will limit ourselves to “neon free”.

“neon free” is the most popular and only neon account without a basic fee. neon has summarized the most important differences between the three accounts here.

The innovative “neon duo” joint account

Since April 2024, neon has been offering the “neon duo” joint account as an option for all three account models. neon describes it like this on its website:

• For 2: The account for everyone who has a shared flat. In love, engaged, married, concubined – or just friends
• One login, one app: switch between private and joint accounts with a swipe
• 2 cards, 1 IBAN
• An overview of your joint payments and transactions at all times
• 3 CHF per person and month
• Open an account directly in the app – without any paperwork or branch visits

What we find particularly innovative about “neon duo“ is that youcan manage both the individual and the joint account in thesame app and keep an eye on the finances of both “worlds” at all times with a single swipe. However, there is one downside: neon doesn’t offer this cool feature for free, but charges an additional CHF 3 monthly fee per person.

Our neon experience with payment transactions

Payment functions and conditions are likely to be at the forefront of most people’s minds when choosing a (new) smartphone bank. According to the comparison portal Moneyland, neon has performed sensationally in this discipline with its “neon free” offer.

Together with the international player Revolut, it took first place, beating all other Swiss neobanks (see figure below).

All costs incurred during one year were compared for a person who makes card payments for CHF 10,000 in Switzerland and the equivalent of CHF 2,000 each in euros, US dollars and Thai baht abroad. It is also assumed that this person withdraws cash once at a Swiss ATM and a total of six times at foreign ATMs.

Such comparisons should of course be treated with caution: Firstly, this is a snapshot from June 2023. Secondly, it provides an incomplete picture. For example, the investment function was not even tested in the above-mentioned comparison. And thirdly, and this is probably the most important point, your needs are probably not congruent with the profile above.

For example, fees for cash withdrawals, however high they may be, do not play a role for us. Because we never actually carry cash.

Because of these reservations, we want to use this neon review to get our own, more comprehensive picture. In the following, we will break down neon’s offer into the individual services and provide them with the corresponding price tag (see also neon’s price list).

neon services and prices when paying WITHOUT a card

• Free account management (interest only on the savings account, see this chapter)
• Domestic IBAN transfers in CHF free of charge and in EUR with 1.5% exchange rate surcharge
• International transfers possible in 20 currencies including EUR; fees depending on amount and currency usually between 0.8 – 1.7%, consisting of the partner fee from Wise and the so-called convenience fee from neon, but without exchange rate surcharge
• Transfer types: one-off (manual), regular (standing order or LSV), eBill, TWINT
• Cash deposits and overdraft not possible

neon services and prices when paying WITH card

• No basic fee, but a one-off fee of CHF 20 for debit card or neon Mastercard (free with our promotional code “SFB20”)
• No transaction or processing fee
• Exchange rate without surcharge or at the Mastercard rate!
• 2 x monthly free withdrawals in CHF at all ATMs in Switzerland (thereafter CHF 2)
• CHF 5 per domestic withdrawal in EUR (only possible with PostFinance)
• 1.5% per withdrawal abroad (regardless of currency; no exchange rate surcharge)
• Card can also be used via smartphone and watch: “Apple Pay”, “Google Pay”, “Samsung Pay” as well as SwatchPAY! and Garmin Pay
• Monthly card limit of CHF 10,000, CHF 5,000 each online and in-store

Note: In September 2024, neon replaced the previous Mastercard prepaid card with a new debit card from Mastercard. The conditions are the same, but the new card is even better accepted. For example, it can also be used at the post office. The new card will be issued to all new customers and all existing customers whose prepaid card needs to be replaced.

Conclusion on paying with neon

neon stands out from the competition in one crucial respect: card payments abroad, including online shopping with providers registered abroad, are free of charge. This means no exchange rate surcharge and no processing or transaction fees.

Several Amazon orders, which we deliberately paid for in EUR with the neon card, have shown us that this is not just gray theory. We were always charged the converted CHF amount on our neon account. The underlying neon exchange rate was invariably better than if we had chosen the Amazon option “pay directly in CHF”.

This one advantage alone should make neon worthwhile for most people, including us.

This waiver of fees also puts the supposed disadvantage of neon into perspective, namely the lack of foreign currency accounts: After all, what do I care about currency exchange if no fees are charged?

