Keytrade Keypack: who is the €0 account for?

Keytrade Bank's Keypack costs €0 per year: current account, debit card, standard and instant SEPA transfers, euro withdrawals at every ATM. Two lines change the maths all the same, and neither appears on the product page: the Visa card jumps to €25/year below 12 annual transactions, and your deposits are covered by the French guarantee fund. Detail as of 12 August 2026.

What exactly does Keytrade's Keypack include?

A current account, a debit card, a Visa credit card, a savings account and a securities account, all with no management fees. Keytrade sells a bundle where traditional Belgian banks sell a package per tier.

The FEN/03-2026 fee schedule, effective 2 March 2026, is short on the current-account side, and that is the best sign: opening is free, closing is free, there are no management fees, no custody fees for private individuals, and the debit card is free per holder for Belgian residents. Electronic statements are included.

Two lines are worth a stop. Electronic SEPA transfers are free, instant ones included, with no quota — the same operation is billed outside the package at BNP Paribas Fortis and Belfius. And euro withdrawals at ATMs are free, on the debit card and on the credit card, which is rarer than it sounds: most Belgian banks treat a credit-card withdrawal as a cash advance and price it accordingly.

Is the Keypack really €0 a year?

The account is. The credit card only is if you use it. This is the quietest clause in the fee schedule, and the one that decides the real cost for a fair share of holders.

The Visa Classic, Gold and Platinum are all advertised as free. The asterisk spells it out: the card stays free if it records at least 12 transactions per year. Below that, the bill lands at €25/year for the Classic, €50/year for the Gold, €150/year for the Platinum. Twelve transactions a year is one a month — effortless for someone who pays subscriptions with it, out of reach for someone who keeps the card at the back of a wallet for emergencies abroad.

So the real annual cost of the Keypack comes down to four cases.

An account advertised as free that costs €25 a year because you did not use a card you were given: that is the kind of line you discover on the January statement. The real annual cost, not the package's headline price — here, putting one subscription on the Visa is enough to stay at zero.

How much does the 5-cent bonus per transaction really pay?

€30 per year at most, and only for someone who pays for everything by card. Keytrade credits 5 cents per domestic payment transaction of at least €1 made from the current account: debit card payment, outgoing transfer, debit card withdrawal, standing order.

The cap is twofold. Fifty transactions per month at most, so €2.50 monthly, so €30 over twelve months. And the exclusions are broad: international transfers, credit card operations, movements between your own accounts, incoming payments. Only one transaction per day to the same account is counted, and only one withdrawal per day.

In practice: a household making 50 payments a month collects €30/year, which exactly offsets a dormant Visa at €25/year. A holder making fifteen monthly transactions collects €9/year. Test-Achats has noted that the conditions of this bonus were revised downwards after launch — one more reason to read it as an accessory, never as a reason to choose.

What does the Keypack cost once you leave the euro zone?

Nothing inside the euro zone, 1.40% in currency conversion fees outside it. The rate is identical for the debit card and the credit card, which simplifies the maths without making it painless.

Inside the euro zone: electronic payments free, ATM withdrawals free, on both cards. Outside the euro zone, the fees stack up:

• Payment by card: 1.40% currency conversion fee. On €500 spent in London, €7.
• ATM withdrawal: €2.00 + 0.40% of the amount + 1.40% currency conversion. On a €200 withdrawal, that comes to €5.60, or 2.8% of the amount withdrawn.
• International transfer (foreign currency, or euro outside SEPA): €15 + 0.30% up to €12,500, plus correspondent bank fees. A €1,000 transfer to the United States therefore costs at least €18.

The local ATM may add its own access fee, shown on screen, which has nothing to do with Keytrade. The practical rule fits in one sentence: outside the euro zone, pay by card and withdraw as rarely as possible, in large amounts. The ranking of Belgian banks sets these usage fees against the annual cost of each account.

Are your deposits guaranteed by Belgium or by France?

By France, up to €100,000 per depositor. Keytrade Bank is the Belgian branch of Arkéa Direct Bank SA, a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, and not a bank incorporated under Belgian law. Deposits therefore fall under the French Fonds de garantie des dépôts et de résolution (FGDR), not the Belgian system.

The ceiling is the same — €100,000 per person per bank, doubled for a joint account held by two people, since the rule is European. Financial instruments are covered up to €70,000. What changes is the counterparty in case of failure and the language of the paperwork.

