PickTheBank — my detailed review after six months of use

The first thing to understand is that PickTheBank is not a bank. It's a Cyprus-based platform (Pick Savings Navigator Ltd, based in Limassol) doing two very different jobs, and it's best not to confuse them.

Two activities under the same name

On one side, PickTheBank publishes a public comparator of term deposits and savings accounts in Europe. There, they are affiliated with almost none of the listed banks — they collect rates to push for more transparency in a market that sorely lacks it.

On the other side, they operate what they call the Savings platform: an onboarding journey that ends with opening a deposit at Lidion Bank, a Maltese bank with which they have a service partnership. That's the second leg I care about here, because it's the channel that gives access to the 2.45% – 2.75% rates that show up in our tables.

Who is Lidion Bank, exactly?

Lidion Bank Plc is a bank licensed in Malta (Block 3, Trident Park, Birkirkara). Its core business is digital-economy companies — financing, treasury, multi-currency payments, factoring. It does not directly serve retail depositors: PickTheBank plays the role of service partner for that client base.

And that's where the reassuring part comes in: deposits opened via this channel are protected by the Maltese Deposit Guarantee Scheme (MFSA), up to €100,000 per depositor. The guarantee covers all currencies — including USD and GBP deposits — but any compensation is paid in euros, capped at €100,000. You'll find confirmation on the MFSA website.

How onboarding works

The journey is shorter than what a traditional Luxembourg bank had accustomed me to. In practice:

1. PickTheBank onboarding — KYC questionnaire, identity verification (document + selfie), phone number confirmation.
2. Online signature of the term deposit contract, transmitted with your profile to the partner bank.
3. Approval by Lidion Bank — generally within one business day. You then receive an email with the payment details.
4. Direct transfer to the bank (not via PickTheBank). In euros from Luxembourg, I did a standard SEPA.
5. Funds receipt confirmed → the deposit is opened. For EUR, that's the same day or the next business day. For USD/GBP, allow 1 to 2 extra business days.

A small technical detail that surprised me: the deposit account has no IBAN of its own. You transfer to a transit account used by Lidion. For foreign currencies, the displayed beneficiary will be The Currency Cloud Limited (Lidion's correspondent), with Lidion Bank Plc as the ultimate beneficiary. The first time, it's disorienting. It's normal.

Fees: what you really pay

PickTheBank and Lidion charge no commission to the depositor: no opening fee, no transfer fee, no management fee. It's rare to the point of being suspect — I checked, it's true. Their revenue comes from the commercial relationship with the bank, not from your pocket.

On the other hand, your own bank may charge you for the outgoing transfer, and for USD or GBP transfers, an intermediary bank can deduct fees along the way. On a short deposit (3 or 6 months) in foreign currency, these fees can seriously eat into the yield. The advice PickTheBank itself gives — and which I confirm — is to go at least in OUR mode (fees paid by sender) so the full amount reaches the bank.

Deposit life: what you can and can't do

• No early withdrawal. It's a strict term deposit: no partial exit, no closure before maturity. Think about it before placing your safety cushion.
• No top-up. The amount opened is the final amount. If you want to add more, that's a new deposit.
• No outgoing transfer from the deposit account. At maturity, the capital is sent automatically back to your reference account.
• Rollover possible. 2 to 3 weeks before maturity, a renewal is offered (interest is paid, the nominal is reinvested). Without action on your part, the deposit is simply repaid.
• Management via PickTheBank. Lidion has no retail app — everything goes through the PickTheBank web portal or their mobile app (App Store). Documents, confirmations, status: all in the Documents tab of your file.

What I liked

• Rates frankly above the Luxembourg market — on 60 months we're at 2.75%, where the big local names struggle to pay 1% to 1.5%.
• Zero fees on the platform and bank side. Transparency is clear.
• Fast onboarding, clean documents, real-time visible status.
• Maltese guarantee aligned with European standards (€100,000, all currencies).

What deserves thought

• The three-way setup (you → PickTheBank → Lidion) requires a reading effort the first time. You have to accept not having a "direct" banking app.
• No liquidity before maturity. That's the principle of a term deposit, but it must be carefully sized.
• Maltese guarantee, not Luxembourg. The level of protection is equivalent (€100,000), but in case of default, reimbursement goes through the Maltese fund — standard European timelines, but it's not the BCL.
• For foreign currencies, watch intermediary fees carefully: they can turn a nice rate into a mediocre yield on a short deposit.

Verdict

For a Luxembourg resident looking to put a pocket of savings to work that they know they can lock up for 12, 24 or 36 months, PickTheBank + Lidion is today one of the most rewarding serious options accessible from the Grand Duchy. It's not magic — it is just a Maltese bank paying what the big local ones refuse to pay, distributed by a platform that takes no cut. Read the conditions, size the amount, and don't put your emergency fund there.

Want to see how I compared it to Spuerkeess, BIL, BGL and ING offers? I cover it in the Journal.