Independently rated

Glossary

The vocabulary a relocant meets when opening an account abroad — defined once, in plain language, with what each term means for you and how this site treats it.

43 terms · 9 clusters · each one linked to the pages where we apply it to real data.

Data reviewed by Ilya ChernetskiyFounder and editor, nomonedaLast updated June 2026

Fees & FX

What a service actually charges, including the charges that never appear on a fee page — the exchange rate is one of them.

FX markup

Also known as: spread, exchange-rate margin, conversion fee

The difference between the rate a provider gives you and the real interbank rate at that moment, expressed as a percentage. A provider advertising "zero commission" can still take 2–4% here, because the markup is inside the rate rather than on the receipt.

Why it matters: On a €2,000 monthly conversion, a 0.4% markup and a 3% markup differ by roughly €52 a month — more than most account fees you would ever compare.
How we treat it: We store the markup as a separate field from the fee, cite the provider's own rate page as the source, and mark it not disclosed rather than assuming zero when a provider will not publish it.
Do not confuse with: A markup is not the exchange rate itself, and not a commission line on your statement.Mid-market rate

Continue readingMid-market rate Dynamic Currency Conversion Catalog How we rate

Mid-market rate

Also known as: interbank rate, real rate, the rate you see on Google

The midpoint between the buy and sell price of a currency pair on the wholesale market. It is the reference rate against which a provider's markup is measured, and it is what search engines and financial data feeds display.

Why it matters: It is the only neutral benchmark. Without it, "a good rate" is unfalsifiable — every provider claims one.
How we treat it: Every FX claim on this site is expressed as a distance from the mid-market rate at the time of checking, never as a raw quoted rate that stops being true within the hour.
Do not confuse with: It is not a rate you can actually get as a consumer, and it is not the same as the rate a provider labels "our rate".FX markup

Continue readingFX markup Dynamic Currency Conversion Catalog

Maintenance fee

Also known as: monthly fee, account keeping fee, comisión de mantenimiento

A recurring charge for holding an account open. In practice it is rarely a single number: it is waived on conditions (a minimum balance, a payroll deposit, a monthly card spend) and it sits next to issuance, inactivity and closure charges that are billed separately.

Why it matters: "Free" is the most common misleading word in retail banking. An account with a €0 fee and a €700 minimum balance costs you the return on €700 every month you keep it there.
How we treat it: We record the fee and the conditions that waive it as separate fields, and we treat the waiver conditions as part of the price. The worked example on our methodology page takes one "free" account apart into its five real costs.
Do not confuse with: It is not a card fee, and a waived fee is not an absent fee.ATM withdrawal fee

Continue readingATM withdrawal fee Unknown (not disclosed)How we rate Catalog

ATM withdrawal fee

Also known as: cash withdrawal charge, comisión por retiro

What it costs to take cash out. Up to three parties charge you at once: your provider (often free up to a monthly cap, then a percentage), the ATM owner (a fixed local surcharge) and the currency conversion if the machine is abroad.

Why it matters: In countries where cash still matters — Argentina above all — this is often the largest single fee a relocant pays, and it is the one comparison sites summarise as a single tick.
How we treat it: We store the free allowance, the rate after the cap and the local-currency case separately, and we say when the ATM operator's own surcharge is outside the provider's control.
Do not confuse with: The provider's fee is not the machine's surcharge — the two stack.Maintenance fee

Continue readingMaintenance fee FX markup Catalog

Documents & eligibility

The papers a foreigner is asked for. This is where a comparison site is usually wrong: the list on a provider's website and the list at the counter are rarely the same.

DNI

Also known as: Documento Nacional de Identidad, local ID card

The national identity document of Argentina (and, under the same name, of Spain). A resident DNI requires a residency process that takes months; for a newly arrived foreigner it is the single most common blocker to opening an account.

Why it matters: Whether a service accepts you without a DNI decides whether you have banking at all in your first months. It is the fact this site was built around.
How we treat it: No-DNI access is a first-class, sourced field, weighted heaviest in the editorial score, and the basis of a dedicated guide family. A service that merely does not mention a DNI is not recorded as accepting foreigners without one.
Do not confuse with: A DNI is not a tax number, and a Spanish DNI is not an Argentine one.CUIL / CUIT / CDI

Continue readingCUIL / CUIT / CDI Residencia precaria KYC By document Best for

CUIL / CUIT / CDI

Also known as: Argentine tax identification codes

Argentine tax and labour identification numbers. CUIL is issued to employees, CUIT to the self-employed and companies, CDI to people with no local income who still need to be identified — including foreigners. A CDI can often be obtained without residency.

