Debit or credit card? How neobank cards really work

Your neobank card is a debit card. Revolut, N26 and Wise issue nothing else to a Belgian customer, and bunq's "Credit Card" does not advance a single euro of credit here. Day to day, you will not notice. The difference shows up at a car rental counter, at a hotel reception desk, and in a balance that shrinks while a deposit is held.

Is your neobank card a debit card or a credit card?

Debit, in almost every case. The clearest answer comes from Revolut itself: its Belgian help page says it only offers debit cards, Visa or Mastercard depending on where the account is registered, and that Maestro has been discontinued.

N26 issues Mastercard debit cards. Wise, licensed in Brussels as an electronic money institution, issues a debit card tied to its multi-currency account. bunq is the only one to blur the picture, and it deserves a section of its own.

Everything else follows from that definition. A debit card takes each payment out of the balance of the account it is linked to, at the time of the transaction or within the following days; Wikifin, the financial education site run by the FSMA, the Belgian financial markets regulator, puts the transfer to the merchant at one to two days. A credit card groups your spending and bills it later, on an agreed date in the month, within a limit granted by the issuer.

Glossary built from Wikifin (FSMA) and from the Revolut and bunq help pages, consulted on 27 September 2026.

Why is bunq's "Credit Card" not really a credit card?

Because bunq built a hybrid. bunq's help page presents an official credit card, which the merchant's terminal reads as such. But no credit is used: a hotel or car deposit is taken in full, on the spot, from the account linked to the card. The same page admits that hotels and rental companies had sometimes refused its Mastercard debit card, and that the Credit Card was created for exactly that.

The real credit line, up to 5,000 euros repayable interest-free the following month, is only open to the first eligible users in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Not in Belgium.

It is a clever object. It solves acceptance without solving the balance.

Why do car rental companies turn down debit cards?

Because of the guarantee: the rental company wants to be able to charge for damage found after you leave, on a payment method it considers solid. The Belgian terms of Sixt, consulted on 27 September 2026, sum up the whole ambiguity in two sentences. The first accepts credit and debit cards from the major networks. The second rules out cards lacking the features of a credit card, for instance when the card is "linked to the balance of a bank account", which is an exact description of a neobank card. Hertz, for its part, says it accepts debit cards at its Belgian branches. In the end, the agent at the counter decides, with the card in hand.

The amount, on the other hand, is not up for debate. At Sixt, the deposit on a small or mid-size car equals the rental price plus 300 euros. For a 180-euro rental, 480 euros are reserved on your card. On a credit card, that eats into a monthly limit. On a debit card, it vanishes from your available balance until release: with 600 euros in the account, you have 120 euros left for the weekend's shopping.

I learned this at Zaventem, Brussels Airport, on a Friday evening in May. Booking paid online with my Revolut card, deposit refused at the counter, and the credit card from my Belgian bank pulled out of my wallet to save the rental.

What happens to money blocked by a hotel or a petrol pump?

It is reserved, not debited. The mechanism is called pre-authorisation: the merchant asks your bank to set an amount aside, then charges the real amount at the end, or cancels. Revolut's merchant documentation gives the windows set by the networks: up to 30 days for hotels and car rentals on Visa, 30 days on Mastercard for most merchants, five days for most other categories on Visa.

At an automatic petrol pump the principle is the same, only shorter: a provisional amount is reserved before you fill up, then brought down to the real price.

Last year, a hotel in Ghent reserved a 250-euro guarantee on arrival. The room was prepaid. Eight days after I left, the 250 euros were still missing from my available balance, and nobody at reception could tell me why. A polite email did the trick: the hotel had never cancelled the authorisation, and the money came back the next day. On a credit card, I would probably never have noticed.

Does the end of Maestro change anything for a neobank?

No. Since 1 July 2023, debit cards issued or replaced in Belgium should no longer carry Maestro, and Belgian banks have swapped that logo for Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit, keeping Bancontact, the Belgian domestic debit network, on the same card. Consumer organisation Test-Achats notes that customers of Aion, N26 and Revolut were not affected, since their cards never carried Maestro.

The difference that remains lies elsewhere: a Belgian debit card carries Bancontact, a neobank card does not. That gap, not the card type, is what gets your card refused in some car parks and shops; we cover it in our article on Bancontact and the neobanks.

Which card should you use in which situation?

The debit card is enough for almost everything. The exceptions come down to a handful of cases, listed in the order in which they cause trouble.

Cases built from the Sixt and Hertz terms, the Revolut documentation and Wikifin, consulted on 27 September 2026.

For the last row, the exchange gaps between Visa, Mastercard and the issuer are broken down in our article on Visa and Mastercard exchange rates.

Five signs that your card will be read as a debit card

The merchant does not guess. It reads specific information, and you can check it before they do.

• The word DEBIT printed on the front, which Regulation (EU) 2015/751 requires to be visible on newly issued cards.
• A balance that drops the instant you pay in the app, with no card statement to settle at the end of the month.
• No credit limit in the settings, replaced by daily spending limits.
• A deposit amount that shows as "pending" and reduces your available balance.
• The first six digits of the card number, which identify the issuer and the card type for the rental company's terminal.

I ran the check on the four cards in my wallet. Three said DEBIT in small capitals, in a corner I had never noticed.

In short

A neobank gives you a debit card, and it is a good card for everyday spending, travel in the euro area and online shopping. It runs into two things specific to Belgium and to guarantees: the absence of Bancontact, and rental companies' wariness of a card backed by a balance. bunq's Credit Card solves the second without offering credit here. For a car rental or a long hotel stay, keeping a traditional credit card in reserve remains the simplest answer, and it combines easily with a virtual card for online purchases. Our comparator lines up the cards and fees of the neobanks available in Belgium, and our quiz helps you choose between them.

This article compares fees and conditions; it is neither legal advice nor investment advice.

Sources: Wikifin (FSMA), "Différences entre une carte de débit et une carte de crédit", updated 14 July 2026; Test-Achats, end of Maestro and replacement cards; Regulation (EU) 2015/751 on interchange fees; Revolut's Belgian help page on card brands and types; Revolut's merchant documentation on pre-authorisation; bunq help pages on the Credit Card; Sixt rental terms for Belgium; Hertz page on debit cards. All pages consulted on 27 September 2026.