Qonto review

Pros and cons

Who it suits

• A company paying suppliers in several currencies and issuing staff cards without an annual charge of €0.
• Readers who want chat, phone, email and help centre support with round the clock cover in France (chat, phone and email).

Who should look elsewhere

• Wise, for a reader who wants no monthly account charge, since Qonto costs €9 against £0.
• Varo Believe Secured Credit Card, for someone after a secured credit card at a monthly fee of $0 rather than a company current account.
• Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card), for a reader who wants a secured credit card billed at $0 a month.

Safety of your money

The account sits with a firm licensed and supervised in France by ACPR, the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution. Its licence number on file is 16958, and the same firm appears in the European register of payment service providers under the French authority as PSD_PI FR_ACPR!68677. For a business account that matters more than it does for personal current accounts, because the balance usually carries payroll, supplier invoices and tax. References that point the same way are worth keeping in the company's banking file: one source is the firm itself, the other is a supervisory register the firm does not write, and a mismatch between them is a question to ask before the account is funded. Supervision and account terms answer different questions. The licences say who watches the firm and that the firm sits inside a supervised system. The account terms say what the fees are, what cover applies and where any cap sits. Reading the first as a substitute for the second is the mistake to avoid, so the practical order is to check who holds the money, then read the terms before the first payment goes out.

Fees and currency costs

The running cost of a Qonto business account is the monthly fee of €9, charged for keeping the account open rather than for using the card. That sits above the account fee of £0 at Wise, so a reader who only wants somewhere to hold money has a cheaper option. Whether the difference earns its place depends on what else the account carries, and for a business that issues staff cards, reimburses expenses and pays in several currencies, those services usually decide it. The card adds a currency conversion fee of 2% to any purchase made in a currency other than the account's own. The local amount appears on the bill and the fee sits on top, once per transaction, so the charge is a share of the price rather than a fixed cost. Spending in the home currency does not trigger it, which keeps the line at nothing in ordinary use. A company that never buys outside its own currency pays the monthly fee and little else. A company that pays foreign suppliers weekly is paying the conversion fee by default, and the monthly figure stops being the number that matters.

Using it abroad

The card runs on mastercard, so it is accepted wherever cards on that network are taken, across most terminals and cash machines a traveller meets. Currency carries the cost. A purchase abroad is charged a conversion fee of 2% over the local amount, applied per transaction rather than capped for a trip or a year, so a week of daily spending adds up in a way a single purchase does not. Choosing to pay in the local currency rather than the account's own keeps the fee off the transaction, and that habit is easier to build before a trip than during one. Cash is the weaker side, because free ATM withdrawals come to €0 and every note drawn abroad is paid for at the machine's own charge. A trip run on cards costs less than the same trip run on notes, and a reader who expects to draw cash often will notice that more than the conversion fee alone.

Using it day to day

The main Qonto card is a debit card on the mastercard network, so a purchase draws on money already in the business account rather than creating a balance to settle later. For staff spending company money that is the simpler arrangement: the account balance is the thing to watch, and there is no extra statement to reconcile at the end of a cycle. The exposure on the card side is the company's own money rather than a borrowed amount. Acceptance is the ordinary kind, working in shops, at terminals and at cash machines as any card on that network does. Cash is the part not absorbed, since free ATM withdrawals come to €0, which makes an allowance something to plan for rather than assume. Help when something goes wrong runs through chat, phone and email, so a blocked payment can be raised in the channel that suits the moment. With several people holding cards that flexibility counts, because the person with the card is rarely the person who can authorise a payment, and a copied or disputed one shows up as a gap in the balance straight away.

Where it sits among rivals

Cost is where this account sits furthest from the field. On the monthly fee it ranks 397 of 419 brands, placing it in the expensive part of the range rather than near the floor where most rivals cluster. The currency conversion fee ranks 160 of 259, a weaker placing again, and that is the number to press on if suppliers sit abroad. Free ATM withdrawals rank 41 of 115, so cash is unremarkable here as well. The cost score of 1.9 compresses the picture into a single figure for anyone who wants the short version. A ranking is a warning rather than a verdict, because the brands above and below are not all doing the same job. Read the positions next to what the account includes, and the cost case either holds on its own terms or it does not.

Regulation and registers

Qonto is licensed and supervised in France by ACPR, the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution, and the firm publishes the licence number behind the account as 16958. Its listing in the European register of payment service providers sits under the French authority with the identifier PSD_PI FR_ACPR!68677. References that reach the same status by different routes are more useful than either alone, since one is the firm's own disclosure and the other is a register the firm does not write. A supplier, an accountant or a lender asking who holds the money can be shown one, checked against the other and left with an answer that does not rest on a marketing page. For a business that will be paid in and paid out of the account, that check belongs in the onboarding file rather than in a later scramble. The same question turns up again when a company hires an accountant or seeks finance elsewhere, and keeping those identifiers with the company records turns a repeated question into a filed answer.

How Qonto compares

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  Qonto vs Wirex8.7 vs 9.6
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Frequently asked questions

Sources

• euclid.eba.europa.eu/register/downloads/PSDMD/20260926/do... checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Headquarters, Legal entity, Licences

  “EntityCode=FR_ACPR!68677; EntityType=PSD_PI; ENT_NAM=QONTO”

• qonto.com/en/about checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Founded

  “Made in France in 2017; timeline 2017 - Founded in France: Qonto launches with a clear mission”

• qonto.com/en/financing/overdraft checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: APR

  “Qonto business overdraft: The applied rate is 17.5% per year (legal usury rate)”

• qonto.com/en/payment-methods/card checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Annual fee, Free ATM withdrawals, Card type, Features, Currency conversion fee, Pricing model, Card network, Perks, Rewards type

  “One Card : Free”

• qonto.com/en/payment-methods/card/credit-card checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Card kind

  “Qonto's business credit card lets you buy when you need to, and pay for it on the 1st of the following month”

• qonto.com/en/pricing checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Audience, Currencies, Monthly fee, Support channels

  “A plan for every business - Self-employed, Business teams. Basic: For low-volume businesses”