Since my last post on banking I got to try out new services and old ones changed a little.
Short Reviews
Trading 212
Trading 212 is basically three things in one: Neobroker, CFD Trading and a debit card. The debit card is pretty good, they offered a very high cashback (2%) and it is easy to use, and offers advanced features. I have not used the broker, but it seems very good as well. I have not used the CFD trading. I would not recommend it, because it is very speculative and if you do not have the capabilities of a hedge fund you will lose money. If you make money anyway, you got lucky, think of it as hitting a jackpot in gambling.
Bluecode
Bluecode is very cool. It syndicates with AliPay+ and allows you to pay with it, I tried it in Aldi and it worked without problems. I also tried it at a coffee vending machine and it worked as follows: You scan the QR code with the app, you get presented a webview that allows you to select 1€ / 3€ / 5€. You select, confirm and return back into the native Bluecode UI, allowing you to confirm again. It debited the account, the machine gets topped up after a couple of seconds. You then select the product you want, it produces it, and you get refunded the difference.
It also has payment roaming with Discover, they are assigned a credit card number block. The app has builtin NFC for this, the card terminal of the vendor contacts Discover's backend, it reaches Bluecode and does the withdrawal.
Flykk
Flykk offers a Diners Club / Discover card (virtual and physical). The app is pretty barebones and buggy. I only got it to obtain a Diners Club. Curve has a Diners Club front end. Paying with it works. In the Vielfliegertreff forum I read the following which I agree with:
[...] flykk is a showcase for the banking platform from ISX. This product is a white-label solution for multi-currency providers. [Offering lounge access] is not something ISX has good reasons for. It's just a pure B2B operation, and as long as no business partner wants to see how the Diners Benefits use case works, I don't think anything will come of it.
American Express
American Express is different than Visa/MC. First, the card number is only 15 numbers, but the security code is four. Second, it has an additional security code only used when directly interfacing with AMEX. Paying with the physical card in store sends you a notification via GPay. Amex owns Payback and Payback partners usually (read: must) accept Amex. You get 1 Payback point per three euro spent. Amex first holds them in escrow and credits the complete amount to your Payback account once a month. Revolut does not allow charging your account with Amex, neither does PayPal. But PayPal allows you to send money to someone else backed by an Amex. You can therefore just transfer it to someone, have them transfer it back to you via SEPA Instant. You also get Payback points for it. I think the card has a very convoluted design, it has written American Express three times on the front. I like that the card has my Payback number on it.
Sumup Pay
Sumup Pay offers a free physical card, 5% cashback on supermarkets and 2% on payments made on Sumup terminals. The app is good, other than seeing purchases and sending money, it only offers a few features. I have not encountered many bugs.
deblock
The app looks modern, but feels generic. It offers customizing the IBAN, which I have not seen before. It also offers free card top-up, also via GPay. deblock also offers a built-in cryptocurrency wallet and buying and staking cryptocurrency.
Bitpanda, Coinbase, Metamask
These three are grouped because they all offer a debit card supported by cryptocurrency.
Bank Norwegian
Bank Norwegian is still a WebView, it got a new design, other than that not much has changed, the app is still really slow and bad. Paying with it works.
Chase
Chase entered the German market with a… wait for it… money market account. The app is easy to use and its interest rate is high at the moment. Overall pretty good, but lacks features, hopefully they will do a debit card.
PayPal
PayPal had some issues with GPay but I was not impacted. I am in the beta program for PayPal and the novel app is way better. Bugs with entering commas in amounts have been fixed. PayPal is also leaning more into a points program, providing NFC payment in the app, and providing a Splitwise alternative.
Wero
I use Wero provided by Revolut. Sending and receiving money between friends works well, other than that I have not used it.
Revolut
Revolut sponsors Rome Fiumicino (FCO) airport. There, they offer vending machines for debit cards. I thought this is really cool. Revolut is also still very good. I have changed my subscription to Metal. It offers a nice metal physical card, as well as a bunch of subscriptions for free including Perplexity, Uber and a VPN, 3GB of global SIM card data and airport lounge access for 29 euro.
C24
C24 is still very good. They have not changed much to be honest.
Scalable Capital
Scalable is the major Trade Republic alternative. I tried it out and it is a good broker. I prefer TR because of the debit card.
Recommended Setup as of June 2026
C24 for paying invoices, because their scan-to-transfer is really good. Revolut for innovative features, including wero. Bluecode for AliPay+ and Diners club frontend. Curve is still a must for advanced use. Bank Norwegian is a good credit card offer. Trade Republic is still an ok broker.
AMEX, Chase and Sumup pay only if you are interested in cashback or trying out new banks. Skip deblock, and the other cryptocurrency cards. Maybe also skip PayPal if you can avoid the strong network effects.
Schufa Score
If you are concerned about my Schufa score, do not worry, it is excellent. I use Bonify to track it. I also do regular GDPR takeouts. Schufa overhauled their score and it is supposed to be simpler and more understandable.