Why it matters: For many services the real requirement is a tax number, not residency. Knowing the difference converts "impossible without a DNI" into a two-week path through ANSES or AFIP.
How we treat it: We record which of the three a provider will actually accept, because the difference between "CUIL" and "CDI" on a requirements list decides whether a non-resident qualifies.
Do not confuse with: These are tax identifiers, not identity documents.DNI

Continue readingDNI Residencia precaria By document

Residencia precaria

Also known as: precaria, temporary residence certificate

An Argentine certificate confirming that a residency application is in progress. It is renewable, legally recognised, and grants the right to stay and work while the file is processed — but it is not a residence permit and does not by itself produce a DNI.

Why it matters: Several providers accept a precaria where they would refuse a tourist stamp. It is often the fastest legal route to a first local account.
How we treat it: We record acceptance of a precaria as a distinct state from full residency, because a service that accepts one and a service that demands the other are not comparable.
Do not confuse with: It is not permanent residency and not an identity document.DNI

Continue readingDNI CUIL / CUIT / CDI By document

NIE

Also known as: Número de Identidad de Extranjero, Spanish foreigner number

Spain's identification number for foreigners, needed for almost any financial or contractual act — including opening most Spanish bank accounts. It is a number, not a residence permit: a non-resident can hold one.

Why it matters: The Spanish equivalent of the DNI question. Which providers open an account for a non-resident with only a NIE is the first thing a new arrival needs to know.
How we treat it: For EU rows we record the opening requirements verbatim from the provider and flag whether a local address or residency registration is additionally demanded.
Do not confuse with: A NIE is not a residence permit and not a TIE card.DNI

Continue readingDNI Remote opening Europe By document

KYC

Also known as: Know Your Customer, identity verification, onboarding checks

The legally mandated identity and source-of-funds checks a regulated provider must run before and during a customer relationship. In practice: document upload, a liveness selfie, address proof, and questions about where your money comes from.

Why it matters: KYC is where an account application actually fails. A provider can market itself as open to foreigners and still reject every document a foreigner can produce.
How we treat it: We describe the documents a provider genuinely accepts rather than the ones it lists, prefer first-hand accounts for onboarding facts, and never infer acceptance from silence.
Do not confuse with: KYC is not the same as a credit check, and passing it is not the same as being eligible for the product.Residencia precaria

Continue readingDNI NIE Remote opening By document How we rate

Accounts & currencies

What kind of account you are actually opening, what number it gives you, and whether that number works where you live.

IBAN

Also known as: International Bank Account Number

The standard international account number used across the EEA and much of the world. Its first two letters are the country where the account is registered — which is a fact about the provider, not about you.

Why it matters: Employers, landlords and tax offices interact with your IBAN. If yours is registered abroad, some of them will refuse it, legally or not.
How we treat it: We record the countries a provider issues IBANs in, whether the IBAN is local to the country you live in, and the practical friction that follows.
Do not confuse with: An IBAN is not a SWIFT/BIC code and does not tell you where the money is safeguarded.SWIFT transfer

Continue readingIBAN discrimination Multi-currency account SEPA Instant Europe Catalog

Multi-currency account

Also known as: FX account, multi-balance wallet

An account that holds balances in several currencies at once, letting you convert on your own terms rather than at the moment of payment. Some issue a genuine local account number per currency; most give you one IBAN and internal balances.

Why it matters: It is the difference between choosing when to convert and being converted for you — the single biggest FX saving available to someone paid in one currency and spending another.
How we treat it: We record which currencies are actually held versus merely displayed, and whether a real local account number comes with each one.
Do not confuse with: Holding a currency is not the same as having a local account in that currency.IBAN

Continue readingIBAN FX markup Catalog Compare

IBAN discrimination

Also known as: IBAN rejection

The illegal-but-widespread practice of refusing a valid EEA IBAN because it was issued in another country — typically by employers, utilities, landlords or public bodies demanding a domestic one. Prohibited by the SEPA Regulation; enforcement is inconsistent.

