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Byron Mühlberg
Guide
Are you searching for alternatives to traditional banks? Perhaps you're unhappy with your bank's high fees, clunky e-banking, or otherwise unsatisfied with one or more areas of its service.
Fortunately for you, alternatives do exist, and whether you're looking for a complete replacement bank account or an alternative to handle specific services such as checking or foreign exchange, you'll probably be able to find an excellent option to suit your needs.
Revolut is one of the best online bank accounts to open online where it's available, giving you:
This article will explore both bank and non-bank alternatives to traditional banks and weigh their pros and cons to determine which might make sense for you.
| 🔎 No. reviewed on Monito | 70+ |
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| 💸 Average monthly fee | $0.00 |
| 🏆 Best by location |
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| ⭐ Best by Monito Score |
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Bank alternatives are a hot topic these days. If you're looking for a bank alternative, you may want a financial institution offering better banking fees, interest rates, or exchange rates. Or you may just be looking for a more convenient and accessible banking experience. Some people even look for bank alternatives out of principle, not supporting the institutional banking industry and instead wanting to find an option that's more sustainable or value-oriented.
Here are two of the key advantages of bank alternatives in more detail:
Many bank alternatives are neobanks, fintechs, or online-only banks which don't operate brick-and-mortar bank branches. Others don't invest as much in customer support teams and instead automate the customer support process. Both of these reduce their cost structure and allow you to benefit from low fees (usually in the range of $0 to $5 per month).
Bank alternatives often place less emphasis on being a resident of a particular country, and cross-border accounts are very common. Take Revolut, for example, which is available to residents of many countries and offers multi-currency balances in more than 30 foreign currencies!
It's worth noting that many bank alternatives are not full banks. This means that, although they're safe, they do not provide the same level of protection as an ordinary bank account. Specifically, bank alternatives often don't provide deposit protection, meaning that your deposits won't be reimbursed to you by the government if the company went under; and sometimes challenger banks are less likely to refund you money in the event you fall victim to fraud.
Therefore, we recommend thinking carefully before giving up your bank account entirely for a bank alternative. Instead, we generally recommend using neobanks for handling some of your ordinary financial services (e.g. overseas spending, money transfers, trading, etc.) on a pay-as-you-go basis, which will save you money in place of your ordinary bank while still protecting you in case there's financial trouble with the company.
However, it's also worth noting that some bank alternatives are fully-licensed banks, allowing you to get the best of both worlds. It really depends from country to country. Our examples below clearly tell you whether the bank alternative in question is a fully-licensed bank.
If you're from the UK, you'll have a wealth of bank alternatives to choose from whose offerings, in our opinion, far outpace those of traditional banks in 2024 for savvy customers. Here are the top three bank alternatives in the UK according to our comparison of more than eight competitors in the market:
Starling Bank is a mobile-only challenger bank that gives you a personal bank account, a debit card, and a range of other financial services through its mobile-only banking app. Setting itself apart from high-street banks in the UK, Starling aims to offer customers a convenient and user-friendly banking experience, focusing on areas like transparency and low fees. It was founded as recently as 2014 and has quickly gained popularity among British customers looking for an alternative to banks and their traditionally high costs in the UK.
Monzo is a British challenger bank that offers you a mobile-only personal bank account, debit card, and other banking services like loans and savings through its mobile app. An excellent choice if you're looking to escape the high fees of traditional banks, Monzo charges no fees for day-to-day card use (e.g. cashpoint withdrawals and card payments) in the UK and abroad. Because it offers one of the most advanced and comprehensive savings systems from any challenger bank (allowing lots of flexibility over your time horizon and savings goals), Monzo is especially well-suited for managing and growing wealth, regardless of your individual goals.
Account Name | Fee /Month |
|---|---|
£0.00 | |
£5.00 | |
£15.00 |
Revolut is a non-bank financial technology company based in the UK that offers a range of banking and financial services through its mobile app, chief among them a personal account with UK bank details (including a GB IBAN and sort code), a debit card, and industry-leading foreign exchange services. Moreover, the Revolut mobile app offers multi-currency accounts, savings management, travel perks, and more. However, because it's not yet a bank in the UK, we think Revolut is best used as a powerful spending tool next to your bank account instead of in place of it.
Account Name | Fee /Month |
|---|---|
£0.00 | |
£3.99 | |
£7.99 | |
£14.99 | |
£55.00 |
Americans also have access to a wide range of financial services and alternatives to banks. Below, you'll find our summary of the most exciting offerings available to US residents, but be sure to check out our ranking of the top neobanks in the USA to learn more.
