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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#311

Post by ben_w »

Nursie wrote: post #76
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)…

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.

Huh. The first thing I did with the fancy translucent card was to apply permanent marker to the front because I could read the CVV from the wrong side.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#312

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Nextgrid wrote: post #231
Shoue wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both Monzo and Starling are good. If you're good at budgeting and never dip into negative balances I suggest getting a cashback or points credit card too, and then you can simply put your income into an instant savings account until you need it for the monthly direct debit to pay off your credit card and earn interest _and_ cashback/points.

Cashback is very low in Europe (thankfully) due to the interchange fees being capped by law. Frankly even in the US I personally wouldn’t bother using credit cards. The management overhead of maintaining one (you have to pay it off on time, have 2 balances to look at, etc) is IMO not worth the money.

In the UK you get additional purchase protection when you pay by credit card, which can be useful on larger purchases - lots of people have been saved by this when companies have folded.

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/guide-to-credi...

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#313

Post by razakel »

thu2111 wrote: post #246
threeseed wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 n…

>Firstly, like in every country, most UK businesses don't sell abroad at all.

One third do. As for the rest, they may not trade abroad directly, but their suppliers and customers certainly will.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#314

Post by Nextgrid »

fredophile wrote: post #302
Nextgrid wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cashback is very low in Europe (thankfully) due to the interchange fees being capped by law. Frankly even in the US I personally wouldn’t bother using credit cards. The management overhead of maintaining one (you have to pay it off on time, have 2 balances to look at, etc) is IMO not worth the money.

A credit card that pays 2% back on all purchases is pretty easy to get in the US. Since cashback isn't taxed this is close to 3% in pre-tax dollars. If having a balance on the card and money in the bank is too confusing you could just pay it daily on days that you use it. I'd say the minimal effort is worth the reward in this case.

> pay it daily

Unless I can automate this it’s still an extra step I can’t be bothered to do.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#315

Post by riffraff »

alibarber wrote: post #276
speedski1 wrote: post #179

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)

Transferwise's borderless account might also be worth a look too if you need to hold or regularly spend money in other currencies. I've moved the opposite way and have been quite happy with it.

Does TW have a banking license? I seem to recall they don't, so your money wouldn't be insured in the same way, or something like that.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#316

Post by razakel »

ieS7rpVU wrote: post #131
matthewmacleod wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d rather have regulated banks please.

I wouldn't. Why can't you use banks that agree to follow rules you like and be monitored by people you trust while I can use banks that agree to follow rules I like and be monitored by people I trust?

Because you would then have two incompatible banking systems and the whole thing would be a complete pain for everybody.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#317

Post by jfengel »

ianai wrote: post #208
jfengel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Really, there was just the one referendum, and it succeeded. It was confirmed twice later, once weakly, and a second time more strongly, via parliamentary elections that both gave power to the pro-Brexit party.

I don't believe that this constitutes a ringing endorsement of Brexit, and has more to do with the failure of the Remain-focused politicians to pull together properly. But Remain was given three tries to win, and it screwed up royally last time. I do not believe it is the right choice, but it is a fait accompli and they must deal with that.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#318

Post by DrBazza »

grey-area wrote: post #252
mytailorisrich wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in the UK, I know all about Brexit and British politics ad nauseam . The point remains that this isn't the key reason behind their decision. I guess it's easier to blame Brexit than to explain to your customers that you're closing their accounts because of good old business. They launched in the UK after the Brexit referendum and they don't even need that bank licence to offer electronic current accounts in the…

Brexit means it is more costly for them to operate in the uk, and they’ve decided the UK market is not worth that extra cost. If that’s not about Brexit I don’t know what is. This will be true of many regulated industries if regulations diverge, and most industries with a supply chain across Europe too, so expect to see a lot of factory closures in the coming years, along with missed opportunities for new investment…

Brexit will have a financial impact, but I don't believe it will be what everyone thinks it will be. The UK will likely have forgotten the 'light touch regulation' that in part caused the credit crunch, in the chase for bringing business to London in the mid 2000s.

History will probably repeat itself: the current, or next Government will reduce regulation to encourage businesses to stay or locate in London. Banks will exploit it somehow. Cue next financial crisis.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#319

Post by ATsch »

spiderjerusalem wrote: post #263
alibarber wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 is on the EU roadmap though, for what it's worth. Sometime in the next few years, we should see instantaneous transfers within the EU.

I have had SCT Instant for approximately a year. However, only around half of the target banks I send money to support it currently.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#320

Post by riffraff »

oAlbe wrote: post #257
jaclaz wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In Italy there's also the problem that most banks don't allow you to receive wire transfers from outside the SEPA area. I had a hard time finding a bank that would allow me to receive transfers from the US. Some of them were actually baffled when I called for information at the idea of someone wanting to receive money from oversea. And let's not even get into keeping an account in another currency. My bank apparently…

FWIW, fineco will let you have foreign currency accounts, for free, and with minimal conversion fees, it's pretty convenient.
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