Why it matters: It decides whether a foreign-IBAN account can receive your salary or pay your rent. A technically excellent account that your employer will not accept is not usable.
How we treat it: We grade the practical risk per provider as low, medium or high from the country of issuance and reported experience, and we say plainly that the practice is unlawful even where it is common.
Do not confuse with: It is not a provider's own restriction — the refusal comes from the counterparty.IBAN

Continue readingIBAN SEPA Instant Europe

Remote opening

Also known as: online account opening, no-branch onboarding

Whether the whole application — identity check included — can be completed from a phone, without appearing at a branch and without a local address registration.

Why it matters: For someone who has not yet moved, or who has no proof of address, remote opening is the difference between having an account on arrival and waiting months.
How we treat it: We record it as a distinct field from KYC difficulty, since a provider can verify you remotely and still demand a local address before activating the account.
Do not confuse with: Remote opening is not the same as light identity checks.KYC

Continue readingKYC NIE Europe By document

Transfers & rails

The pipes money travels through. The rail decides the speed, the cost and who can reverse the payment — not the app on top of it.

SEPA Instant

Also known as: SCT Inst, instant euro transfer

The euro payment scheme that settles in under ten seconds, around the clock, up to a per-transfer limit. Distinct from standard SEPA credit transfers, which settle in one business day and stop on weekends.

Why it matters: It determines whether a deposit for a flat arrives while the agent is still in the room, or on Monday. Under EU rules, receiving instant payments is becoming mandatory for euro accounts.
How we treat it: We record send and receive support separately, because many providers receive instant payments long before they can send them.
Do not confuse with: It is not standard SEPA, and it is not a SWIFT transfer.SWIFT transfer

Continue readingIBAN Verification of Payee SWIFT transfer By rail Europe

SWIFT transfer

Also known as: international wire, BIC transfer, correspondent banking

The messaging network banks use for cross-border transfers outside a common scheme. Money passes through correspondent banks, each of which may deduct a fee, so the amount that arrives is often unknown in advance.

Why it matters: It is usually the only way to move a large amount across currency zones, and it is the transfer type where hidden deductions and multi-day delays are normal rather than exceptional.
How we treat it: We record the sending fee, whether the provider supports the shared or sender-pays option, and we treat "free SWIFT" claims as incomplete until the intermediary charge is addressed.
Do not confuse with: SWIFT is not SEPA, and a BIC code is not an IBAN.SEPA Instant

Continue readingSEPA Instant Crypto rail By rail

Verification of Payee

Also known as: VoP, confirmation of payee, name check

A check that compares the beneficiary name you typed against the name registered on the destination account, before the payment leaves. Mandatory for euro transfers under EU rules from October 2025.

Why it matters: It is the main defence against paying the wrong account — invoice fraud and typo losses are usually unrecoverable once the transfer settles.
How we treat it: We record VoP support as yes, rolling out or no, since a provider mid-rollout offers it on some corridors and not others.
Do not confuse with: It verifies the recipient of a payment, not your own identity.KYC

Continue readingSEPA Instant IBAN Europe By rail

Crypto rail

Also known as: crypto on-ramp / off-ramp, stablecoin transfer

Moving value in or out of an account using cryptocurrency — typically stablecoins — instead of a bank transfer. In Argentina this is a mainstream way to receive money from abroad, not a fringe one.

Why it matters: Where local transfers are slow, capped or expensive, the crypto rail is often the fastest working route — with exchange-rate, custody and legal risk the bank rail does not carry.
How we treat it: We record inbound and outbound support separately, keep the crypto layer out of deposit-protection claims entirely, and attach a standing risk note wherever it appears.
Do not confuse with: A crypto rail is not a licensed payment service, and a stablecoin balance is not a bank deposit.CASP / MiCA

Continue readingSWIFT transfer CASP / MiCA By rail Catalog

Cards & payments

Plastic, virtual and prepaid, and the two moments where a card quietly costs more than advertised: abroad and at the terminal.

Virtual card

Also known as: digital card, disposable card number

A card number issued instantly in an app, with no plastic. Usable online and, via a phone wallet, in shops; often freezable or disposable per merchant.

