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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#201

Post by underthensun »

danpalmer wrote: post #11

Businesses pulling out of the UK based on the Brexit process is bad for the UK, and I'm sure this was indeed mainly motivated by N26's need for a UK banking licence, which is a costly and difficult process to go through. However, it's worth noting that they are pretty small in the UK (~200k users). They're very successful in Germany where banking is a very slow, difficult, manually run industry (from what I've heard)…

I'm looking forward to see N26 in south america. Really hope they get there. I'm pretty sure banking in the south america is far worse than in Germany.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#202

Post by eat_veggies »

speedski1 wrote: post #179
Nursie wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote time - the only person I know who had an account (I work in London fintech at the moment) never used it and only opened it for the fancy translucent card. He seems to have accounts with all the 'challenger' banks.

Random question, but I'm moving to London in a few months, do you have any suggestions on banks or "challenger" banks I should go with? (couldn't figure out how to DM you, not sure if it's possible on Hacker News)

I got my paycheck paid into my monzo. They don't require a proof of address, so I was able to open an account from my hotel room and have my card sent to my new workplace before I had my own flat.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#203

Post by barnabee »

Causality1 wrote: post #170

"A 100% digital banking experience" I know this isn't the exact focus of the post, but I find that a little terrifying. I wouldn't be willing to trust all my holdings to a computer system with no ability to walk into a building with my birth certificate, photo ID, and social security card and have someone give me back my accounts should my identity be stolen.

I moved to Monzo as soon as they got a banking license and wouldn’t want to go back to an old bank with branches. Not only is their tech terrible but someone’s got to pay for all those buildings and people.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#204

Post by greatgib »

I understand their reasons, but I think that it is an abuse from them to close UK customers so fast. Imagine loosing your bank account suddenly in just 1 month. From what I see, nothing prevents N26 to continue operating until the end of the year in UK. So, they could have given a 3 or 6 months notice at least to their user. I'm not in UK, but because of actions like this, I'm more than encouraged to not be confident with them and not use this as a "primary account".

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#205

Post by davidw »

jaclaz wrote: post #198
davidw wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We lived in one place, then moved. We got our mortgage via the one close to us prior to the move. Now we live in the US and it doesn't matter so much as trying to do anything with the bank from here is pretty much impossible. We had asked about having everything moved over to the branch closer to our home, but apparently the logistical requirements are close to those for sending a manned mission to the moon.

I can tell you that, in Italy, there is not a "standard", in the sense that not all banks are the same, and often one that excels in something is terrible in another aspect. With home-banking these differences are even more marked, some sites have "reasonable" possibilities offered to the customer, some other have next to none (besides checking your account) some have relatively simple workflows some other are so stu…

Be curious to hear the banks' names.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#206

Post by mellosouls »

JackFr wrote: post #197
mellosouls wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These things are complicated and to be argued; speaking in absolutes is not helpful or justified. The most that can be said is that the Tories (and the harder Brexiteers) have a significant majority, which makes moves towards deregulation more likely - that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, or will happen without considerable push-back from people who are not quite so ideological (or who are, but of the opposi…

> considerable push-back from people who are not quite so ideological considerable push-back from people who benefit from the current regulatory structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Please don't misquote me:

considerable push-back from people who are not quite so ideological (or who are, but of the opposite persuasion)

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#207

Post by TulliusCicero »

qubex wrote: post #109
davidw wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at your one specific branch, Italy is the same way and it is awful . We signed up for our bank account at one specific branch of a bank in Padova, Italy, and it's impossible to do much besides withdraw some cash at other branches. It's so dumb.

As an Italian, I understand this... but the obvious question is: why didn’t you open it at a branch more convenient for you?

Do people not move in Italy or something?

I've encountered the same thing in Germany, when I log in I use the branch number of where we opened the account? Why? Who gives a shit about that? I certainly don't. But the bank does, for some unfathomable reason.

For each way German banks are better than American ones, it seems like there's a way in which they're backwards or overly conservative.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#208

Post by ianai »

jfengel wrote: post #40
tablloyd wrote: post #18

I'm skeptical of Brexit being the reason that N26 is withdrawing from the UK. They started operation in the uk in October 2018, over 2 years after the referendum result and 6 months before the UK was meant to leave until the date got pushed back.

I agree with your skepticism, but it's important to note that Brexit being pushed back implied that it might not happen, or that it might be very soft. It wasn't certain until a couple of months ago, when the vote effectively reaffirmed Brexit (or at the very least, that the Remain vote was so badly confused as to make it a fait accompli). So there is almost certainly more going on here than Brexit, but there's also…

Really, as a pure outsider, I think anytime you redo a vote on something like this as many times as they did you increase the odds of success (leaving the EU) to 1. People will eventually switch their vote just to not have to vote any longer. It’s not necessarily a ringing nor deep endorsement of the change.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#209

Post by wikibob »

speedski1 wrote: post #179
Nursie wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote time - the only person I know who had an account (I work in London fintech at the moment) never used it and only opened it for the fancy translucent card. He seems to have accounts with all the 'challenger' banks.

Random question, but I'm moving to London in a few months, do you have any suggestions on banks or "challenger" banks I should go with? (couldn't figure out how to DM you, not sure if it's possible on Hacker News)

100% Monzo.

https://monzo.com/blog/technology

Also check out all the awesome tech meetups they host at their new office. There's a very strong and small open source 'cloud' tech community in London where everyone knows everyone. Try hard to meet some people and before you know it you'll have a new group of friends.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#210

Post by nailer »

zorked wrote: post #138
gadjo95 wrote: post #70

Rumor is that they are also going to cancel their launch in Brazil. I think they are just re-focusing and trying to make money instead of burning it. Launching in a new market is always expensive.

TBH the neobank market in Brazil is kind of crowded and N26 doesn't have anything over those that started sooner.

I suspect N26 may also blame cancelling their Brazil launch on Brexit.
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