Only classic payment transactions (i.e. without a card) with foreign currencies are subject to currency exchange fees with neon, which you cannot avoid by using a foreign currency account.

As far as interest on cash is concerned, neon does not pay interest on the payment account either, but only – if at all – on an additional savings account to be opened (see also next chapter).

However, we do not consider this flaw to be a decisive factor, as we generally hold rather low cash balances and prefer investing to saving.

In conclusion, if you make most of your payments (without a card) in your home currency and make card payments at home and abroad, then neon is extremely cheap.

Our neon experience with savings

To save with neon and benefit from the interest rate, you must first set up a separate account with your own IBAN. This is done in just a few seconds using the “Spaces” app feature. You can then transfer money from your main account to your “Spaces” and back just as easily. Below we summarize neon’s most important services and conditions for saving:

• No more interest since December 2024
• Up to 10 individual savings goals (“Spaces”) can be defined with display of savings progress
• High liquidity thanks to a generous withdrawal limit of CHF 50,000 per month
• Regular, automatic saving possible

Conclusion on saving with neon

For us, the savings function plays a subordinate role, as we prefer to invest free funds. Hard-boiled savers will be particularly interested in the savings feature, which allows different projects to be saved not only manually but also automatically.

Unfortunately, neon’s interest rates on savings deposits have been continuously reduced in recent months and are currently at 0%. So if you value a (slightly) higher interest rate on your savings deposits, you are better off with Yuh in our experience.

Our neon experience with investing

As passionate private investors, we are of course particularly interested in how neon performs as a securities broker, especially as this discipline is still fairly uncharted territory at neon. The neon trading platform was only launched in 2023.

We have compiled the most important key data for “neon Invest” below:

• Investment universe limited to individual shares and ETFs
• No custody account fees
• 0.5% commission per trade with ETFs and domestic equities (no minimum fee)
• 1% per trade with foreign shares
• Commission-free ETFs from neon partner companies on offer
• No currency exchange necessary, as all products are converted into CHF
• Real time prices: Orders are executed immediately during trading hours at the then current price
• Savings plan capable, but no fractional trading(see this chapter)
• Bern Stock Exchange BX as the only trading venue(see this chapter)

Trading with neon is only worthwhile for smaller amounts

The linear fee structure (i.e. always 0.5% of the transaction amount without a cost cap) makes neon particularly attractive for investors who wish to invest smaller tranches on a regular basis.

An example calculation: If you invest CHF 100, you pay an unbeatable commission of CHF 0.50 and for CHF 1,000 it is still a moderate CHF 5. For trades of CHF 2,000 or more, however, you are definitely better off with a traditional online broker in terms of price (and the range of services on offer anyway) (see also recommendations).

neon is now eligible for savings plans!

Anyone who wants to invest regularly and automatically in an ETF or a share can set up a corresponding savings plan with just a few clicks at neon since 2024. The following key data:

• Savings plan for up to three ETFs or shares possible based on the entire neon investment universe (see next chapter)
• No additional fees
• Some commission-free ETFs (you only save the 0.5% commission in the savings plan)
• Amount lower limit is determined by the value of an individual share
• No fractional trading, i.e. no fractions of ETFs and shares possible

As a savings plan naturally requires regular investments, the ETFs without purchase commission from neon are particularly interesting in terms of price. The range of these “free ETFs” has now grown to 13 from four different providers (as at 14.1.2025).

Based on the fund’s key data and in particular its low TER (0.15%), broad diversification and attractive fund assets of over USD 800 million, only the Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Acc currently seems attractive to us. If the lack of market establishment (launch date: June 2023) does not bother you, this ETF should be an option really worth considering.

The investment universe of neon

The investment universe consists of the following product categories and products (as of January 14, 2025, based on the filter function of “neon Invest”):

• 268 shares: e.g. Apple, Nestlé, Netflix, Spotify, Starbucks, Tesla, UBS, Zurich
• 105 ETFs (see also our selection below)

If you are not yet a neon customer, you will find the securities currently on offer in the neon product list. New additions are highlighted in red. In contrast to the app, this list lacks meaningful information such as the product costs (TER).

After all, neon has included the product name, including provider and index, as well as the dividend distribution in the ETF list, which means that you can at least make a pre-selection without further research.

How good is neon’s ETF selection?

Whether you are a beginner or a stock market professional, equity ETFs are equally suitable for return-oriented and risk-averse investors with a longer investment horizon.

