Vivid Money review: no personal account in Belgium

Vivid Money does not open personal accounts for Belgian residents: Belgium is not among the ten countries its help centre accepts. Belgian companies and sole proprietors, however, can open a business account. My verdict therefore depends entirely on which side of that line you stand.

Can you open a Vivid account from Belgium?

A private individual, no. A business, yes.

The help centre article "Where is Vivid available?", dated 28 November 2025, lists the countries of residence accepted for the personal account: Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Ten countries, and not ours. On the Vivid Business side, the help page on eligible legal forms names Belgium twice instead, for companies and for the "entreprise individuelle / eenmanszaak", the Belgian sole proprietorship.

Checked on 10 October 2026 in the Vivid Personal and Vivid Business help centres.

Why does the Belgian site show an offer for individuals?

Because the website is localised by country and the offer is not. The address vivid.money/en-be exists, carries a Belgian flag, and its "Personal" section sets out three plans with their prices. Nothing on those pages warns that a Belgian resident will be stopped at sign-up.

I spent an hour there on 10 October. The Standard plan is advertised at 0 euros a month for active customers, 4.90 euros otherwise. The Prime plan appears at 7.90 euros on one page and 9.90 euros on another. I am not keeping any of those figures for a reader in Belgium, since you will not be able to subscribe, and the gap between two pages of the same site makes me cautious about the rest.

The background explains the blur. On 13 March 2025, according to Tech.eu citing Manager Magazin, Vivid redirected its development towards freelancers and small businesses; existing personal customers keep their services, but new products and investment go to the business account. The Belgian App Store still offers the app, renamed "Vivid Business and Personal", rated 3.5 out of 5 from just 33 ratings.

Is Vivid a bank?

No, and on this site that is the point that matters most.

Sources: legal notices and footer of vivid.money, help article "How are my funds protected by Vivid Money S.A?" of 24 August 2026, consulted on 10 October 2026.

An electronic money institution, as defined by Directive 2009/110/EC, does not take deposits. It must keep its clients' money apart from its own: that is safeguarding. Vivid says it does so in two ways: segregated accounts opened with partner banks, and units in a money market fund managed by BNP Paribas Asset Management, where "most" of the funds sit. If Vivid went bankrupt, that money would stay outside the insolvency estate and be returned under the supervision of the CSSF.

The deposit guarantee only comes in sideways. Vivid writes that sums placed at Natixis are covered by the French guarantee fund up to 100,000 euros per customer. That sentence applies to the share held at Natixis, not to the units of the money market fund, and not to the Interest Account run by Vivid Money B.V. I have no way of knowing what fraction of your balance sits where on a given day. The difference with a licensed bank is set out in our article on e-money institutions versus banks.

How much does Vivid Business cost for a Belgian freelancer?

Nothing on the Standard plan, and the interest rate is what deserves a close read.

"Freelancers" price list on vivid.money/en-be, checked on 10 October 2026; euro rates, capped at 100,000 euros during the promotion.

The 4% runs out after four months. On 10,000 euros left for twelve months on Standard, that gives 133 euros for the promotional period, then 33 euros for the following eight months at 0.5%: 167 euros gross, or 1.67% over the year. On Prime, interest rises to 300 euros, from which you subtract 82.80 euros of subscription, leaving 217 euros. That interest is paid through the Interest Account of Vivid Money B.V., so outside the payment account and its safeguarding.

The rest of the list is simple. Free virtual and physical cards, free SEPA and instant transfers on all four plans, no outgoing SWIFT transfers on Standard and 5 euros each beyond the monthly allowance on the others. To place this offer, see our article on neobank business accounts in Belgium.

A foreign IBAN, so an account to report

Vivid Business announces local IBANs in six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain. No BE prefix. A Belgian customer therefore gets an account held abroad, with the two usual consequences: the risk that an organisation refuses the IBAN, unlawfully but in practice (see foreign IBANs in Belgium), and the duty to report the account to the Central Point of Contact, the National Bank of Belgium's register of accounts, and in your tax return. Wikifin, the financial education site of the regulator FSMA, is blunt: all foreign accounts, whatever the balances and transactions.

