Premium neobank card: is it worth it in Belgium?

Metal looks great on the restaurant table. But a premium neobank card is not a piece of jewellery: it is a paid subscription that unlocks services. The real question is not "which one is the prettiest", but "will I use enough of what I pay for". Here is how I decide, after paying for a Metal for a year and testing the three big players.

Premium neobank card: is it really worth it?

For most people in Belgium, no. A premium card pays for itself mainly if you travel several times a year and genuinely use the travel insurance, airport lounges and higher free-withdrawal limits. For domestic use, the gain is thin: free currency exchange, long the flagship argument, already exists on the free plans from Revolut and N26.

In other words, you pay €170 to €230 a year for a bundle of extra services. If they replace a travel insurance policy you would have bought anyway, the maths can work. Otherwise, you are mostly funding a card that makes a noise when you put it down. I kept a Metal for a full year and, honestly, over twelve months I only really recouped the subscription in the months I took a flight.

What is a premium card at a neobank?

A premium neobank card is a debit card tied to a paid monthly subscription that unlocks services: insurance, cashback, higher free withdrawals, sometimes a metal card. It is neither a credit card nor a line of money: you spend what is on your account.

The word "premium" covers several levels. At Revolut, you move from Standard (free) to Plus, Premium and then Metal. At N26, from Standard to Smart, You and then Metal. At bunq, the paid tiers top out with a high-end plan that includes a metal card. At each step you pay more and unlock more limits and insurance. The classic trap: believing the metal card fixes a fee problem when it mostly stacks up comfort. Before choosing, you need to know what you are actually after.

What do Revolut Metal, N26 Metal and bunq include?

The three offers look alike on the frame — Mastercard or Visa debit card, mobile app, contactless payments — and differ on three points: cashback, travel insurance and free-withdrawal limits. Here are the broad lines, current as of this summer.

Concretely: Revolut Metal is the most "rewards"-oriented with its cashback and higher withdrawals. N26 Metal goes all-in on the Allianz travel insurance, often cited as the most complete, and priority customer support. bunq targets those who organise money in sub-accounts; the metal card is more of a bonus there than a core argument. Pricing changes often: check the offer in force before opening.

How much does a premium card really cost per year?

The real annual cost is the first figure to put down. For a metal plan, budget roughly €170 to €230 per year: Revolut Metal and N26 Metal run around €14 to €17 per month, bunq's metal card around €18 to €19 per month on its high-end plan.

That amount only means something relative to what you use. If the travel insurance replaces a policy you would have paid €100 for elsewhere, and Revolut's cashback returns €60 to €80 over the year, the subscription gets close to breaking even. But watch the small print: cashback is often capped, insurance has excesses, and the mid-tier plans (Revolut Premium, N26 You) already offer part of the perks for less. I have seen people pay for the Metal for the design, never trigger a single insurance claim, and realise after a year that they had gifted €200 to their neobank. Who it is worth it for — and who it is not — comes down to the number of real trips.

Is the travel insurance on a premium card enough?

It can be, but only if you don't already have equivalent cover. Premium cards generally include medical costs abroad, cancellation, transport delay and luggage, with limits ranging from a few thousand to several thousand euros depending on the card.

The detail that changes everything is the conditions. Cover often activates only if the trip was paid with the card, stops after a set number of days away, applies excesses and excludes certain situations (risky sports, pre-existing conditions, age limits). N26 highlights an Allianz pack seen as broader, Revolut a solid travel-oriented cover. Before counting on it, I read the terms line by line: that is where you discover an "up to" limit is not an automatic refund. If you already have good annual travel insurance or health cover for abroad, this item loses much of its value.

Does a premium card change anything about foreign fees?

Less than you would think. The good news for your wallet is that free currency exchange on payments in foreign currencies already exists on the free plans from Revolut and N26. Going premium therefore does not "unlock" fee-free payments abroad: they already are.

What the premium plan really adds is a higher free-withdrawal limit at ATMs (useful if you take out a lot of cash while travelling) and, at Revolut, the removal of the weekend exchange mark-up on the smaller plans. If you mostly pay by card abroad and withdraw little cash, the free plan covers the essentials. A concrete example: on a weekend in London, the only real difference I felt between free and premium was the withdrawal limit in pounds — not the exchange rate at the counter, identical in both cases. To dig deeper, see our feature on the best neobank for travel.

Does a premium neobank card fix the Bancontact problem?

No, and this is the limit to know before paying anything: no premium neobank card supports Bancontact, the network used for about 85% of in-store card payments in Belgium. Metal or not, the card runs on Mastercard or Visa.

Paying €17 a month therefore changes nothing on this specific point. Most merchants accept Mastercard and Visa, but some Belgian terminals, parking machines, ticket dispensers and local e-commerce sites accept only Bancontact. I have been stuck at a parking machine with a brand-new metal card, forced to pull out my Belgian card. That is why no neobank, even premium, fully replaces a Belgian bank: I always keep a Belgian card as a backup. The luxury of the card does not fill that gap.

Premium neobank card: for which profile?

Start from how you actually use money rather than the design:

For a regular traveller who genuinely triggers the insurance and cashback, the Metal holds up. For a homebody, a mid-tier plan (Revolut Premium, N26 You) or even the free plan covers the essentials for less. Our quiz suggests a recommendation in two minutes based on your profile, and the comparator puts the offers side by side.

In short

A premium neobank card is not a credit card or a magic card: it is a €170-to-€230-a-year subscription that stacks travel insurance, cashback and higher free withdrawals. Revolut Metal focuses on cashback and withdrawals, N26 Metal on Allianz insurance and priority support, bunq on sub-account organisation. The metal removes neither currency-exchange fees (already free on the base plan) nor the Bancontact gap (85% of payments). It pays for itself mainly for a regular traveller; for domestic use, the free plan is almost always enough. Compare line by line in our comparator, or read our bunq or Revolut comparison if you are still unsure about the base neobank.

Sources: Febelfin / Bancontact (share of card payments in Belgium), FSMA and National Bank of Belgium (register of licensed institutions, deposit protection), Revolut, N26 and bunq terms and pricing conditions consulted in July 2026.