321–330 of 517 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It was easier already. From what I hear setting up shop in the UK is more straightforward than doing the same thing in France.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
French banks are slow, but they provide good services. When i lived in the UK, i had only a debit card (maestro). If you wanted a mastercard you needed a credit card account where you needed to manually balance at the end of the month. Mind you this was 10 years ago, when the UK was Just introducing PIN code for every card transaction, a security feature found in France since the 90s. In France you get mastercard as…
> Mind you this was 10 years ago, when the UK was Just introducing PIN code for every card transaction Err. C&P was universal by 2006ish from memory, but many venues just didn't accept anything other than cash at all. I suspect you are misremembering.
Also from memory, I'd guess 10-12 years as the point when chip&pin was required for _every_ card transaction. Now of course we have moved on to also have contactless.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would be Metro Bank This probably indicates that you are not in fact as well exposed to bank marketing as you suspect - it's hard to argue that Monzo and Revolut have not done well.
I'm aware of those two at least, but from people I know, not one had them and basing around that aspect of traction - sure that may well not represent the market, but at least I'm aware of them, unlike this N26.
[1] https://monzo.com/blog/2019/09/16/three-million
[2] https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/about-us/press-releases/ne...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting I would say Monzo is by a mile. Edit, I had a quick look at Google play downloads as a benchmark (Not great I know) but looks like you're right. Monzo is 1m~ Revolut is 5m~
Problem is that Revolut is an electronic money institution while Monzo is a bank. If they go bust with the former you’re out of money, with the latter the government will refund your money up to 85k£.
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)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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)…
> we’ve already fully redesigned our mobile experience to simplify the actions that matter most to customers I couldn't contain my laugh reading that, sending money using the N26 app is a 12 steps process (no exaggeration) since the app update and the "AI" behind the categorization of spendings is an amazing garbage, e.g. I have a once a month recurring payment of the same amount from my landlord, I have categorized…
Not sure if we’re in different A/B test buckets or you’re in a different country and are using a different version but it’s four to five taps for me? Unless you’re counting the log in button and typing the amount as separate steps?
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.