As for Bancontact, Belgium's domestic debit card scheme, the word appears on none of the pages I read.

Vivid or Revolut: which one for a Belgian resident?

For a personal account the question settles itself, since Vivid will not open one for you. Revolut does accept Belgian residents, gives them a BE IBAN and operates under the Lithuanian banking licence of Revolut Bank UAB; its Standard plan cost 0 euros a month according to Test-Achats, the Belgian consumer organisation, on 15 September 2026. The detail is in our article on Revolut's Belgian IBAN.

If it was the mix of payments and investing that drew you to Vivid, three players open to Belgian residents offer it under a bank status: Revolut, bunq (bunq B.V., licensed in the Netherlands) and Trade Republic (Trade Republic Bank GmbH, licensed in Germany), statuses checked on 23 August 2026. At Revolut as at Trade Republic, a one-off stock order costs 1 euro according to Test-Achats (September 2026), the same price Vivid displays.

For a business account, the comparison opens up again. Before signing, I would check five things:

• the prefix of the IBAN you will be given, and how your payroll provider or social insurance fund reacts to it;
• the share of your cash that will sit on the payment account, safeguarded, and the share you will place on the Interest Account, which is not protected in the same way;
• the rate after the fourth month, not the one on the banner;
• whether there is an accounting export your Belgian accountant can read;
• the support language: English, French, German or Spanish according to the Prime page, with no mention of Dutch.

What do customer reviews say?

Good things, mostly. Vivid's Trustpilot page showed 4.7 out of 5 from 30,450 reviews on 10 October 2026, 79% of them five stars and 8% one star. Praise goes to the clarity of the app, the sub-accounts and the speed of transfers; complaints, to laborious sign-ups and accounts restricted without an explanation the customer found sufficient. One business user was asking for a local IBAN other than a German one, which echoes the previous point.

Those ratings come mostly from Germany and from the business account. They say nothing about the experience of a customer in Belgium, and the 33 ratings on the Belgian App Store are too few to draw a conclusion.

Who do you turn to in a dispute?

Not to Ombudsfin, the Belgian financial ombudsman, which Vivid's complaints procedure does not mention. The help article of 7 August 2026 provides for a written complaint, an answer within one month for payment services, then two exits: the CSSF for the account, the Dutch institute Kifid for investments and crypto-assets. The CSSF out-of-court procedure is free, can be started in English or French within a year of the complaint, and ends in an opinion the parties remain free not to follow.

In short

My verdict on Vivid Money, seen from Belgium, comes in two halves. For a private individual there is nothing to assess: the account is not open to Belgian residents, whatever the "en-be" version of the site suggests. For a freelancer or a company, Vivid Business is a serious and well-rated offer, free to start, but carried by a Luxembourg electronic money institution, with a foreign IBAN, a teaser rate that drops after four months and a complaints route that runs through Luxembourg. To see which neobanks really accept a Belgian resident, our comparator lines them up side by side.

This article gives general information on fees, legal statuses and conditions; it is neither legal advice, nor tax advice, nor investment advice.

Sources: Vivid, Personal help centre ("Where is Vivid available?", 28 November 2025; "How are my funds protected by Vivid Money S.A?", 24 August 2026; "How can I file a complaint?", 7 August 2026) and Business help centre (eligible legal forms; IBANs, 3 November 2025; banking partners, 16 June 2026), vivid.money/en-be pages and legal notices, consulted on 10 October 2026; Tech.eu, 13 March 2025; Directive 2009/110/EC; Wikifin (FSMA), "Déclarer vos comptes à l'étranger"; Test-Achats, 16 February 2026 and 15 September 2026; Guichet.lu, CSSF out-of-court procedure; Trustpilot and Belgian App Store pages consulted on 10 October 2026.