Why it matters: It is the fastest way to have a working payment method in a new country — usually available minutes after approval, while the physical card takes weeks to arrive at an address you may not have yet.
How we treat it: We record virtual and physical issuance as separate facts, with their separate costs, because a provider is often free for one and charges for the other.
Do not confuse with: A virtual card is not a prepaid card — the funding model is a different question.Prepaid card

Continue readingPrepaid card Maintenance fee Catalog

Prepaid card

Also known as: stored-value card, top-up card

A card that spends a balance loaded onto it in advance, rather than drawing on a bank account. Frequently issued by e-money institutions rather than banks, which changes what protects the money behind it.

Why it matters: Prepaid cards are often the only product available without local residency — and they are also the product whose balance is not covered by a deposit guarantee.
How we treat it: Wherever a card is prepaid and its issuer is not a bank, the profile says so next to the protection status, rather than leaving the reader to infer it.
Do not confuse with: It is not a debit card on a bank account, and its balance is not a deposit.Virtual card

Continue readingVirtual card Safeguarding Catalog

Cashback

Also known as: spend rewards, card rewards

A share of what you spend returned to you, usually as a percentage with a monthly cap, an eligible-spend definition and a much lower rate above the cap. Sometimes conditional on a paid plan tier.

Why it matters: The headline percentage is almost never the effective one. A 5% rate capped at €50 of monthly spend is worth €2.50, which a €9 plan fee erases.
How we treat it: We record the rate, the cap, the post-cap rate and the plan requirement as separate fields, and we do not print a headline percentage without them.
Do not confuse with: Cashback is not a signup bonus, and it is not interest on a balance.Signup bonus

Continue readingSignup bonus APY / TAE Catalog Best for

Dynamic Currency Conversion

Also known as: DCC, "pay in your home currency?"

When a foreign terminal or ATM offers to charge you in your own currency instead of the local one. Accepting hands the conversion to the merchant's provider, typically at 3–7% worse than your own card's rate.

Why it matters: It is the single most expensive one-tap mistake a traveller makes, and it is designed to look like the safe option.
How we treat it: We treat DCC as a cost outside the provider's control and say so, rather than blaming a card's FX rate for a charge the terminal made.
Do not confuse with: The DCC markup is not your card's FX markup — accepting it replaces yours with a worse one.FX markup

Continue readingFX markup Mid-market rate ATM withdrawal fee Catalog

Deposits & yield

What a balance pays, on what conditions, and for how long. Headline rates are the most perishable data on this site.

APY / TAE

Also known as: annual percentage yield, tasa anual equivalente, gross rate

The annualised return on a balance including the effect of compounding, before tax and before any conditions. TAE is the Spanish regulated equivalent; both are gross figures.

Why it matters: It is the only way to compare a monthly-paying account with a twelve-month deposit. Comparing raw "interest" numbers across products compares nothing.
How we treat it: We publish gross rates only, always with the conditions attached and the date the rate was checked, and we treat any yield figure as perishable data with a 90-day cadence.
Do not confuse with: Gross is not net of tax, and an APY is not a cashback rate.Cashback

Continue readingCuenta remunerada Plazo fijo / term deposit Promotional rate Deposit rates How we rate

Cuenta remunerada

Also known as: remunerated account, interest-bearing current account, high-yield savings

A current or savings account paying interest on the balance with no lock-up, usually with a balance cap above which the rate drops to zero, and often only for new customers or with a payroll deposit.

Why it matters: It is the yield you can hold while still spending the money — the relevant comparison for an emergency buffer, unlike a term deposit.
How we treat it: We store the cap, the conditions and the promotional window with the rate, since a rate published without its cap is not a fact about your money.
Do not confuse with: It is not a term deposit, and the headline rate rarely applies to the whole balance.Plazo fijo / term deposit

Continue readingPlazo fijo / term deposit APY / TAE Deposit rates

Plazo fijo / term deposit

Also known as: fixed-term deposit, depósito a plazo, CD

A balance locked for an agreed term at an agreed rate. Early withdrawal is either impossible or penalised, and in exchange the rate is usually higher than an instant-access account pays.

