Start with who the account is built for
The cheapest account is the wrong pick if it was not designed for the person opening it. bunq lists expats, travelers and business among the groups it serves, so a student appears in the target list by design rather than by accident, and the bank has been operating since 2012. Pixpay FR is narrower and more deliberate: its audience is teen, and almost every pricing choice follows from that. bunq Spain Bank Account carries the same audience list as bunq, so those two are hard to separate on fit alone and need a different tie-breaker.
Work through the Student, teen and kids accounts ranking to see which accounts sit in this group, then price the shortlist with the sections below.
Weigh the monthly cost before anything else
Monthly cost is the easiest line to compare, and it splits most shortlists straight away. On its savings account bunq charges a monthly fee of €0 and describes the model as no monthly fee, so holding the account open costs a young account holder nothing. Pixpay FR charges €3.99 each month, which is a fixed deduction whether the balance is large or small.
Across the accounts on the site, monthly fees run €0 to €13.15. That spread is the reason to compare rather than assume a fee is modest. A free monthly fee leaves more of a small balance for spending, and any standing charge is a flat loss for someone living on a part-time wage or an allowance.
A monthly fee is a base cost, not the whole cost. The rest of this guide covers the additions: withdrawals, interest, exchange costs and the safety of the deposit.
Check what the money can actually do
Daily use matters more than a headline rate for a student or teen account. bunq's savings account is an easy access account, and bunq Spain Bank Account is the same easy access kind. Withdrawals are free inside a monthly allowance at bunq, and interest is paid weekly. The headline rate is 3.01% and it is variable, so the figure can move. A variable rate is fine when the goal is spending, but it is a weak reason to open a second account for the same money.
Pixpay FR takes the opposite approach. There is no top-up fee when funding by card or transfer, and no transaction fees, which suits a teenager topping up from a part-time job or a parent. Cash handling is built in: free atm and joint account covers free ATM use and a joint account, with a free ATM allowance of €1. For an account that lives on cash out, that combination matters more than an interest rate.
Confirm the money is protected
Cost covers the running side of the decision, and safety of the deposit is the other side. It is checked at the licence level rather than the advert level. bunq is bunq B.V., headquartered in NL, with deposits covered by EU DGS up to EUR 100,000. Pixpay FR operates as BFF Financial Services in FR, and the cover matches: EU DGS up to EUR 100,000. These are separate operators, so anyone holding a larger balance should establish which firm actually holds the money.
Licences narrow that down. Pixpay FR holds a licence with the Malta Financial Services Authority, C 106164, and a Dutch banking licence from De Nederlandsche Bank N.V., R182870. Write both references down before applying: a licence reference is the quickest way to confirm that the firm answering an email is the firm named on the account.
Count the cost of money spent abroad
Students and teens travel, study abroad and buy from foreign sites, so the exchange charge is a real recurring cost. bunq charges a foreign exchange fee of 3%, and Pixpay FR charges 2%. Across accounts on the site, foreign exchange fees run 0% to 6.7%, so the gap between these two applies on every purchase settled in another currency.
Currency reach matters just as much: currencies held across accounts run 1 to 65. Both brands provide a local IBAN, listed as local details for bunq (iban) and for Pixpay FR (iban), so receiving money from home is cheaper than sending it as a correspondent payment. A teen with a foreign parent or a part-time job abroad benefits from this more than most readers.
Weigh support, features and the reviews
Help matters most when a card is refused at a till or a transfer is stuck. Support runs through email, chat and help centre at bunq and email, chat and help centre at Pixpay FR, so both keep the conversation written and in the app rather than on a phone line.
Features differ in a way that suits different habits. bunq lists joint account and digital only, and a digital-only account appeals to a phone-first student who has no use for a branch. Pixpay FR lists free atm and joint account, and a joint account is useful where a parent and a teenager want the same view of a balance without either side taking control. Pick the feature that matches how the money will move, not the one with the longer feature list.
Then read the full write-ups before deciding. The bunq review, the Pixpay FR review and the bunq Spain Bank Account review set out the terms account by account, and each sits in the wider Student, teen and kids accounts ranking beside the alternatives.