Founded in 2013, Chime® is an excellent mobile account with around 12 million customers. It gives you low fees across the board and includes overdraft on debit card purchases and cash withdrawals⁵ offered via an optional service called SpotMe®. It also provides free in-network ATM withdrawals¹ and even gives you APY at 2.00%³. There are a few downsides, most notably the fact that you won't be able to send or receive wire transfers, and you can pay a lot in fees if you need to add cash to the app.
Juno is a reasonably new US fintech that gives you a checking account and a debit card as long as you set up at least $500 monthly in direct deposits. Juno is also very cheap to use domestically and internationally, with no monthly cost and almost no fees, even for out-of-network ATM withdrawals. As a nice bonus, it offers a cashback of 5% on five brands of your choosing and access to a crypto wallet.
UK-based neobank giant Revolut is also active in the US, offering its checking account and debit card in partnership with Metropolitan Commercial Bank — which means it’s fully FDIC-insured. On top of a host of banking features like early direct deposit, free ATM withdrawals or an interest-earning savings account. Revolut also offers many internationally-oriented features, like ten free foreign transfers a month, free foreign exchange of up to $1000 a month, and the ability to hold a balance in foreign currencies.
Account Name | Fee /Month |
|---|---|
0 | |
9.99 | |
16.99 |
Europe is often considered the birthplace of fintechs and online banking, and true to this, EU residents have access to a wide range of bank and non-bank online alternatives to traditional banks. Take a look at our ranking of the best online banks in Europe to see the full list, which we've summarised below:
N26 is a German mobile-only bank that offers a range of products and services through its savvy smartphone app. Arguably the best-known mobile bank, N26 is a widely-used and much-loved German online bank with around seven million customers across the EU. N26 is also partnered with Wise's money transfer service, allowing in-app international money transfers at some of the best exchange rates on the market. Because of its complete current account offering, we recommend N26 to just about anybody interested in low-cost banking.
Account Name | Fee /Month |
|---|---|
0 | |
4.9 | |
9.9 | |
16.9 |
Dutch neobank bunq doesn't offer a free account, and many of its services come with additional fees. However, for those who don't mind paying higher monthly fees for an online bank account, bunq comes packed with many exciting features and perks to take advantage of, and we find it a banking option well worth considering.
Account Name | Fee /Month |
|---|---|
0 | |
2.99 | |
8.99 | |
17.99 |
Virtual banks in Canada have become trendy alternatives to traditional banking. They provide online-only banking services, which include chequing, savings, bank transfers, investments, mortgages, and more. In our opinion, there's one clear winner in Canada:
Tangerine Bank, also known as Tangerine, is a Canadian direct bank that offers a range of financial products and services, including personal and business bank accounts, debit cards, and investment options. The bank was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Tangerine aims to provide a convenient and user-friendly banking experience for its customers, focusing on low fees, transparency, and flexibility. Tangerine operates online and through its mobile app, with no physical branches.
In addition to Tangerine, other attractive bank alternatives in Canada include the Wise Account, EQ Bank, Simplii Financial, and MotusBank. Read more about them in our guide on the best virtual banks in Canada in 2024.
In India, using electronic means such as mobile apps and websites to access financial services is gaining popularity. In 2024, traditional banks like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank are ramping up their digital accessibility, while digital-only financial services like Paytm and Google Pay are seeing more and more new users every year.
However, when it comes to alternatives to banks in India, there are several neobanks too (some regulated as banks, others not) that are also growing in popularity, including:
These companies and others are helping to accelerate the transformation of India's digital finance sector into a world-leading hub for innovation and disruption.
Alternatives to banks in Nigeria include mobile money apps like Paga and Paystack, which support transfers and bill payments, as well as online spending apps that come with USD balances. In our opinion, the most interesting online accounts and debit cards in Nigeria offering US dollar functionality are the following:
See our complete list of the best virtual dollar cards in Nigeria to learn more.
The market of bank alternatives in Australia isn't as developed as in Europe and North America. However, there are still a few options, including digital-only banking apps like UP and international arrivals like Revolut and the Wise Account.
You’re probably all too familiar with the often outrageous cost of sending money abroad. After facing this frustration themselves back in 2013, co-founders François, Laurent, and Pascal launched a real-time comparison engine to compare the best money transfer services across the globe. Today, Monito’s award-winning comparisons, reviews, and guides are trusted by around 8 million people each year and our recommendations are backed by millions of pricing data points and dozens of expert tests — all allowing you to make the savviest decisions with confidence.
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