Tide review 2026

Tide charges no monthly base fee for account management. Five free SEPA transfers a month are included, and every further booking costs €0.20. Instant transfers can be used at no extra charge. Getting started is therefore cheap, but the cost structure scales directly with booking volume: anyone making 100 payments a month pays around €19 in transaction fees. With five free transactions, Tide stays below the ten-transaction threshold of our methodology. Cash cannot be deposited with Tide, and there is no branch or partner network. Cash machine withdrawals are possible but cost €2.00 per withdrawal both in Germany and abroad, noticeably more than at competitors with a free allowance. Scoring (14/30): The monthly base price receives the full 14 points because account management is permanently free. We award 0 points for included transactions, as five free transactions do not reach the lowest points level of ten free bookings. Cash deposits and withdrawals get 0 points because no cash deposits are offered.

The account comes with a free Mastercard debit card, available both physically and virtually. Tide does not offer a genuine credit card with a credit line in Germany. Whether and on what terms additional cards with their own spending limits are issued for employees could not be found in the publicly available German terms; we therefore rate this criterion at the worst verifiable level under our methodology rule and state the missing information here. SEPA Core direct debit collection is possible via the account, so recurring customer payments can be collected automatically. Instant transfers are included at no extra cost. Tide also offers invoicing and payment reminders in the app. Scoring (12/20): We award 5 points for the card included in the base price, as exactly one card is included free of charge and a genuine credit card is missing. For additional employee cards we award 0 points, because an offer with spending limits could not be verified for the German market. SEPA direct debit collection can be used at no extra charge and receives the full 7 points.

For the German market, Tide provides a DATEV connection through which transactions can be passed to the tax adviser. A wide choice of directly connected accounting programs such as lexoffice, sevDesk or Lexware could not be verified for Germany, which is why we do not award full points here. Tide is stronger on receipt management. Invoices and receipts can be photographed or uploaded in the app, and are automatically matched to the right transaction and archived. According to the publicly available information, Tide does not offer sub-accounts with their own IBAN for reserves in Germany; splitting off VAT reserves within the account is therefore not provided for. Scoring (12/20): For interfaces to accounting software we award 6 points for the connection of individual tools, as no wide choice of tools beyond DATEV can be verified. Receipt capture with automatic matching receives the full 6 points. For sub-accounts we award 0 points because no such offer can be verified.

Tide accepts sole proprietorships, freelancers, small traders and registered merchants. GmbH and UG are possible in principle, but only as a one-person company with exactly one managing director. GbR, OHG, AG, KGaA and associations are excluded. As this covers neither partnerships nor corporations broadly, Tide can only reach the middle level on this criterion. Tide does not offer a deposit account for the share capital of a GmbH or UG in formation; the company must already be registered and have one person as managing director. Account opening itself is among the fastest on the market: the application takes a few minutes, identification is digital, there is no Schufa check and the account is usually usable immediately. Scoring (8/16): For permitted legal forms we award 4 points, because sole proprietorships and freelancers are fully covered, but corporations only in special cases and partnerships are excluded. The formation or capital deposit account gets 0 points, as it is not available. The account opening process and its duration are fully digital with immediate usability and receive 4 points.

Tide itself is not a credit institution. The accounts are held by Adyen N.V., a bank authorised in the Netherlands. Balances are therefore protected up to €100,000 per customer through the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme. The protection is statutory, but depends on the partner bank and would be handled through a foreign body if a payout were needed. Customer service can be reached in German by phone and chat. There is no fixed personal contact. The banking app is available for iOS and Android and covers transfers, card control, receipt management and invoicing; the app is the primary user interface of the offer. Scoring (10/14): We award 4 points for deposit protection and supervision for the statutory deposit protection via the partner bank Adyen N.V. without a banking licence of Tide's own. Customer service reachability gets 3 points for the German-language hotline without a fixed contact person. The banking app for iOS and Android with full functionality receives 3 points.