Why it matters: The rate is only comparable together with the term: 3% for twelve months and 3% for one month are very different products.
How we treat it: Every deposit row on this site carries its tenor, its minimum, its currency and its own source date — the deposit table is provenance-per-row, not provenance-per-provider.
Do not confuse with: It is not an instant-access account, and its rate is not available on demand.Cuenta remunerada

Continue readingCuenta remunerada APY / TAE Deposit rates

Promotional rate

Also known as: welcome rate, intro rate, tarifa promocional

A rate available for a limited window, to new customers, or on a capped balance — after which the account reverts to a standard rate that is often close to zero.

Why it matters: It is the most common way a comparison table is made to lie without stating anything false: the number was true, for three months, for €5,000, for new customers only.
How we treat it: Promotional rates are flagged as promotional and carry their expiry date, and an expired promotional rate is removed rather than quietly left in place.
Do not confuse with: A promotional rate is not the standing rate.APY / TAE

Continue readingAPY / TAE Stale Deposit rates

Scores & evidence

The states every fact on this site carries, and how they turn into — or block — a number. This cluster is the site's own vocabulary about itself.

Verified

Also known as: checked, sourced

A value we hold, confirmed against a named source on a named date, and still inside its re-check cadence — 90 days for fees and rates, 180 for documents, a year for features.

Why it matters: It is the only state in which a number on this site carries our full weight. Everything else on the page is calibrated against how many of its facts reached it.
How we treat it: Verified facts are what a score is built from, and each one shows its source and check date on the profile.
Do not confuse with: Verified means we checked the source, not that we opened an account to test it — that is a separate, higher source tier.Unverified

Continue readingStale Unverified Source tier How we rate

Unverified

Also known as: imported, unchecked

A value we hold, from an import or a provider's own material, that no editor has yet confirmed against a source. The value exists; the check does not.

Why it matters: It tells you how much of a profile is our claim versus the provider's. A page of unverified facts is a starting point, not an answer.
How we treat it: Unverified facts are labelled as such, may be displayed and filtered on, and cannot lift an entity to score eligibility on their own.
Do not confuse with: Unverified means unchecked, not missing — a missing value is a different state.Unknown (not disclosed)

Continue readingVerified Unknown (not disclosed)How we rate

Stale

Also known as: overdue for re-check, expired verification

A value that was verified against a source but has passed its re-check cadence. It is not known to be wrong; it is known to be old.

Why it matters: Fees and rates change quietly. A rate verified fourteen months ago is a historical record, and presenting it as current would be the most ordinary way to mislead.
How we treat it: Stale facts are shown with their age, feed the re-verification queue, and hold an entity back from the top of the evidence ladder.
Do not confuse with: Stale is not unverified — a check happened, it simply expired.Unverified

Continue readingVerified Promotional rate How we rate

Unknown (not disclosed)

Also known as: not disclosed, no value on file

We hold no value for the field: either the provider does not publish it, or we have not collected it yet. A first-class state with its own reason, not an empty cell.

Why it matters: Missing data is how comparison sites flatter empty entries. If a blank counted as "no fee", the least transparent provider would win every table.
How we treat it: Three rules, enforced in one place: an unknown can never improve a score, can never satisfy a filter, and always renders as "Not disclosed" rather than blank.
Do not confuse with: Unknown means we have no value at all; unverified means we have one that is unchecked.Unverified

Continue readingUnverified Conflicting Maturity level How we rate Catalog

Conflicting

Also known as: sources disagree, disputed value

Two or more credible sources give different values for the same field, and no editor has resolved which is right.

Why it matters: Picking the nicer number silently is the most damaging thing a comparison site can do. Publishing the disagreement is the honest alternative.
How we treat it: An open conflict blocks the editorial score for that entity entirely — the profile shows "score on hold" and lists what disagrees — until an editor resolves it against the more authoritative source.
Do not confuse with: A conflict is not missing data; it is too much data, disagreeing.Unknown (not disclosed)

Continue readingUnknown (not disclosed)Source tier Editorial score How we rate

Source tier

Also known as: source authority, evidence level

The authority ranking of where a fact came from: official sources first (provider terms, fee schedules, regulators), then structured data feeds, then our own account-opening tests, then corroborated community reports.

