Best credit cards for EU citizens?

Hey everyone!

I was wondering if there are any credit cards you would recommend in the EU.

Even if yours is country specific, go ahead and share your thoughts and critics!

I'm currently looking at (but not using) N26. It seems to be quite popular and really innovative with e-banking and more stuff around it.

Do you just need a credit card or also an account.
In my opinion N26 is just a little bit good or not even. As there is no customer support by phone anymore and in case you have trouble and lost money (e.g. fraud) you are not able to reach them quick.
As soon as they see some "suspicious" (ohhh money from abroud...) transaction, they freeze the account and report to the authorities.
May be good for a pocket money account, but not more - just my opinion.
If you just wanna have a cheap cc you may try the advanzia bank cc. It is managed in Luxembourg. just google for advanzia and gebuhrenfrei.

Revolut for debit card. Credit card? Fuck no.

I can recommend also revolut

I use a Halifax Clarity Card (UK based credit card) plus an American Express Platinum for getting points from Adwords spends.

I tend to use cards that come with some sort of helpful points system - especially if you have a large PPC bill each month. You might aswell get something from it!

I did have a Hilton Honours card which was good plus UK based people might find the Creation IHG Black Card good. It gets you points for Holiday Inn and Intercontinental Hotels plus a platinum membership for Holiday Inn - had a few nice upgrades from it.

Krise656 said:

Do you just need a credit card or also an account.
In my opinion N26 is just a little bit good or not even. As there is no customer support by phone anymore and in case you have trouble and lost money (e.g. fraud) you are not able to reach them quick.
As soon as they see some "suspicious" (ohhh money from abroud...) transaction, they freeze the account and report to the authorities.
May be good for a pocket money account, but not more - just my opinion.
If you just wanna have a cheap cc you may try the advanzia bank cc. It is managed in Luxembourg. just google for advanzia and gebuhrenfrei.

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Oh wow I haven't heard about those negative parts. I've read about advanzia somewhere before but I haven't looked at it in detail. Thanks for the recommendation!

AngelSeo said:

Revolut for debit card. Credit card? Fuck no.

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Can you give some details? I would love to know your reasoning.

igtaya said:

I can recommend also revolut

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What's their USP in your opinion?

RebeccaThomas said:

I use a Halifax Clarity Card (UK based credit card) plus an American Express Platinum for getting points from Adwords spends.

I tend to use cards that come with some sort of helpful points system - especially if you have a large PPC bill each month. You might aswell get something from it!

I did have a Hilton Honours card which was good plus UK based people might find the Creation IHG Black Card good. It gets you points for Holiday Inn and Intercontinental Hotels plus a platinum membership for Holiday Inn - had a few nice upgrades from it.

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I'm really impressed about the points systems in other countries (mostly US) and I haven't really seen anything close to it for the EU market. Your recommendations sound quite amazing. Do you have any negative critiques about them, that you could share with us?

Revolut have bank license, so your money are guaranteed up to 100k EUR. You get real + virtual (unlimited virtual cards actually) debit card, you can buy stocks, crypto and what not directly in their app which is fast and very good.

Credit cards interests are ridiculous so your only benefit of using one is various award points. But as their cashback are usually 1% tops, you need to spend a fuckton of money to get few bucks. I mean you need to spend 10k to get $100.. and if you delay your payment for a day all your profit is gone. Not to mention the various fees and whatnot they have. Sure if you have massive adwords campaign, this may come to nice bonus, but otherwise who is spending more than $10k with card?

AngelSeo said:

Revolut have bank license, so your money are guaranteed up to 100k EUR. You get real + virtual (unlimited virtual cards actually) debit card, you can buy stocks, crypto and what not directly in their app which is fast and very good.

