What you do you mean? I tried some transactions and it was quick.
Yes, prepaid TWINT is a bit frustrating…
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Maybe they’ve changed it. I stopped using them as my bank back in October and at the time that’s how long it took.
YMMV, but the fact that it’s hit and miss was a no-go for me. I don’t need to wonder whether the airline or the hotel will accept my card or not, I want it to work every time.
It’s listed as pending (you can’t click on it) for 2-4 working days. Noticed that too, kind of annoying.
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It’s officially a prepaid card, that’s supposed to work a debit (I think the card is provided by a third party). So not a good card for pre-authorizations (“holds”) for rentals etc. Generally works just as well as a method of payment though.
Many cards or accounts will have a limit of sorts. I have never deposited my rental deposit in cash and don’t think it’s that common. Making unwitting people fork out cash for a rental deposit (without actually providing an apartment or its keys) is a known scam and shouldn’t required by (most) professional property management companies in Switzerland.
I’ve experienced the opposite when booking a ticket for some (don’t remember) Asian airline: our European credit cards got declined (probably by the security system), but a prepaid card worked well, just skipping 3-D Secure and the like checks.
I would recommend additionally getting a “proper” credit card anyway.
…for which point you’d be paying fees for cross-border and/or foreign currency transactions, though. I’m not aware of any credit card without cross-border/FX charges that you’d be able to get in Switzerland (except, maybe, German DKB, though you’d have to convert to EUR before).
The Neon Mastercard is free for international use and I don’t have to convert to EUR or something else. That’s good enough for me, as is the cash withdrawal limit. I have proper credit cards elsewhere (Swisscard, and EU cards).
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I should have clarified: I needed to withdraw the cash to deposit it on my rental deposit account. It was after the cut-off time for a wire to go out the same day and I needed to deposit it in cash so it would be in the account right away.
My point is that 99% of the time, I don’t need anywhere near 1000 CHF cash per day. But on the rare occasions that I do, I really need it to work and neon let me down on that front.
They also forgot to dispute a transaction that I asked them to and have proven too unreliable for my taste.
I use Neon as my emergency fund account. Happy so far except for the hard 20k CHF per day limit. When I moved some 80k from TrueWealth to IBKR i had to do 4 transactions each on a different day. Also no way to override that.
Doesn’t Neon use their “in-house” exchange rate rather than the spot price? That does make a difference, and is a hidden fee if that’s the case because “in-house” rates are never as good as the spot rate. Revolut, N26, Transferwise, and MC/Visa are usually so close to spot that the difference is negligible, but other “WE DONT CHARGE FX FEES” banks using their “in-house” rates are a couple percents higher than spot.
They use the Mastercard reference course. It’s in the link posted at the top of the thread.
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Then it’s a good deal 
Hey, do you have a friends Link that you can share as I am keen to open an account and maybe others as well…
You can use my code: 3RVKU7
Notice that this is not anonymous, though, e.g. as in VIAC. When you’re credited your 10.- you will see the other person’s full name, and maybe vice versa.
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UPDATE !
As it seems to be the main thread about neon, I wanted to update it because neon is offering a metal card with some benefit for people that are interested to have a nice shiny black metal card : neon metal (neon-free.ch)
Spoiler: I won’t subscribed to their metal card, I have the neon Q one, maybe QoQa will setup a special offer for their anniversary this year ?
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So I registered recently with Neon using a referral code and received a 20 CHF bonus. It looks good and it is anyway free if you won’t like it in the future.
You can ask me for a referral code if you want to register with Neon and get their 20 CHF bonus in addition. Nothing is mentioned about time limitations of this offer, but who knows.
The 20 CHF offer is only valid until they hit 100’000 customers. Referring people also enter you into a lottery to win some nice prizes.
Just received an email from Qoqa :
Si tu penses que tes ami(e)s devraient aussi avoir neon Q, dis-leur de garder un oeil sur QoQa ces prochaines semaines…
Keep an eye on Qoqa during anniversary week for Neon offer !
I’m waiting two thing with their Anniversary:
- The next offer with neon (neon Q metal ?)
- Their (new?) mobile phone plan
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Does qoqa still exists or is at least relevant? Every time I check it I see the usual fluff…
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