Vivid Money Review: Fees, Card, Usability, and Monito's Verdict

Yes, Vivid Money is a safe and secure platform to hold, spend, send, and receive money. Although not officially a bank (Vivid is a fintech company offering a banking product), the platform is authorized by BaFin and backed by German bank Solarisbank AG as a "tied partner", meaning its account products are functionally the same as any other current account from an EU-based bank.

The fact that Vivid isn't a fully-fledged bank isn't necessarily a disadvantage; it's generally tough for young banking startups to obtain their own banking licenses. Therefore, it's common for fintechs to team up with external banking partners and conduct themselves as non-bank entities. For example, you might notice this in the BIC you'll receive as a Vivid customer, which happens to be Solaribank's BIC. Customers of Kontist and Penta (two other well-known fintechs partnered with Solarisbank) also have the same BIC for the very same reason.

On the downside, however, because Vivid's accounts are partnered with a bank, users can also expect negative interest rates on high account balances (0.50% for balances over €250,000 at the time of writing). Fortunately, this is an unusually high balance, meaning most Vivid accounts won't exceed this allowance and therefore won't be subject to the interest rate 'fee'.

Another major perk of Vivid's banking collaboration is that users have few security risks to worry about. Solarisbank is strictly regulated and subject to legal deposit protection, meaning that Vivid customers enjoy the security that their cash deposits will be guaranteed up to €100,000 if Vivid should run into financial trouble.

Interestingly, new Vivid Money customers receive the premium account model (called 'Vivid Prime') free of charge for the first three months. If after those first three months expire new users don't wish to start paying, they'll be automatically downgraded to the basic 'Vivid Standard' plan which costs €0.00 in monthly fees. However, in our opinion, this plan is already very equipped and sufficient for most users (although there's always the chance that the free trial convinces you to start paying the €9.90 per month to upgrade!)

The free account comes with the same Vivid debit card that's offered with the paid account — a purple metal Visa card. Other neobanks usually charge a monthly fee between €12.00 and €17.00 for metal debit cards, and we find that fact that it comes free of charge to be a major feather in Vivid Money's cap!

Other than the card's material, another noteworthy fact is that no card number or account holder details are printed out on the card's front or back, making fraud much more difficult if your card was to be lost or stolen.

All Vivid accounts also support up to 15 sub-accounts, each with a separate bank account and IBAN. Account-holders can therefore receive transfers directly to sub-accounts and thus have significantly more control and flexibility over their money.

As we saw earlier, the free limits for withdrawing cash are €200 per month, after which a 3.00% withdrawal fee will be charged per withdrawal. On the other hand, paying with your Vivid card is free of charge worldwide without limitation.

If you decide to upgrade to 'Vivid Prime', you can do so at any time via the Vivid app. Since the premium account doesn't include a separate debit card, the upgrade is completely digital and can be completed in seconds. If there is a risk of exceeding a monthly limit, you can upgrade the account at short notice and then downgrade it again.

In our opinion, these are our highlights of the free Vivid account:

• Make free payments worldwide;
• Free metal debit card;
• No exchange rate surcharges on 40 currencies;
• 15 sub-accounts with their own bank details;
• Free cash withdrawals up to €200 per month worldwide;
• Up to €20 cashback per month.

Cashback on Vivid Payments

Vivid's cashback program is one of the platform's true highlights. Cashback is provided by Vivid through various partnerships that promise repayment of up to 25% on every transaction through 'Vivid Prime' (however our impression is that cashback of over 10% is a rarity). On the plus side, however, these partner cashback offers are extensive, ranging from online services to supermarkets, meaning you can probably already collect cashback for purchases that you would have made anyway.

Currently, for example, there is a 10% cashback at major retailers Lidl and Aldi, which is automatically credited after each transaction. Occasionally, there are also promotions that exceed the promised maximum 25% cashback. Toward the end of 2020, Netflix new customers were offered cashback of as much as 30% via Vivid, meaning it makes sense to keep an eye out and take advantage of appealing deals when they come up.

For holders of the free Vivid current account, there is currently only one cashback form: the Champion Program. This offers up to 10% cashback on restaurant visits if you've been the Vivid customer who spent the most at that restaurant in a two-week period. This is an interesting extra, but of course, it can't compete with the other cashback offers.

All cashback is automatically linked to the performance of clients of selected stocks. This allows them to increase in value even further. It is important to know that no real shares are purchased, but customers make a kind of bet with Vivid. On request, the cashback can be credited back to the cash account directly after payout.

A Note on Investments and Transfers

In addition to cashback, investments in stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and precious metals are possible directly from the app at low cost. There are no transaction costs for US equities, while minimal transaction costs are charged for European ones. WHat we find particularly appealing about this feature is that you invest the balance directly from your own current account without needing to set up a separate clearing to brokerage account.

Vivid also publicly advertises real-time transfers. However, these are not SEPA instant transfers, but real-time transfers to other Vivid customers. Although we think it's good that Vivid is able to support transfers to other users in real-time, we also think the term "real-time transfer" can be a bit misleading because these are not yet supported by Vivid's banking partner Solarisbank.

Vivid Money Mobile App

The mainstay of Vivid Money's platform, Vivid's mobile app is the only platform with which to manage your account. Here are a few of the points we found the most interesting about Vivid Money's mobile app:

• Cashback on everyday payments: All cashback offers can be viewed and used via the mobile app interface.
• Extensive multi-currency accounts: Vivid offers holding and changing up to 150 different currencies directly from the app.
• Share invoices with your friends: Invoices can be split and paid directly through only a few nifty clicks in the app.
• Card details: Vivid protects your card details and decrypts them only when prompted via the app.

Is Vivid Money Worth It? What Are the Alternatives?

In our opinion, Vivid is one of the most interesting neobanks currently available on the EU market, mostly given the fact that a large part of its services is offered completely free of charge. Additional services for 'Vivid Prime' are almost completely limited to the cashback functions, meaning that all users can enjoy the core functionality without paying a dime in monthly fees.

The premium cashback features are outstanding and can be worthwhile for many customers. To find out whether or not 'Vivid Prime' is worthwhile for you, you should simply calculate how much you would save monthly through the cashback (although this will probably already be apparent after the first three months of testing). If you regularly make larger purchases from Vivid partners or run subscriptions such as Netflix, Spotify, or Amazon Prime, then the cashback can also become very cost-effective indeed.

Because of the uniqueness of its offering, we don't see a real alternative to Vivid at the moment. However, if you'e looking for a second account with another neobank or regularly make foreign transfers, you should take a closer look at Revolut, N26, or Wise. Currently, however, we would fully recommend Vivid, as we think it is one of the best neobanks on the market.

Currently, there are few neobanks that are quite as well-priced for foreign use as Vivid Money, where no foreign currency fees whatsoever are charged (only the base Visa exchange rate surcharge). In addition, the limit of €200 ('Vivid Standard') or €1,000 ('Vivid Prime') per month applies to cash withdrawals worldwide. On the other hand, card payments are not limited at all worldwide, meaning frequent travellers can easily make back their money's worth. Account-holders can also change their Euro balance in 40 ('Vivid Standard') or 107 ('Vivid Prime') foreign currencies before a trip and thus dodge exchange rate risks entirely.

The only concerns we have are about the international acceptance of the Vivid card. In many developing countries, card payments are still the exception, rather than the norm, and sometimes they need to be verified with a signature. Since the Vivid debit card doesn't reveal any details about the cardholder, there's always a slim chance that it may be declined. However, this is currently only a problem in theory, and no users have publicly complained about it so far.

Another point of criticism is the fact that Vivid doesn't yet offer international money transfers. Anyone who regularly supports family members or friends from countries outside the SEPA area would have to use a money transfer provider such as Wise or Azimo to get the job done. You can use Monito's comparison engine to find the cheapest provider in real-time.