What’s the BIN?
Just put it away again 
give me a bit
My Fineco EUR card came up as Italian with that checker and is indeed European as seen by lack of charges in Czech Republic ATMs.
My Fineco is 408258 and is coming up country of issue Italy.
Which one did you want from me sorry?
Yeah I got no charges in the Baltics - but always got uk when checking my Fineco - what year was yours issued
BIN code for your Cynergy EUR card.
My Fineco expires 1/25 so issued 1/22 I think. My Fineco GBP is UK issued.
475147 Cynergy
Darn. UK issued so no freebie withdrawals as an EU card.
Czech Republic was charging £7 per withdrawal for UK issued cards vs nothing for EU issued cards. Germany didn’t charge for any cards and the Baltic’s didn’t charge you.
We need another Fineco🤔
Yeah this was from when I checked it using your link. I think with Brexit we might need to admit defeat - I will still test out my luck with Cynergy when I next go abroad. To my knowledge they’d charge for a euro to koruna conversion anyway.
I just got charged £6 in Albania - no way around it at all!
At least I have two options in the Eurozone that won’t charge my on my banks side.
Some American cards refund the charges so perhaps Chase will do that when their chargeable offering comes out. That said, I shall miss Fineco, although I see you can open an account with them in Italy if you go into a branch over there (which seems to make a nonsense of the FCA making them close up for us).
Worth mentioning that Czechia could definitely charge for foreign cards, EU or not. The currency being different is normally enough to want to charge foreign cards
Not that it really matters in the EU… I couldn’t find anywhere in Bulgaria that wouldn’t take card besides a coffee shop at the national museum
Czech Republic definitely don’t charge for EU issued cards. Your own bank will apply their Euro to Czech conversion charge but the ATMs themselves don’t charge an EU issued card whereas they charge UK issued cards just under £7.
I do recall reading about them charging UK cards while we were in the EU though, especially Euronet who have a very fun time charging everyone who isn’t using a domestic currency
Reading forums online from pre-Brexit era and we DEFINITELY got charged while in the European Union, dependent on who’s ATM you were withdrawing from, even Americans seemed to get free withdrawals from certain banks ATMs which also applied to other Europeans
Worth saying on Revolut forums that people in the EU (posted before Revolut’s expansion to literally everywhere) also seemed to be charged excluding certain banks, so I’m pretty sure it’s a bank dependent thing rather than an EU/not-EU thing as you claim
Edit; people even report differences in charging based on visa usage compared to Mastercard lol
This is a thing - in Albania got totally different atm flows/messages using visa vs master. Same charges in the end though.
I gather there can be differences in Visa/MC. In the Czech Republic I tried Fineco and Bankera which were both free whereas Chase and Starling were both charged. Mind you the free cards were also both Visa and the charged ones were both MC! Clearly, I will have to go back and try Kroo😁
One thing I learned from the last trip if I would have been better off bringing euros and exchanging there (I did but not enough) - so long as it’s commission free and an alright rate either side.
I have tried to send my Cynergy euro and I can’t work out how to do it - the whole interface is designed for the savings accounts with linked accounts etc. I’ve messaged them to ask if it’s even possible. At most id use this account for emergency cash withdrawals with a few extra euros in for fees.
Also @Graham how can you access a Cynergy account on a single device?
I’ve read it’s possible but can’t see how you’d do it.
It’s awkward. I recall being taken through it by the CS chap who was most helpful.
I found phone calls to be the best way.
Spoken to Cynergy - what they have told me is if I remit my Euro denominated funds even via Sepa I will be charged a €6 international transfer fee…
The payment couldn’t be set up as I only had a balance of €1.
It seems there are no fees to receive payments at all, or to use the card or atms but it’s still a bit odd.
I think it’s fair to say this account is looking like a dud, seems to be an offering they don’t really have the infrastructure to support.
Have you thought of a Santander non resident account? Looks like you’d need a certificate of non residence from the Spanish embassy (£15?) as a starter but does appear to be a potential runner.
Presumably they can do this as they also exist in the UK so maybe Sabadell would equally be possible as they own TSB.
So on the Cynergy account you can put money in no problem, you just can’t get it out again without forking out €6? Or I suppose lift it out with the card. Not quite the Fineco replacement we were hoping for.
Yes that’s it - a Revolut top up could be a way around it?
Not really, but assume it would work if you did want to use it to spend etc. couldn’t really track the balance on the go though.
I may consider closing it in time.