How does neon free compare to its competitors?

Do you already use neon free and want to understand how it compares with other offers out there? Or are you comparing different providers to open a new account and want to know why you should choose neon over one of its competitors?

In both cases, this article will quickly show you how our core focus on transparency, simplicity, and low costs is also reflected when comparing neon free with competitors: Revolut Standard, Yuh, UBS Pure, ZKB, and PostFinance.

Whether you analyse the comparison grids below in detail – we’re happy to make this easy for you – or just skim through this blog post, you’ll see that:

neon keeps it simple: for example, you can easily manage your daily finances in Switzerland. Unlike non-Swiss players such as Revolut, neon provides you with a personal Swiss IBAN to receive your salary on your account, a Swiss deposit guarantee, and easy Swiss payment solutions such as eBill. Our offer across the board is simpler, enabling you to quickly understand what you’re getting and manage your finances based on your needs, without (bad) surprises. Simply take a look at the table structure below: while we can do with just one line to explain our (low) exchange rate surcharge on card payments, Revolut Standard requires 3 lines and their complex exchange rate surcharge varies from 0% to 1%, depending on several factors such as a user’s total exchanged amount in a month across many services, but also the day of the week, and even the time of day.

neon is transparent: Despite UBS’s announcement of «UBS key4banking from 0 CHF» in April 2024, UBS doesn't actually offer an account with zero fees. They merely reduced one fee while keeping other fees high and still making them hard to find. With neon, there is still no small print, nor a jungle of legal documents to download in order to understand the pricing conditions.

neon stays low-cost: Even with our 0.35% exchange rate surcharge on foreign card payments with neon free, neon remains highly attractive. Yuh’s 0.95% surcharge is 2.7 times higher and applies to many services – from payments to trading – not just card transactions.

You will find more details below on how neon free, our digital everyday account for full independence, is still the most competitive offer out there in terms of simplicity, transparency, and low costs. But in case you want even more choice, flexibility, and better value, don’t forget to take a look at our new plans, which will also be released from 13 May 2025 for existing users.

neon free vs. Revolut Standard

Revolut offers 5 plans as we write this article: Standard, Plus, Premium, Metal, and Ultra.

When we compare neon free and Revolut Standard, i.e. the most low cost and popular plans for neon and Revolut, we see that:

• both offers have no account fees, are quite competitive and one can be more or less interesting based on your needs.

• there is a major difference though: neon deposits of up to 100’000 CHF are backed by the Federal deposit protection (in case neon goes bankrupt), whereas some Revolut accounts have a deposit protection of up to 100’000 Euros from Revolut Bank UAB in Lithuania (and thus under Lithuanian law).

• transparency is a big difference: unlike neon, Revolut’s website is not always up to date, so finding the information to build this benchmark was quite a challenge – but we are happy to provide it to you now:

At neon, we try to make your daily finance management low cost, transparent and simple for your daily life in Switzerland as well as your adventures abroad, every day of every week.

Now, let’s have a look at another one of neon’s close competitors: Yuh.

neon free vs. Yuh

Yuh only offers one plan, not providing any option for heavy users to get access to even better value, contrary to the new neon plans. When we compare neon free and Yuh, we see that:

Since both offers come without account fees and are quite competitive, the better choice depends on what you need.

there is a major difference, though: Yuh applies a 0.95% exchange rate surcharge to all its users on card payments in foreign currencies as well as on international trading – whereas neon applies a 0.35% surcharge only on card payments in foreign currencies to the neon free plan – not to the other plans, nor to neon invest.

To see the difference in more detail, have a look at our comparison grid below. Or if you would prefer comparisons from external players, feel free to read these comparisons from independent bloggers: The Poor Swiss, Mustachian Post, neo-banques.ch.

As we can see, while having very similar advantages when in Switzerland, neon has clearly better conditions than Yuh when abroad. Yuh’s exchange rate surcharge is 2.7 times higher than the neon free exchange rate surcharge of 0.35% on card transactions abroad. ATM withdrawals abroad are only cheaper with Yuh compared to neon when more than 1’000 CHF are withdrawn, an amount that is rarely withdrawn in cash at once. And for international shares, Yuh charges a total of 1.45% of fees while neon only charges 1%.

Besides this, neon remains proudly independent. This independence means we work with a smaller marketing budget – so you won’t see us sponsoring major sports events or covering Swiss cities with billboards. But it also means that most of our users found us on their own, actively looking for a smarter way to manage their money. And that makes all the difference: it allows us to build sincere, long-lasting relationships with people who truly value what we do.

neon free vs. UBS Pure

UBS pulled a surprise «UBS key4 banking from CHF 0» offer out of its hat on 1 April 2025, and we were curious to know the details. It turns out that besides these base fees, the other UBS key4 Pure fees are still as high (and difficult to find) as before. Even with this «UBS key4 banking from CHF 0» offer, UBS still charges a high exchange rate surcharge (from 1.7% to 3.6% of the amount), and stays unclear for several fees. See for yourself:

neon free vs. ZKB Private account

In January 2024, the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) stopped charging basic annual account fees for private accounts or basic card fees for debit cards. And the costs of its bank packages went down. Though we congratulate our competitor on this initiative, there is still a long way to go when it comes to reducing fees. Here is a brief overview:

As you can see, neon free pricing remains more attractive than ZKB’s private account, especially when looking at fees abroad (card payment as well as ATM withdrawals).

Please note: Investing via ZKB cannot really be compared with neon invest, as ZKB’s investment offer is not made for the same type of investors, offers fewer funds than a distribution platform like neon invest, and applies higher costs based on the trading volume and the stock exchange where the trade is made.

neon free vs. Postfinance Smart

Postfinance, one of Yuh’s mother companies, still charges monthly fees for its «Smart» subscription (5 CHF). They also have higher exchange rate surcharges for card payments abroad (1.5%) and for ATM withdrawals abroad (5 CHF), making their offer clearly more expensive than neon free – while also being less digital.

NB: Similar to ZKB, investing via Postfinance Smart cannot really be compared with neon invest, as Postfinance Smart is not made for the same type of investors, offers fewer funds than a distribution platform like neon invest, and applies higher costs based on the trading volume and the stock exchange where the trade is made.

We hope that these comparisons (as of 12.04.2025) reassured you that we keep pushing for the lowest fees possible with neon free. And, of course, for full transparency!

If you have further questions about our new neon plans, you can check this blog or the corresponding new terms and conditions, which will take effect on 12 May 2025.