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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#241

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)…

As a customer of N26 and Natwest/Barclays I feel that N26 in my experience has won in every category. Superior support when I need it on demand, the tech and apps seems solid, intuitive analysis and usage, the ability to have multiple sub-accounts and the ability to create rules to route money between them. Natwest in particular seem stuck in the past, I cannot count the amount of times I've opted in for digital comm…

> As a customer of N26 and Natwest/Barclays I feel that N26 in my experience has won in every category.

And if NatWest were the only competition in this market, I’m sure N26 would have done fine. Monzo, Starling and Revolut all have far superior products and market offerings however.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

+1

Monzo doesn't ask for proof of address, while other banks will need something like a utility bill. As a newcomer to the UK, one is pretty much obliged to open a bank account with Monzo.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#243

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've recently moved from the UK to another European country, and whilst I despise the way the politics is going back home - I'm amazed at how much better banking is back in the UK. It's free to have an account and debit card, often with a modest free overdraft. And transfers are really instant. As in I can transfer from Barclays to Santander and by the time I've double-tapped between bank apps the money will be there…

This really depends on the country you moved to. Banking in Germany will be much shittier while what you describe is norm in other countries for example.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#244

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)…

Next step for UK is to reduce regulations compared to EU to make it easier for people to setup shop in UK compared to EU.

Of course now that the UK has left the EU, nobody really has any ideas of what, specifically, they want to deregulate.

Asbestos in food? Attractive new opportunities for US pharma to sell opioids? Houses no longer need windows? EULAs on jeans, making you pay day?

Europe is very comfortable watching it from the sidelines. I'd say it's an interesting experiment, but unfortunately the last two years have shown it's rather boring and everything turns out exactly as anyone with even basic grasp on reality has said it would.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#245
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still trying to understand the point of your comment, but regardless: You haven't heard of it. So what? People will be affected by this. This will also not be the only company who will have to leave the UK because they've deemed the cost of legalising their business there after Brexit is not worth the benefits. So you're either in denial about that fact or you think it doesn't matter, which perhaps works for you…

I think the point of parent's comment is that hardly anyone in the UK has heard of N26, so perhaps we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's all due to Brexit. Let's be honest, if they had a market here worth saving, they'd apply for the licence.

They had 200_000 customers in the UK according to the BBC.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the Leavers' arguments was that the UK wouldn't be subject to the EU's regulations. They claimed that the EU rgulations were stifling and created too much of a nanny-state. Johnson's parliment is pretty much duty bound to create an environment of reduced regulation, otherwise they would be reneging on one of their most important platforms. Things like blatant crime should still be regulated, but creating an ea…

Actually Johnson isn't going to be focused on reduced regulation. He will be focused on regulatory alignment with the US as he desperately needs to sign a US-UK FTA. And yes the US has a lot less regulations than the EU e.g. chlorinated chicken but in other areas it is not less but just different. UK businesses are going to find the next decade extremely painful as they deal with trying to support US and EU regulatio…

UK businesses are going to find the next decade extremely painful

This seems over-board.

Firstly, like in every country, most UK businesses don't sell abroad at all. So no, most businesses aren't going to find the next decade any different to the previous.

Secondly, businesses that wanted to sell into both EU and US markets already had two sets of regulations to deal with and would have done no matter what. That is no different to what it was before either.

Finally, businesses have been dealing with customs controls at the border for as long as international business has existed. That's hardly a big deal either.

He will be focused on regulatory alignment with the US as he desperately needs to sign a US-UK FTA.

No he doesn't. Plenty of countries around the world have perfectly fine economies and growth despite having no FTA in place with either the USA nor EU. It's nice to have but not essential for anything.

Now, "regulatory alignment" doesn't have to mean adopting the exact same rules as the USA. That's the EU's approach but it's often not the best approach. A simpler way to gain the same benefits in most cases is just regulatory recognition. In cases where there's no actual fundamental disagreement between systems, but actually unifying them is unwanted for reasons of political independence (i.e. retaining the ability to fundamentally disagree in future) both countries can simply choose to accept products that comply with each other's sets of laws.

The EU freaks out about this approach because the goal of the EU is not to make business easier but to unify Europe into a single country, and abolish the existing ones. Obviously to do that mutual recognition of standards is useless. Only obedience to a centrally controlled set of regulations will do the job. A lot of people in the UK have spent so many years under the thumb of this system that they find it hard to conceive of any other way.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N26 is amazing. I use it daily in Germany as an expat

I'm in Germany as an American and use DB. They're creaky, but it seems to get the job done. What do you feel is the advantage of N26 over older banks?

The perks are nice, the app is great: I really like spaces. Sending money to other N26 users is instant. 5 free ATM withdrawals. I could go on

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on whether those regulations are socially useful or not. It's not a given that should be the next step.

One of the Leavers' arguments was that the UK wouldn't be subject to the EU's regulations. They claimed that the EU rgulations were stifling and created too much of a nanny-state. Johnson's parliment is pretty much duty bound to create an environment of reduced regulation, otherwise they would be reneging on one of their most important platforms. Things like blatant crime should still be regulated, but creating an ea…

One of the other Leaver arguments were that there would be no reduction in access to the EU internal market, and that the UK would be able to get even better access to those markets by leaving.

Yes, I know it isn’t even coherent to expect “the EU” to grant the UK better access to the domestic markets of 27 nations than those nations give to each other, but when I raised this the response was either “that proves we should leave” or “that’s just project fear”, often preceded or followed with some comment about BMW, champagne, or the Spanish tourist industry.

Point is, they will renege on their promises on this topic no matter what, so while your argument would normally be sensible, nobody can rely on that this time.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#249
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm somewhat wary of keeping any larger sums of money in my N26 account. It's German. All savings are guaranteed by German gov up to €100k. This is not the case with Monzo or Revolut.

True. They’re protected up to £85,000 by the British Government instead.

They claim 250k USD in the US, via their partner Axios Bank.

"All deposits are FDIC-insured through our partner bank, Axos Bank®, Member FDIC."

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But wait until you see the reduced regulations you will end up with. US is demanding regulatory alignment in agriculture and food safety as a condition of the FTA for example. And the US has significantly higher rates of food borne illnesses compared to the UK due to these weaker regulations: https://www.sustainweb.org/news/feb18_US_foodpoisoning/

https://fullfact.org/health/food-poisoning-US-UK/

That fact check is only evaluating the very specific claim:

>"One in six people in the US get food poisoning each year and one in 66 people in the UK get food poisoning each year."

Saying that while correct, the two specific studies use different methodology and should not be used together in a sentence.

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