Credit cards interests are ridiculous so your only benefit of using one is various award points. But as their cashback are usually 1% tops, you need to spend a fuckton of money to get few bucks. I mean you need to spend 10k to get $100.. and if you delay your payment for a day all your profit is gone. Not to mention the various fees and whatnot they have. Sure if you have massive adwords campaign, this may come to nice bonus, but otherwise who is spending more than $10k with card?

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Thanks for the insights! Unlimited virtual credit cards is a nice feature. That's definitely a good point for my decisionmaking

+1 for Revolut

TransferWise!

Transferwise and Revolut. I prefer Revolut.

Stifl said:

I'm really impressed about the points systems in other countries (mostly US) and I haven't really seen anything close to it for the EU market. Your recommendations sound quite amazing. Do you have any negative critiques about them, that you could share with us?

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Not really, I've been an AMEX member since 2016 and it does have quite a high yearly fee (was £450 a year last time I looked) so only helpful if you're really using those points and/or find the other features helpful. The concierge is really good if you find yourself abroad and get into difficulty (passports stolen or need flights/travel out of a place). They helped us when our bags were stolen in Germany once - managed to get new passports by courier to us very quick and organised for us to return home safe and sound. In the UK their callcentre is based in Brighton, England and quite nice to deal with too.

As for other points cards they're all much of a muchness really. Just pick the points you know you'll end up using and you can't go wrong really. We have a really good regulation in the UK - Section 70 I believe it's called that means anything purchased on a card is covered - great for electrical purchases. AMEX have always been good at charging back against dodgy vendors too.

IMHO AMEX and First Direct are the best in the UK for service (First Direct being a bank with a debit card). All other services/cards are pretty standard with varying degrees of service (overseas call centres, not that great at sorting stuff out etc etc). I just pick the points that work out best and don't expect too much else from them. Other cards come and go when promotions start/end whilst First Direct/AMEX tend to be my long term accounts.

I've been using for quite sometime now Revolut, N26, and a few times transferwise. Like someone else said, i only use them for pocket money and buying commodities around the globe. I`m afraid to do business with them. They are somewhat new, and i have heard horrific stories about people who got their accounts terminated and not be able to contact support. Imagine if you have 50k+ in one fintech account, and they decide to shut it down for unknown reasons. On paper they are good, their rates are fine, especially revolut, however the risk is high.

Using revolut everyday without any problems

Also looking for good cards with high cashback (1% or higher)
Anybody know?

sina999 said:

Also looking for good cards with high cashback (1% or higher)
Anybody know?

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It's hard to find any in europe with a cashback. And the ones that do have it, have high annual fees etc

Credit cards? They were never good, doesn't matter which country. They just wish that you fall in the credit trap. That's how they roll.

Any debit card also does the same thing, but without the "borrowing" option. That's what you need. Make a Corpus of what you want your limit to be. Then use the debit card like you would use your credit card. Make sure to fullfill the taken out amount when you have some money. Don't use a fckin credit card lol.


P.s... I have used more than 10 till date. I know the ins and outs, as I have fallen into the trap. Take my words, may be.

Gogol said:

Credit cards? They were never good, doesn't matter which country. They just wish that you fall in the credit trap. That's how they roll.

Any debit card also does the same thing, but without the "borrowing" option. That's what you need. Make a Corpus of what you want your limit to be. Then use the debit card like you would use your credit card. Make sure to fullfill the taken out amount when you have some money. Don't use a fckin credit card lol.


P.s... I have used more than 10 till date. I know the ins and outs, as I have fallen into the trap. Take my words, may be.

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That's something i would consider too. But (excuse my newbies question) can I add it to my paypal for example? I only want a credit card because I've noticed that it asks for one when I'm trying to do 2/3 of my paypal payments. It's annoying af and has ruined some gifts and presents in the past already...

What is "best" for you? Cheapest? Or not reporting to authorities and stuff?

N26 is probably cheaper alternative to many CCs issued by "local" banks but that's about it.

If you want privacy and "stuff" then I'd say Belgium or Swiss.

you can use yandex