ETFs are our preferred investment vehicle, which is why we want to focus on them in this neon review.

Let’s start with the quantitative side: neon offers 105 ETFs . After all. This is significantly more than other neobanks such as Yuh(review), but of course only a fraction of the range offered by a “real” trading platform with thousands of ETFs such as Swissquote(review).

As neon informed us on request, the investment universe – as with Yuh – is constantly being expanded.

But even this currently still somewhat limited offer from neon can be absolutely sufficient for you. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is that you can invest in your desired ETFs.

So let’s move on to the qualitative assessment:

In our tough ETF test “Best ETFs Switzerland and globally: And the Winner is…” we showed which ETFs we consider to be the best.

As a rational investor, you will be aiming for a broadly diversified global portfolio. Ideally, you can achieve this with one, two (one ETF each for the industrialized countries and emerging markets) or five ETFs.

The latter aims to give your portfolio a regional focus. Specifically: The industrialized countries are broken down into the regions Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific (2 ETFs required, as Japan is generally not included) plus an ETF for the emerging markets.

As you can see, a regional distribution is somewhat more complicated and only makes sense if you want to weight the regions individually, i.e. not by market capitalization.

So much for the theory. How can this be put into practice with neon?

The good news first: With neon’s current investment universe, you can put together a global portfolio with one ETF as well as with two ETFs (i.e. one ETF each for industrialized and emerging markets). We have linked each of the following ETFs directly to the BX exchange (neon’s only trading venue), where you can obtain further product details.

Variants with 1 global ETF (selection):

• Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (distributing)
• iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF USD (accumulating)
• Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Acc (accumulating, commission-free in the savings plan!, see section above)

Variants with 2 ETFs (industrialized and emerging markets):

Industrialized country ETFs (selection):

• Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF 1C (accumulating)

Emerging markets ETFs (selection):

• Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF USD (distributing)
• iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETF USD (accumulating)
• iShares MSCI EM SRI UCITS ETF USD (sustainable; accumulating)

It should be noted that a currency exchange fee of approx. 1.5% is payable on foreign dividends that are converted from a foreign currency into CHF.

In terms of fees, investments with neon are therefore particularly worthwhile in accumulating and/or domestic ETFs.

With the constant expansion of the investment universe, neon now also allows you to put together a regional portfolio – with some restrictions in terms of ETF selection.

In addition to the broadly diversified and market capitalization-weighted “bread-and-butter” ETFs mentioned above and a fairly large selection of ETFs with a focus on “Switzerland”, the neon range also includes various special ETFs. These cover themes such as “real estate”, “energy”, “technology” and “commodities”.

Small exchange BX Swiss – a disadvantage?

As unknown as the Bern BX Swiss (colloquially known as the “Bern Stock Exchange” or “BX”) is to many investors, it was founded in 1884 and is now a regulated stock exchange under the supervision of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. It lost its independence in 2018 and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Börse Stuttgart GmbH ever since.

One of neon’s special features is that all of its investment products can only be traded via a single exchange, the BX Swiss. In turn, all products offered, including around 750 ETFs, can be traded exclusively in the domestic currency CHF via the BX Swiss.

Positive: This eliminates the currency exchange for you, but not the currency risk. To minimize this risk, you would have to invest exclusively in Swiss equities or in ETFs with only Swiss equities, which in our opinion would not sufficiently diversify your portfolio.

As we lacked experience with the BX Swiss prior to this neon review and in order to obtain more clarity about this secondary exchange, we contacted Mr. Erhard Rüttimann, Market Controller BX Swiss, and asked him the following two questions in writing:

Swiss Finance Blog: The volume of ETF trading is often low on the small BX. Historically speaking, what trading spread should an investor expect to see with you, or is the spread comparable with the major exchanges thanks to market makers?

Erhard Rüttimann, BX Swiss: It is true that our trading volumes are often lower. Nevertheless, we can offer competitive prices thanks to the support of our market maker (MM). The quality of the price remains unaffected by this. Our spreads are not wider because our MM is also active on other exchanges and offers competitive prices. Otherwise nobody would trade with us. Due to the activity of our MM, we can often also provide more liquidity.

If all products on the BX can only be traded in CHF, investors do not need to change currencies. However, the fund currency for ETFs that cover foreign markets is generally not CHF. Are there any fees for investors when changing currencies? If so, what are they?