This deserves stating without drama: the mechanism is harmonised at European level, and a French branch is not less safe than a Belgian bank. But someone splitting €180,000 across two institutions to stay under the ceiling needs to know which one is Belgian and which one is not. The French deposit guarantee is documented on the FGDR site, and the general framework for Belgian current accounts on Wikifin, the FSMA's financial education site.

What can you not do with a Keytrade account?

Deposit cash, walk into a branch, or reach anyone at the weekend. Three structural limits, not service failures.

Keytrade Bank has no branches in Belgium. Opening, managing and transacting all happen through the website, the app or the phone. There is therefore no cash deposit option: money enters the account by transfer, full stop. For a self-employed worker who takes cash, a student paid by hand, or anyone selling second-hand, that is disqualifying.

Customer service is reachable Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. That is a wide window on weekdays, and nothing on Saturday. Complaints published on Test-Achats report long phone waits at busy times, which is the usual flip side of a bank without counters: when something goes wrong, there is only one number.

That leaves property financing. Keytrade is built around the account, savings and the stock market, not around mortgage lending with an adviser. If a purchase is planned within three years, keep a second account at a branch bank: our article on choosing between a banking package or a basic account puts a figure on what that second account costs depending on the formula.

Does Keytrade's savings offer match the free account?

As a percentage, no. In euros on an existing capital, often yes — because there is no deposit cap.

The High Fidelity account pays 0.40% base rate plus a 1.50% loyalty bonus, so 1.90% on money left untouched for twelve months. The Azur account pays 0.80% base plus 0.40% loyalty, so 1.20%. Both rates were raised on 24 March 2026, and the High Fidelity key information sheet carries that date. The decisive point: minimum deposit €0, maximum deposit "not applicable" — this is a category A account, with no amount conditions.

A savings rate is always read together with its deposit cap. Take €40,000 already saved: on High Fidelity they earn roughly €760 gross over twelve months. On Start2Save at 3.15%, they earn nothing at all, because the account only accepts €500 of deposits per month — it would take more than six years to get the money in. The highest rate on the market is not the most profitable rate as soon as the capital passes a few thousand euros.

Two caveats. The loyalty bonus is only earned after twelve uninterrupted months, and a withdrawal at the wrong moment wipes it out. And the new bonus rates only apply to deposits or loyalty periods starting after 24 March 2026: money already in place keeps its previous bonus until the end of its period.

Does the Keypack hold up against the other free Belgian accounts?

On price, it ties. On included services, it leads. On human contact, it comes last.

What sets the Keypack apart in this list is the scope: account, savings and a securities account with no custody fees, all in the same contract, with instant transfers included. Argenta charges €2 per counter transaction, Belfius bills instant transfers outside the package, KBC charges €30/year for its basic account. What the Keypack does not offer is somewhere to go. The current account comparator places these institutions side by side, annual cost against annual cost.

Who is the Keypack actually for?

A "free" bank does not exist: there are those whose fees you pay in euros, and those whose fees you pay in closed branches and trimmed savings rates. At Keytrade the trade-off is owned and legible: no counter, no cash, one phone number on weekdays. In exchange, the current account costs nothing and the savings side is not throttled by a deposit cap. Everyone gets to decide whether they will miss the branch. The guide on how to choose a bank works through these criteria one by one, and our comparison of free current accounts in Belgium lists the other €0 candidates.

Sources

• Keytrade Bank — Fee schedule FEN/03-2026 (effective 2 March 2026: free account, Visa free subject to 12 transactions, fees outside the euro zone)
• Keytrade Bank — KEYPACK, the online current account (contents of the offer and the per-transaction bonus, accessed 12 August 2026)
• Keytrade Bank — Key information for savers: HIGH FIDELITY savings account (0.40% + 1.50%, maximum deposit not applicable, sheet dated 24 March 2026)
• Test-Achats — Keytrade Bank raises the rates on its savings accounts (increase of 24 March 2026, Azur and High Fidelity)
• Test-Achats — Keytrade's bonus conditions revised downwards (changes to the per-transaction bonus)
• FGDR — Fonds de garantie des dépôts et de résolution (French mechanism applicable to Keytrade Bank, accessed 12 August 2026)
• Wikifin (FSMA) — The current account (legal framework and holder rights in Belgium, accessed 12 August 2026)
• FPS Economy — Basic banking service (legal right of access to a payment account, accessed 12 August 2026)
• Wikipedia — Keytrade Bank (history and membership of the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa group since June 2016)
• Comparatif-Compte-Courant.be — Keytrade Bank's free current account: KeyPack (detailed fee sheet, accessed 12 August 2026)