Why it matters: Not all evidence is equal. When two sources disagree, the tier is what decides the outcome instead of whoever was read most recently.
How we treat it: Every fact stores its tier; score eligibility requires at least one official source; community reports are used only with a citation and corroboration.
Do not confuse with: A source tier rates the evidence, not the service.User score

Continue readingVerified Conflicting How we rate

Editorial score

Also known as: our score, the 0–100 number

A weighted mean of six rated dimensions — foreigner onboarding, reliability, fee transparency, support and language, payout speed, app and UX — computed from verified facts with published weights, then capped by how much of the model is actually rated.

Why it matters: It is a stated model rather than an opinion: the weights are published, the inputs are sourced, and both can be argued with.
How we treat it: It is never sold, never adjusted for a partnership, and never published for a service that has not reached score eligibility.
Do not confuse with: It is not the user score, and the two are never merged into one number.User score

Continue readingUser score Coverage cap Maturity level How we rate Catalog

Coverage cap

Also known as: the honesty cap, rated-on-N-of-6

The ceiling an entity earns by being documented: if only a quarter of the weighted model is rated, the score cannot exceed 25 out of 100, however good that quarter is.

Why it matters: Without it, one glowing rating on an otherwise empty profile scores a perfect 100 and outranks a fully documented, honestly average service.
How we treat it: Score equals the lower of the weighted mean and the coverage cap, in both the site and the database, with "rated on N of 6" shown next to the number.
Do not confuse with: The cap is not a penalty for a bad rating — it is a limit on rating too little.Editorial score

Continue readingEditorial score Unknown (not disclosed)How we rate

User score

Also known as: review score, reader rating

The aggregate of moderated reviews from readers who used the service, kept as its own number with its own review count.

Why it matters: Lived experience catches what a fee schedule cannot: support that stops answering, an app that locks accounts, a transfer that took nine days.
How we treat it: Reviews are moderated before publication, aggregate ratings appear only above a minimum review count, and the user score is never blended into the editorial one.
Do not confuse with: It is not our assessment, and a high user score does not lift an editorial score.Editorial score

Continue readingEditorial score Source tier Review policy

Maturity level

Also known as: evidence ladder, publication level

How far a service has earned the right to travel on this site, in four steps: candidate (a critical fact is missing), listed (comparable, not scoreable), score-eligible (two or more sources, one official, no conflicts), and fully verified (rated on the whole model and checked within the year).

Why it matters: It answers the question behind every score — not "what is the number" but "why should this number be trusted at all".
How we treat it: The level drives eight separate permissions: listing, scoring, ranking, recommending, comparing, indexing, the public profile and the referral link. Below score-eligible we publish no number, and below full verification a service cannot appear in ranked picks.
Do not confuse with: A high level means well-evidenced, not good — a fully verified service can still be a bad deal.Editorial score

Continue readingEditorial score Unknown (not disclosed)Referral link How we rate

Licences & protection

What a provider is legally allowed to do with your money, and what happens to it if the provider fails. The single most consequential distinction on the site.

Bank licence

Also known as: credit institution licence, full banking licence

Authorisation to take deposits from the public and lend them out, supervised by a central bank or equivalent. In the EEA it is what brings the deposit guarantee with it.

Why it matters: It is the difference between money that is guaranteed up to €100,000 if the provider fails and money that is merely segregated and waiting on an insolvency process.
How we treat it: We store the licence type, the licensing country and the regulator as separate fields for every European row, and we never describe a non-bank as a bank.
Do not confuse with: A bank licence is not an e-money licence, and "regulated" alone says nothing about which one.EMI

Continue readingEMI Deposit guarantee (DGS)Europe How we rate

EMI

Also known as: e-money institution, electronic money institution

A provider licensed to issue electronic money and run payment accounts, but not to take deposits or lend. Most well-known European fintech apps are EMIs, not banks.

Why it matters: An EMI can offer a better app, cheaper FX and faster onboarding than a bank — and if it fails, your balance is not covered by the deposit guarantee.
How we treat it: Every EMI row carries an explicit "not a bank — no deposit guarantee" statement in its downsides, regardless of how good the rest of the product is.
Do not confuse with: An EMI is not a bank, and safeguarded is not guaranteed.Bank licence

Continue readingBank licence Safeguarding Deposit guarantee (DGS)Europe

CASP / MiCA

Also known as: crypto-asset service provider, EU crypto regulation

MiCA is the EU regulation covering crypto-asset services; a CASP is a provider authorised under it. Authorisation covers conduct, custody and disclosure — it does not insure the assets.

