Vivid is currently offering their customers a Free of charge plan as the starting tier, and a Prime plan for EUR 9.90/month (please note that currently there is a special promotion where the first months on Vivid Prime subscriptions are free).

Both in the Free and in the Prime segments, users receive a metal Visa-issued debit card, a free Germany-based account, the chance to set up to 15 so-called Pockets and up to 10% in cashbacks on online purchases. The difference between both plans relies on the global-friendly character of the Prime subscription, with up to 150 currencies available for exchange and an overseas withdrawal limit of up to EUR 2000 per month.

For further information on plans and prices, please log on to https://vivid.money/

In the near future, as claimed by Vivid, its customers will be able to start investing in either American or European companies; Vivid proposes that can open their investment account in a few clicks for them to start operating right away, either through direct purchase of individual stocks across the US and Europe or through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Vivid claims that, whenever US stocks are purchased, they are commission free but, whenever European stocks are purchased, a low commission is charged.

Please log on to https://vivid.money/en-eu/investments/ for staying up to date with Vivid’s news on their customers’ investments.

With Vivid’s cashback program, their customers can obtain up to EUR 20/month while using the Vivid debit card. This program works by, first, selecting a stock or a group of stocks (yup, those stocks that are traded in the stock market) and your cashbacks would grow as the selected stocks grow in the market. Vivid customers’ cashback is kept in their so-called “Pocket” for rewards that are tied to stock evolution which grows according to the performance of the stocks of their choice. Vivid customers, finally, can always withdraw their  rewards in cash or spend them as they wish.

Please log on to https://vivid.money/en-eu/cashback/ for staying up to date with Vivid’s actions for maximizing their customers’ cashback.

The metal, Visa-issued debit card that Vivid provides does not have any details on the outside— it only shows the Visa and Vivid logos. So, customers must enter the Vivid app to check the card’s details (please note that this Vivid card does work only for Google Pay). Whenever customers incur on a payment, they receive an alert. In case of losing or having the physical cards stolen, they can be locked and unlocked directly via the app.

For the sake of better managing their money, Vivid lets customers create and maintain so-called pockets, which happen to be sub-accounts that are graphically shown as a grid. Customers can assign money between pockets, of course, directly on the app as they can associate their cards with the pocket of their choice.

If you want to know more on Vivid, please log on to https://vivid.money/

Office managers and assistants can rely on Payhawk to replace their obsolete petty cash funds and hard to control one-off requests with a company card. These practitioners can get a hold on a single process for managing and paying outstanding bills, issuing card payments, and handling any out of pocket expenses that require to be reimbursed.

For further information, please log on to https://payhawk.com/use-cases/#the_frequent_traveler

What exactly is Bunq?

Bunq is a Netherlands-based neobank that is positioned, according to its marketing strategy, as a “swiss knife” for their customers’ finances.

What I have seen, after reviewing its website, is that their plans’ information is quite poor (compared to other players such as Anna, Monzo or Revolut) but, on the other hand, their fees are competitive for those who choose to manage their money with Bunq.

What can you do with the Bunq App?

• Not much, actually, if the lowest tier (Travel) is selected; prices in Bunq’s landing page are quite different from the actual features and specifications (no more than 5 basic features are included for free; other features in this Travel tier are available at a premium price or directly not available)

For this segment, Bunq offers three defined tiers, as follows:

• Travel: Free of charge, it allows customers to send/receive money and can be connected to GooglePay, Apple Pay and FitbitPay. Cards are available at EUR 9.99 each.
• Premium: EUR 7.99/month, with up to 3 credit/debit cards free of charge. Additional features are available in this plan, but at an additional cost.
• Premium SuperGreen: EUR 16.99/month, with the same features you may have in the Premium segment and with the addition of a Metal Card (for “green” purposes).

More information can be found at https://www.bunq.com/

What exactly is Bunq for Business?

Bunq is a Netherlands-based neobank that is positioned, according to its marketing strategy, as a “swiss knife” for their customers’ finances.

What I have seen, after reviewing its website, is that their plans’ information is even poorer than its Individuals’ website (there are even serious language inconsistencies in non-english versions for such website) and prices are hidden at first sight, with little or no reference about where to find detailed specifications.

What can you do with the Bunq for Business App?

• According to its website, you can pay and receive money immediately, as you can review and control your employees’ subaccounts in real time (through the app and via an API), but almost all the features and transactions you should be able to do come at an additional price.

I am not a fan of Bunq, as there are multiple hidden costs along the way.

For this segment, Bunq offers two defined tiers, as follows:

• Business: EUR 19.99/month, in this case with multiple features but, like I previously stated, almost all of them at an additional cost per transaction.
• Business SuperGreen: EUR 19.99/month, with the same features you may have in the Premium segment and with the addition of a Metal Card (for “green” purposes).

More information can be found at https://www.bunq.com/ and at https://www.bunq.com/pricing

This is a platform that claims to be more than just another regular spending software; it is more than that. Payhawk, indeed, is a corporate, Visa-issued debit card that also comes with a virtual account and an expense reporting platform that can be totally connected to your existing bank account.

Payhawk, then, enables their users to have all their commercial cards in a single reporting structure where managers can review, control, and analyze expenses, trends, and thresholds.

Payhawk, finally, is a platform that can be used by any company located in the European Economic Area and, therefore, it enables these businesses to send and receive payments in USD, EUR, and GBP.

For further information, please log on to https://payhawk.com/

What exactly is Tinkoff?

Tinkoff Bank can be perceived as a Financial Supermarket – aimed to both individual customers and small businesses, which can be accessed through web access or mobile app (available for both Android and iOS). Measured in absolute customer numbers, Tinkoff is the world’s largest neobank.

What does Tinkoff offer to their customers?

Tinkoff can provide checking accounts (debit and credit card included), services for Small and Medium businesses (RUB and foreign-currency based accounts), and it can also suit their customers with investment platforms (similar to mutual funds) and insurance coverage.

For further information, please log on to https://www.tinkoff.ru/eng

Vivid is entering the market as a Germany-based new challenger bank that claims to charge low fees with an integrated platform that offers cashbacks on purchases.

Vivid is not intending to build anything from the scratch; on the other hand, it is thinking and assembling its business proposal along with other already consolidated players in the market. For example, Vivid works with solarisBank for building its infrastructure of their banking services; solarisBank is a German-based player that is already licensed to provide banking-related services like APIs for powering other companies in the fintech industry. For the case of the debit cards Vivid offers, this neobank has selected Visa as their provider.

Vivid customers might want to expect quite many features that can be found in another neobanks like N26, for example.

For further information, please log on to https://vivid.money/