Considering switching to WIR Bank, but afraid of another radicant case

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Penkie

New member
Hi all !

I recently read the blog post about WIR Bank and how it's a great bank for an all-in-one package with no fees to pay abroad.

Since I go shopping a lot in France, it's important to me to have a good card to pay abroad and minimize fees (I just saw that on my last shopping trip, I paid 70€ and with conversion and fees, I paid 4 CHF extra, just for this one time. It was a CC).

Also, my current bank is also free but they limit the transfert from the savings account to 12 per year (then 6 CHF per transfert) which I think is outrageous.

Anyway, WIR seemed to me like a great deal. But I'm afraid it's once again one of those banks that gives a great deal at first, then enshittificate and change the conditions or worse, close the package / bank like it happened recently with radicant.

What do you guys think about this ?
 
It's good to question cheap offers and their sustainability.

Personally, I'm not worried about WIR. WIR and radicant are two completely different cases. While radicant was a neobank with questionable ownership. WIR has existed since 1934. They have a solid business model based on mortgages and loans. They made a net profit of 17 Mio in 2025. I'm fully confident that WIR is a solid bank for the near future (I don't do long-term predictions since I don't have a crystal ball). In my view, the worst that could happen would be WIR raising their fees. But with such solid growth numbers, I see no indication for this to happen any time soon. And if it happened, you can always change banks again. Even with the closure of radicant, it might have been a hassle, but I don't think any customer lost any money.
 
Those are all very good points, thanks for your answer. I guess indeed the worse that could happen is raising their fees, like neon did with neon plus etc...
I know none of us have crystal balls, but if Neon did it, it's logical that WIR would do it in the future ? Or not because they make profit from as you said mortgages and loans and Neon doesn't. Fruit for tought I guess.
 
Wir is a bank since 1936, so you cannot really compare to Neon.
It's a full bank base on a cooperative model, of course for the general public, but also and above all for companies (SMEs).
In case, they will apply fees in the future, outside WIR packet top, an additionnal account is only 2CHF per month.
Also they are owner of VIAC that is a success story.
I have still my UBS account but use WIR since one year with no issue and start to think closing UBS.
 
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