Why it matters: It tells you a crypto provider is supervised in the EU, which is meaningful, and that your holdings are protected by a deposit guarantee, which they are not.
How we treat it: We record MiCA status where a provider claims it, keep crypto balances entirely outside deposit-protection statements, and carry a standing risk note on the yield layer.
Do not confuse with: CASP authorisation is not a bank licence and brings no deposit guarantee.EMI

Continue readingCrypto rail EMI Europe Catalog

Deposit guarantee (DGS)

Also known as: deposit guarantee scheme, FGD, €100,000 protection

The statutory scheme that repays depositors up to €100,000 per person per bank if the bank fails. It covers deposits at licensed banks, in the country where the bank is licensed, and only there.

Why it matters: It is the single most consequential fact about where your money sits, and the one most often implied by providers that do not have it.
How we treat it: Deposit protection is a headline field on every European profile, stated together with the licensing country, and it weighs heavily in the European score.
Do not confuse with: It is not safeguarding, and it does not cover e-money or crypto balances.Safeguarding

Continue readingBank licence Safeguarding Europe Deposit rates

Safeguarding

Also known as: segregated funds, client money protection

The requirement on an e-money or payment institution to hold customer funds separately from its own, in accounts at a licensed bank or in low-risk assets, so the money is identifiable if the firm fails.

Why it matters: It is real protection and it is weaker than a guarantee: your money should be there, but recovering it goes through an insolvency process with no fixed timetable and no state payout.
How we treat it: Where a provider is not a bank, we say the funds are safeguarded and that this is not a deposit guarantee, in the same sentence, every time.
Do not confuse with: Safeguarding is not the €100,000 deposit guarantee.Deposit guarantee (DGS)

Continue readingDeposit guarantee (DGS)EMI Europe

Money & neutrality

How this site earns, said in the words the industry uses ambiguously on purpose.

Commission

Also known as: affiliate commission, partner payout, CPA

What a provider pays this site when a reader opens an account through a tracked link. It is paid by the provider out of its own marketing budget, it never changes your price, and its amount is covered by partner agreements.

Why it matters: You are entitled to know who pays the site you are reading, and to check that the payment cannot buy anything editorial.
How we treat it: A commission cannot move a score, buy a ranking place, buy a listing or remove a downside. A service carries a link only after it reaches score eligibility — evidence gates money, not the other way round.
Do not confuse with: A commission is what we may be paid; it is not what you get.Signup bonus

Continue readingSignup bonus Referral link Affiliate disclosure

Signup bonus

Also known as: welcome bonus, user bonus, promo reward

What the provider gives you for opening an account and meeting stated conditions — a cash amount, free months of a plan, a rate boost — usually with a qualifying action and a deadline.

Why it matters: The bonus is the part of an offer that affects your money, and it is routinely presented without the steps that make it payable.
How we treat it: We publish the bonus with its qualifying steps and expiry as ordered, structured data, we render those steps in listings and not only on the profile, and an expired offer is removed rather than degraded to a bare link.
Do not confuse with: The bonus is yours; the commission is ours.Commission

Continue readingCommission Cashback Affiliate disclosure Best for

Referral link

Also known as: partner link, affiliate link, tracked link

An outbound link that identifies this site as the source of a signup. On nomoneda every one of them passes through our own domain first, is marked sponsored for crawlers, and is excluded from indexing.

Why it matters: A tracked link should be visible as a tracked link, and it should be possible to check what it records about you.
How we treat it: We log the service, the page, the language and the destination host — no IP address, no browser fingerprint, no cookie, no identifier. Citation links to regulators and fee schedules are never referral links and are never marked sponsored.
Do not confuse with: A referral link is not a source citation, and a sponsored link is not an endorsement.Commission

Continue readingCommission Maturity level Affiliate disclosure How we rate

Why the definitions are this specific

These terms are not decoration: they are the fields we store. 1793 facts are on file across the catalog, 1277 of them checked against a source, 34 explicitly marked as not disclosed, drawn from 429 distinct sources. A term defined loosely here would be a value we could not defend there.

How we rate and verify →