Having multiple bank accounts in Belgium: how to set it up

Yes, as many as you like, and it is actually the sturdiest setup for a Belgian resident. No law limits how many accounts an individual holds. The right arrangement is to keep a Belgian bank for Bancontact, direct debits and credit, and to hand travel and online payments to a neobank.

How many bank accounts can you have in Belgium?

There is no ceiling. No Belgian rule limits the number of current accounts, savings accounts or cards an individual holds, at one bank or at five.

One exception exists, and it affects few people: the basic banking service, the capped price account Belgian banks must offer. According to Wikifin, the financial education site run by the Belgian financial regulator FSMA, its maximum price has been €20.34 a year since 1 January 2026, and a bank may refuse it if you already benefit from it elsewhere.

Many pages on this topic are written for France and talk about the Livret A or the PEL. None of that applies here.

Why keep a Belgian bank alongside a neobank?

Because three things still do not go through a neobank.

The first is Bancontact, the domestic Belgian card scheme. Neither Revolut, N26 nor bunq supports it on their cards, and Test-Achats, the Belgian consumer association, pointed out again on 15 September 2026 that the Bancontact Pay app does not work with a Revolut card. The second is the mortgage: no neobank grants one in Belgium, and the Belgian lender looks at where your income is paid. The third is the rental guarantee held on a blocked account, which can only be opened at a Belgian bank. These three walls are detailed in our article on holding a foreign IBAN in Belgium, and the first one in our piece on neobanks and Bancontact.

For the rest, the app often does better. Paying in London at the network rate, creating a virtual card for a free trial you will forget to cancel, seeing the notification land before the receipt leaves the till: that is where it wins. Revolut's Standard plan cost €0 a month according to the same Test-Achats review. At home, this split has held since 2021, and I have never had to revisit it, not even after Revolut introduced Belgian IBANs.

Who does what: splitting roles between the two accounts

The rule is simple: anything that touches Belgian administration stays with the Belgian account.

Grid drawn up on 30 September 2026 from the sources cited in this article.

How do you organise two accounts in six steps?

Allow one evening to set everything up, then two minutes a year. No step costs anything.

1. Review your flows. On the Belgian account statement, spot the direct debits, standing orders and transfers that arrive every month. Those stay with the Belgian account.
2. Open the neobank account. The IBAN prefix matters more than the logo: Revolut issues a BE IBAN through its Belgian branch, N26 a German IBAN, bunq a Dutch IBAN.
3. Report the account if it is foreign. The Central Point of Contact of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) takes the report only once, online with your Belgian electronic ID card or itsme, the Belgian digital identity app, or on a paper form, explains Test-Achats. Closing the account is reported the same way. I reported my N26 account with itsme in eight minutes, form included.
4. Fund the neobank by standing order. In my case, €450 leaves on the 26th of every month. The neobank becomes an envelope for everyday spending: when it is empty, so is the month.
5. Move online subscriptions to a virtual card from the neobank, one by one, as they fall due.
6. Tick Frame XIII, section A, every year for as long as a foreign account exists. If you receive a pre-filled simplified tax proposal, correct it: the administration does not know about your foreign accounts.

Should you spread your money across several banks?

Above €100,000, yes, but not across just any banks. The deposit guarantee covers €100,000 per depositor and per credit institution under Directive 2014/49/EU, applied in Belgium by the Guarantee Fund for Financial Services. Per institution, not per brand or per app.

This is where most people get it wrong. BNP Paribas Fortis writes on its deposit protection page, consulted on 30 September 2026, that the ceiling applies to all deposits placed with its different brands: BNP Paribas Fortis, Fintro and Hello bank!. Test-Achats noted the same in June 2022 for KBC Bank, KBC Brussels and Bolero, which form one single banking entity.

A couple of readers from Namur wrote to me in June. They had split €180,000 between BNP Paribas Fortis and Hello bank!, convinced they were covered twice. They were covered for €100,000. The remaining €80,000 had no protection at all, whereas a single transfer to a bank from another group would have covered everything.

Neobanks add a layer. Revolut falls under the Lithuanian guarantee fund, N26 under the German one, bunq under the Dutch one: each therefore opens its own €100,000 envelope, separate from your Belgian bank's. Wise, an electronic money institution, opens none. The difference between the two statuses is covered in our article on banking licences and electronic money institutions.

Do you have to report a second account to the tax authorities?

A second account at a Belgian bank, no: the bank reports it to the Central Point of Contact itself. A foreign account, yes, twice. Once to the National Bank, when it is opened. Then every year in the tax return, "whatever the balances and transactions", as Wikifin puts it.

A Revolut account with a BE IBAN, held by the Belgian branch, is in principle no longer a foreign account. Wise Europe SA, established in Brussels, is in the same situation. An N26 or bunq account, on the other hand, still is.

The mistakes that cost the most with two accounts

• Leaving your salary on the neobank in the year you apply for a mortgage.
• Forgetting to report an N26 or bunq account opened "just for holidays".
• Believing that BNP Paribas Fortis and Hello bank!, or KBC and Bolero, give two guarantees.
• Keeping all your emergency savings at Wise.
• Closing the Belgian account before a full year of direct debits has gone through, annual premiums included.
• Relying on the neobank card at a parking meter that only takes Bancontact.

In short

Holding several bank accounts is allowed, common, and in Belgium close to essential as soon as you use a neobank. The Belgian account keeps Bancontact, direct debits, credit and the rental guarantee; the neobank takes travel and everyday online spending, funded by a standing order. Two precautions are enough: spread savings across institutions that are genuinely distinct, not across two brands of the same group, and report any account with a foreign IBAN to the National Bank, then every year to the tax authorities. To choose the neobank that will complement your Belgian account, our comparison tool puts the offers side by side, and our article on switching banks explains what happens if you ever decide to go further.

This article provides general information and constitutes neither legal advice nor investment advice.

Sources: Wikifin (FSMA), "The basic banking service" and "Declaring your accounts abroad", consulted on 30 September 2026; Test-Achats, "Is Revolut worth it for you?", 15 September 2026; Test-Achats, "Declaring foreign accounts to the NBB and in the tax return", February 2026; Test-Achats, deposit protection at KBC and Bolero, June 2022; BNP Paribas Fortis, "Deposit protection" page, consulted on 30 September 2026; Directive 2014/49/EU on deposit guarantee schemes; Guarantee Fund for Financial Services (FPS Finance).