Is it difficult to open a neobank account?
Neobanks have been operating for several years, and little by little they are becoming more and more known to customers in the financial sector. Many people, who even have accounts in traditional banks, open accounts in neobanks because of the ease of making payments, quick money movements, available benefits, among other reasons. However, these institutions are still young and many are not aware of all the products and advantages they offer, such as the possibility to open an online banking account from anywhere in the world.
In practice, neobanks offer the same products as a traditional bank, but with several features that make them more suitable for most customers. A process as simple as opening an account can be tedious and time-consuming in a traditional bank, since they require you to carry out the process in person at a bank branch. This way the customer not only spends more time in long lines, filling out physical forms, submitting copies of documents and waiting for the bank’s response, but also money to cover high fees.
One of the reasons why the products in a bank are more expensive is precisely this work structure, with offices, employees, physical documents, etc. All this raises operating costs. In contrast, a neobank, which operates 100% online, eliminates all these bureaucratic processes and additional expenses, which means lower costs for customers.
Although opening an account in these new institutions might be different depending on the specific conditions of each one of them, most of them have similar procedures for this opening in general terms. To begin with, they all allow their users to open an account via web page or mobile app. Let’s take a look at one of these neobanks. If we take the example of Blackcatcard to open an account as an individual customer, we will see that it is necessary:
- Visiting the Blackcatcard website or downloading the Blackcatcard app.
- Registration, by filling out a simple online application for personal and tax information.
- Completing an identity and residence address verification process by submitting a selfie, ID photo and proof of address.
Once these steps are completed, which take only a few minutes, Blackcatcard performs a quick verification of the submitted documents and then opens the account for its new customer. This way, compared to traditional banks, neobanks can offer faster approval times and more accessible account opening procedures, as they often rely on technology and automation to verify information.
In addition, neobanks not only open accounts for their customers, but also offer additional benefits to attract and keep loyal customers. In the case of Blackcatcard, users of its neobanking services can receive a 2.2% annual reward on the money stored in the account or 5% cashback for purchases on Google Play Market, 2% on Amazon or 0.1% of all purchases made with a Blackcatcard.
On the other hand, Blackcatcard users can make 5 free outgoing SEPA transfers per month, after the sixth one a low fee of 0.2 Euro applies regardless of the sum. It is also possible to withdraw up to 200 Euros monthly from almost any ATM in the EU free of charge, after which a 1% commission is charged on the withdrawn amount.
It should be noted that, although this Blackcatcard offer is generally for individual customers, those interested in mobile banking for business can go through the same simple and quick opening procedure described above and then apply to open a business account.