Correct, trading in CHF eliminates the need for investors to exchange currencies, which is one of the advantages. When converting into another currency for the purchase of an ETF whose fund currency is USD, for example, our market maker always uses the interbank exchange rate as a basis. The risks and costs incurred by the market maker are taken into account in the spread and are therefore already included in the price you see as an investor. The fees that are reflected in the spread by the MM are significantly lower than the costs that would be incurred if a bank made the purchase directly on a foreign exchange.

Conclusion on investing with neon

Due to the linear cost structure and the still somewhat limited ETF offering, we believe neon is particularly suitable for newcomers to the stock market who want to gain their first experience with securities trading with smaller amounts and low fees.

However, neon is also likely to appeal to more experienced investors. For example, people who want to invest in their desired ETF in smaller tranches in addition to traditional online brokers and thus benefit from the competitive prices.

No minimum fee and no currency exchange or related fees when trading are positive aspects. However, it should be noted that a currency exchange fee of approx. 1.5% is charged for distributed foreign dividends.

The investment universe of neon convinced us, at least in part. In terms of costs (TER), market performance (fund assets) and diversification, it contains the absolute top ETFs.

The small BX Swiss as the sole trading venue is certainly not a plus point. However, if liquidity is still guaranteed at all times thanks to market makers and the trading spread is only a few basis points, this is not a co-criterion for us.

Finally, we consider it positive that neon enables regular, automated investing in ETFs or shares by means of a savings plan, in some cases even without purchase commissions, but so far without fractional trading.

How good is neon’s support?

Personal contact is not planned at neon. The branches are simply not available as meeting places for such exchanges. Telephone contact is also handled restrictively at neon.

According to our neon experience, there are basically three different toll-free channels available to you for questions, all of which you can control via the app or the “Contact neon” profile feature.

1. Online help portal: There you will find numerous FAQs, clearly organized by topic.
2. Telephone support: This service is only available on 043 508 03 76 for selected topics, in particular for topics relating to card use. For more specific questions, e.g. problems with the initial transfer, the voice on tape will ask you to submit your request in the form of an e-mail.
3. Written support: The more specific your request is, the sooner you will reach your goal by sending an e-mail to service@neon-free.ch. According to our experience with neon in this regard, the answers were always of good quality and the waiting times were pleasingly short, i.e. the same day or the following working day.

How can I register with neon?

Before you register with neon, check whether you meet all the requirements:

• Minimum age 15
• Swiss residence
• Exclusive tax liability in Switzerland
• a valid identity card from one of these countries (in combination with a B/C foreigner’s permit for non-Swiss nationals).

In a second step, download the neon app and follow the instructions with your passport or ID (and B/C foreigner’s ID).

It takes around 10 minutes to enter your personal details (don’t forget the promotional code “SFB20”!), confirm them via the free video call or photo ID (we recommend this as it’s possible around the clock) and set your login code.

As soon as you have transferred some money from a Swiss bank account in your name, your identity check (with the photo ID option) is complete and your neon account is activated!

Positive: neon only asks you for the data required by law and does not ask detailed questions about your income and assets or your workload. Once your account has been activated, the physical neon card (Mastercard debit card) will be sent to you separately by post within a few days. You can call up the corresponding PIN code directly in the app. Before you can use the card, you must activate it in the app.

How safe is neon?

Your cash, whether for payments or savings, is invested with the state-regulated Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and is protected by a deposit guarantee of CHF 100,000 in the event of bankruptcy.

ETF investments are of course subject to market risk, but are considered special assets and therefore do not fall into the bankruptcy estate.

For effective protection against fraud and unauthorized access, neon relies on two-factor authentication, which it claims is the most widely used security standard in online banking and is considered secure.

This verifies your cell phone after opening an account (factor 1). In addition (factor 2), you can only access your account using a six-digit login PIN or (more simply) using biometric authentication with facial recognition (Face ID) or fingerprint.

Once you have successfully logged in, you can only authorize account transfers using a six-digit transfer PIN, which offers you additional protection.

The same applies to card payments: On the one hand, you need the neon card, whether physical or digital on your cell phone (factor 1). On the other hand, the transaction can only be authorized with a PIN or biometric authentication (factor 2).

Finally, if fraud is suspected, the card can be blocked quickly directly via the app.

Why neon?

There is a simple reason: foreign payments with a card are free of charge with neon. With other card issuers, you pay sometimes hefty fees for every foreign transaction in the form of exchange rate surcharges and/or processing surcharges (even for domestic currency).

