A savings account with Neon?

Hi everyone, I’m new here, and I’d like to know if any of you have completely abandoned your traditional bank accounts for a neo-bank like Neo. I opened a Neon account a fortnight ago, but I am still hesitating to close my Raiffeisen account for one last reason: my savings account.

I find it more understandable to have two separate accounts, especially as I am self-employed, and my income varies every month, which makes it more difficult to calculate my finances and plan my budget.

Do any of you here have a solution for this? Open two Neon accounts and use one as a savings account?

Thanks in advance!

I have both:

  • A neon account (used like a credit card)
  • A checking account with Raiffeisen
  • A saving account with Raiffeisen

Like you, I prefered to have a saving account with little intereste to park my emergy fund, just in case, because, well, we don’t know what could happen in life.

I would not really be safe in my mind if I hadn’t two seperated account. But it’s a matter of personal opinion instead of a “logic” one.

For example: I would not be able to sleep at night with one account, because if I’ve got hijacked, I could lose everything. Of course, you are insured, but it will take time and effort before having your money back.

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Okay, yes, I understand! I didn’t even mention the security aspect in my message, but I do find it more reassuring not to have everything in one place.

Do check if the account is liquid, sometimes you have to ask like 3months early or have yearly limited.

The goal of such an action is not to show off, but to minimize expenses. If you have a free package with a traditional bank that doesn’t cost you a fortune in opportunity costs, it is totally fine to use it. Examples are:

BCV package, free as long as you have over 10k CHF in your accounts.
Raiffeisen - you become member by signing their parts, you get a free banking package, lots of perks+ some interest on your social parts.

Postfinance is not in this list, because if you have over 25k CHF invested with them, you lose at least 90 CHF per year in comparison with other, better investment “arrangements” (not what you invest into, but how).

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I use Neon as my main account, but I still have a Migros Bank account for the simple reason that I have my mortgage there, so it’s more convenient to also keep a savings account next to it. But I would be comfortable with having only Neon.

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I use Neon as my main account and ZAK as a savings account (and for the Zak deals on incoming payments). Will probably be cancelling my UBS account soon, as I haven’t used it for months.

Neon does everything I need from a day-to-day current account. And does it well, since I prefer app banking to “old school” web banking. I also have a credit card package from Swisscard

That said, I have my emergency savings and investments at other banks (outside of CH) and IBKR.

EDIT: I also have CSX and Yuh, though just for kicks and curiosity really.

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I don’t have any problem of liquidity since I have both a saving and checking account with the same Bank, so transfered between them is easy without a limit.

However, it could effectively be a problem if you only have a saving account :thinking:

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If you don’t have millions to park, don’t bother to open several accounts in multiple banks.

I’m using UBS for my daily banking operations (+ savings + rental guarantee) and Neon for my payments abroad.

If Neon starts expanding its offer with savings accounts (or allowing to have multiple current accounts) and rental guarantee accounts, I won’t mind having all my daily banking with them.

I prefer the simplicity to a penny savings solution.

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I am looking forward to Neon adding the “vaults” like there is in Revolut. I use them somewhat as budgeting envelopes and for yearly expenses that I spread as a monthly charge.

They seem to going to call them “pots” and it’s in prospect phase since a while (roadmap).

If you guys can drop them an email asking for this, it may move faster: service@neon-free.ch . Oh well and joint accounts would be so great too.

I only use Neon in combination with Revolut, but would be glad to drop the later.

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These you have at yuh, btw. And while I am not comfortable with keeping over 1k at Revolut, I am fine with yuh for this.

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Savings accounts at conventional banks are not just free, they also pay you at least some interest. So using the highest-yield savings account for savings/emergency funds and a free checking account like Neon for transactions is optimal.

Youth savings accounts generally have much better interest, so if you have kids then making use of these for savings is something to consider. Most banks give you as the parent/guardian full control of the funds in these accounts, but you will want to check before opening.

AFAIK Yuh does not pay interest on savings.

I recommend you compare interest rates and go with the bank that pays the most:

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Lumo - If you guys can drop them an email asking for this, it may move faster: service@neon-free.ch . Oh well and joint accounts would be so great too.

Yes, I think they will be the best app if they implement this ! I also chose Neon for ethical reasons (small company, not affiliate to a big one like Zak or Yuh). I’ll write to them too. I installed Yuh to use it as my saving account because I very like “pots” feature. We’ll open a Zak account with my girlfriend to use it as our couple’s savings account.

I recommend you compare interest rates and go with the bank that pays the most

Good idea, I’ll check this link, thank you :+1:

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I imagine Neon could offer the savings account from its partner Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, but that has a pretty sad interest rate. Neon itself doesn’t have the banking business needed to generate interest. It only offers financial services.

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Neon itself doesn’t have the banking business needed to generate interest. It only offers financial services.

It’s true, but bank interest are very low these days. I prefer to invest on my own in eco-responsible and ethical businesses. No bank in Switzerland (except the BAS) offers this possibility. I therefore prefer to have a Neon account without interest and to invest on my own via services like Inyova which are specialized in these subjects.

I didn’t try it yet but, since they do a fairly precise selection work on criteria that are important to me, this seems justified. The best thing would be to invest on my own without going through a platform, but I don’t know enough about it to do that at the moment.

Now I am interested. It seems that I cannot access much information without creating an account. What are exactly their strategies?

If this grows into a substantial discussion, I wouldn’t mind if moderators split it into a separate topic.

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Well, investing is a whole different topic. You can also invest directly with a Vanguard ETF. A savings account would be for money which you want to keep in cash.

Of course, if the main reason for holding cash is for emergencies, you could consider holding a free credit card as your “emergency fund” and keep all your money invested.

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Also their comparison they have for DIY investing is pretty unfair in my opinion, for a 10’000 CHF investment they talk about 40 transactions per year, that’s more than overkill.

For Inyova ? I just created an account, but not started anything yet. However, there is a buch of filters you can use to choose in what businesses you want to invest (eco-responsible, cruelty-free for animals, low-carbon, etc).

I don’t know much about all this but I’ll look into it before throwing all my savings at Inyova if you tell me there’s better for less :wink: