neon vs. Zak – which Swiss banking app is the best?

Letztes Update: 1. February 2024

After two years with Zak of Bank Cler as my main bank, I have been using neon as my everyday account since the beginning of 2020. In the neon vs. Zak comparison, you can find out which Swiss banking app is currently ahead and why I now prefer neon.

neon vs. Zak – the comparison

WP Data Tables

All other available services and prices can be found on the websites of neon and Zak.

neon

The design of both apps is very clear. Neon, however, comes across as fresher and more sophisticated. It is very easy to use and it clearly shows how many cash withdrawals you can still make for free this month.

The graphical displays of deposits and withdrawals are nice to look at, but don’t really offer any added value. Likewise the categorization, a nice gimmick, but I don’t really need it. More practical is then already the possibility to group payments by means of tags. For example, you can assign payments to your summer vacations.

Registration is completely paperless in less than 10 minutes. You can either identify yourself via video call or, even more conveniently, via photo ID, which is possible 24/7. The verification and activation of the account then unfortunately takes two to three working days.

Card, transfers and cash withdrawals

With Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay or Garmin Pay, you can conveniently pay by cell phone. After each payment with the card you will receive a push message.

With eBill, you receive notifications of invoice receipts directly into the app and by email if you wish. A browser window will then open from the neon app where you can view, check and approve the invoice. This eliminates the need to scan paper invoices, which also works reliably.

When you pay at the store or make a cash withdrawal, you’ll receive a push notification. The logos on the app’s home screen also let you know immediately what you’re spending your money on.

And of course, it’s great to be able to withdraw money for free twice a month. I also find Sonect is a very practical solution, as there are a lot of kiosks in Switzerland. But cash can now also be withdrawn from restaurants, cafés, shopping stores and bars. At the beginning, employees didn’t know much about the Sonect code on the smartphone, but fortunately that has changed in the meantime, so I rarely encounter astonished faces. In times of Corona, however, I hardly use cash anymore anyway.

Subaccounts

With neon Spaces, you can easily open sub-accounts and put money aside to pay taxes, for example.

Foreign currencies

What definitely sets neon apart from the traditional Swiss banks and made them first among neobanks is the advantageous exchange rate . Neon calculates with the Mastercard reference rate and does not slap an opaque fee on the currency exchange like most other banks. You can read about how neon did on my vacation here.

For foreign transfers, neon works with Wise, formerly TransferWise. So you can exchange and transfer 40 currencies cheaply and quickly – see the related blog post.

Zak

Logging in to Zak takes much longer and you wonder what’s taking so long, the design of the app isn’t really lush after all and the number of functions is also limited. The integrated tipster (chatbot) is still in its infancy and was hardly usable in the beginning. But he is learning, so in the meantime he can refer to the exchange rate of SIX.

Card, transfers and cash withdrawals

With the new Visa debit card, you can easily pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. In the past, a virtual Visa prepaid card had to be topped up.
Before the summer of 2021, there were two physical cards – a Maestro and a credit card. However, these have been replaced by the Visa debit card.

eBill has finally been launched years after Zak. Somewhat cumbersome: Each time you connect to the eBill portal, you will be sent an mTAN that you must then enter. If you want to use eBill, you have to activate the eBill plug-in in the Zak app under “Zak-Store” (“+” at the bottom right).

What really annoys me: The payment information such as address or names of recipients are not stored. You have to search out and enter this information each time.

Cash withdrawals at Bank Cler ATMs are free of charge. At a third-party machine, each withdrawal costs CHF 2.

Subaccounts

The savings pots are practical. Within the app you can move money to different sub-accounts. Automatic saving is also possible with it. For example, you can transfer money to a vacation or tax pot each month. This works very simply with a swipe of the finger.

Foreign currencies

With Zak it is with the foreign currency unfortunately not so simple, Zak is still a very classic, ponderous bank. I have asked the customer service by mail regarding the applied exchange rate and exchange rate surcharge and came back: “A general statement is difficult. For all exchange rates, spreads/fees customary in the industry are taken at the middle rate, be it to the bid or ask side. As a rule, these can be currency and amount dependent.” If I wanted to know the current rate, they told me to call their hotline. For me, this statement is not satisfactory for a smartphone bank and the transparency also leaves something to be desired.
After all, with the Visa debit card, the 2.5% handling fee for Mastercard payments in foreign currencies has been abolished. Also the fee of CHF 1.50 for payment in foreign currencies with the Maestro card. However, the exchange rate is still more advantageous with other providers.

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the outset, I already dissolved my traditional banking relationship over two years ago and switched to Zak. And since then, I don’t miss the traditional banks at all.

Because neon makes it much easier and less complicated to make transfers, my usage shifted more and more to neon. And I wouldn’t want to miss eBill anymore either. Furthermore, it is convenient if I can use my standard account abroad with attractive conditions and do not have to transfer extra money back and forth to foreign providers such as Revolut. So right now, neon is clearly my favorite and has become my everyday banking app.

Zak unfortunately feels like it was designed for a very young audience as an entry-level app. If the demands on banking become somewhat greater over the years, the fee-based Zak Plus or the parent bank Cler are already waiting next door.

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