1d ago

Looking for PayPal alternative in Germany - Bunq, Klarna, Revolut or N26?

Hello everyone,

I'm living in Germany and looking for a good PayPal alternative. I mainly need it for:

Sending money to friends
Paying online, especially to small vendors
Ordering food and everyday purchases

I've heard about Bunq, Klarna, Revolut, and N26, but I'm not sure which one would be best for my needs. Has anyone had experience with these services in Germany? Which would you recommend and why?

Thanks in advance!

20 comments

I just want to give a quick shout out to the GNU Taler project. It may not be usable yet, but the initiative is commendable and they are funded by the European commission.
- How bascially awesome is this? I never heard of it before, but I would love to see it skyrocketing.

For quick money exchange with friends, I simply use SEPA. Because the handling of the SEPA numbers is a bit cumbersome I build the PayPal Alternative BezahlBrudi. It generates a QR code you can simply scan with your banking app. Feel free to use it and give me feedback.
It doesn't store any info on my server. The form inputs are stored locally in a cookie so you don't have to input your data over and over again.
- I see payment-request QR codes pop up in various places recently, nice to have these quality of life improvements

wero https://wero-wallet.eu/
- It's absurd that this only works if your bank is officially on board. All this really is is a phone number/e-mail to IBAN "DNS". It shouldn't be that complicated.
  If I'm gonna have to go through "do you have Wero? No? Would you consider getting it? Oh, your bank is not in on it? That sucks." every time, a normal bank transfer via IBAN is certainly quicker. Free real time transfers are mandatory now anyway.
  
  that’s exactly how PayID works in australia: in every bank interface you can “pay to” email addresses, phone numbers, ABN (australian business number) and a whole range of things, and it’s implemented as essentially a DNS of those things to our version of IBAN - it works great! and some banks automatically give you an
  <username>
  @
  <short domain>
  (up bank for example has whoever@up.me) associated with your account, orrrr services to pay bills sometimes have
  <account number>
  @
  <service payment domain>
  i was just in europe and did some bank transfers and received - both with european bank accounts - and was pleasantly surprised that it was instant!
  these 2 things combined in australia means we don’t have these shit middle-men and it’s all insured etc the same as any old money transfer (because it is) and you’re not relying on some “totally not a bank so we don’t follow banking regulations”
- I am currently using N26, which seems not supported. 😔
  Maybe I should switch away from N26... I don't like them anymore.
- Thanks for suggesting Wero! I tried it out, but unfortunately, they're incompatible with my bank (Deutsche Bank). It does seem super cool, though! I'll follow their progress and hope they add support soon. I appreciate the recommendation.
  
  Deutsche Bank folgt im kommenden Jahr (Deutsche Bank will follow next year)
  Edit: The post is from November 2024, so I assume that next year means 2025.

I only heard bad things from Klarna. The worst story is from a buddy of mine who used the service once, paid everything and now semi regularly keeps getting threats about debt collection for things he didn't even look at.
Idk about you but for me personally this is enough to make me not want to try them. Especially since I'm missing positive or even neutral reviews.

@ShadyQuark By the way... Here in NL the banks switched their Maestro cards over to Visa debit cards which enable you to easily make online purchases and allow me to kick out PayPal.
Visa is still US, though... sigh... compromises...
And you don't get the purchase protection you get with PP or a "real" creditcard.
- I wish there was a European payments provider like India has RuPay :(
- Ing Diba (which is dutch I think) hands these out in Germany as well. Pretty handy if you don't use actual credit cards.

According to this thread, you should use neither of them. 🥲

Bank transfers and credit/debit cards.

@ShadyQuark Stay away from bunq... I say that as a former customer. There was a huge outcry last year in the Netherlands about them.
They flat out refused to help or limit the damage for customers that were victims of fraud.
And that while being the most expensive bank around regarding fees.
- This Seems to be the prevailing option online too. I also found that N26 and Revolut are just as shady. During my research, it seems like N26 is the worst option. Not only is it supported/funded by Peter Thiel and other American oligarchs it has a shady history Source (in German) And Revolut while mostly British also has significant Russian ownership /ties
  
  Well, dangit, there go my plans to check out the depot & stocks with N26. I didn't know that - thanks for the info. Now I gotta find an alternative that doesn't suck.

Been on revolut for years on their metal plan, super good everything. I highly recommend 🤓

20 comments