With the Certo! credit card from Cembra, for example, these processing surcharges amount to 1.5%. Net, or taking into account the cashback of 0.33% granted by Cembra, you still pay 1.17% more for every foreign transaction than with neon.

For this one reason, neon is a no-brainer for us and attractive for everyone. (Except perhaps for those who don’t make international payments by card).

According to our neon experience, neon can do a lot more. We have summarized the most important advantages and disadvantages below.

Conclusion from our neon experience

A lean smartphone bank like neon, which does not require a bank branch or online banking on the desktop, is likely to appeal to cost-conscious and digitally savvy people in particular. In other words, people who appreciate being able to carry out banking transactions quickly and easily via their cell phone.

However, we don’t see neon’s biggest advantage in the successful, intuitive app, but in the free international payments by card.

This puts neon in a leading position compared to all its competitors, and not in a minor gimmick, but in a relevant banking transaction. Because with such customer-friendly pricing, you can save a lot of money on fees year after year when traveling or shopping online. (Reason enough for us to give preference to the neon card for foreign transactions in future).

For savers who like to accumulate larger sums of cash, however, there are better alternatives according to our neon experience: in our experience, the other major Swiss smartphone bank Yuh often offers more attractive conditions in the savings discipline.

Investing is more interesting for us. Although neon’s ETF offering could still be expanded for our taste, the current investment universe already includes some top ETFs in terms of product costs, market establishment and diversification.

Practical: All ETFs and shares from the neon investment universe can be invested in automatically via a savings plan since 2024, some of which are free of purchase commissions.

One of neon’s special features is that it only offers the small BX Swiss as a trading venue, where all trades are settled in the domestic currency CHF. Thanks to a so-called market maker, the necessary liquidity is ensured.

We consider the pricing for investing at neon to be fair: no custody account fee and generally 0.5% commission fee per trade for ETFs and domestic shares (exception: the commission fee for foreign shares is twice as high at 1%).

Thanks to the linear fee structure and the absence of a minimum commission, neon is very attractively priced for mini amounts of CHF 50 or 100 up to larger tranches of around CHF 1,000. However, this also means that the fees for larger investment sums are too high.

Concluding remarks

No banking solution is perfect, not even neon’s. However, it is equally clear to us that neon offers an attractive overall package . neon is unbeatable when it comes to fee-free international payments by card. (This one plus point alone should make neon worthwhile for anyone with a penchant for traveling and shopping abroad).

But that’s not all: neon can also be ideally combined with your existing house bank and an online broker you trust. This is because neon is risk-free in that there are no ongoing costs for you with neon or the neon-free individual account. This means you get the best of different (banking) worlds at no extra cost.

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Updates

2025-01-14: Comprehensive update: Functionality of the new joint account clarified, investment universe updated, savings interest rate adjusted and other selective improvements added.

2024-10-31: Reference to further interest rate cuts inserted.

2024-10-03: Information that the previous prepaid card from Mastercard has been replaced by the better accepted new debit card from Mastercard.

2024-07-01: Interest rate for savings reduced to 0.5% (from 0.75%).

2024-06-13: New chapter on the neon savings plan and note that selected ETFs are only commission-free in the savings plan.

2024-05-22: Interest rate for savings reduced to 0.75% (from 0.9%).

2024-04-23: Introduction of joint account “neon duo” mentioned.

2024-04-05: Minimum age lowered to 15 years (from 16).

2024-01-09: Fees for foreign distributing dividends pointed out.

2023-11-13: Minor adjustments made: Google Pay (instead of Google Wallet): EUR and USD deleted for interest

Disclaimer

Transparency note: We were impressed by neon’s overall package, which is why we have entered into a partnership with neon. With the neon promotion code “SFB20” you can secure a starting bonus worth CHF 20 and support our blog at the same time. In order to provide credible and realistic first-hand reports, Toni and Stefan have become new neon customers in the course of this neon review.

Disclaimer: Investing involves risks of loss. You must decide for yourself whether you want to bear these risks or not.

Errors excepted: We have written this article about our neon experience to the best of our knowledge and belief. Our aim is to provide you as a private investor with the most objective and meaningful financial information possible. However, if we have made mistakes, forgotten important aspects and/or are no longer up to date, we would be grateful if you could let us know.