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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#351

Post by Hamuko »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #207
qubex wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Finland, the biggest bank is actually just a group of local banks. So if I sign up for a bank account up north, I am the customer of the bank way up there, which is a separate legal entity from the bank down in the south.

Of course, if you do move and you want to apply for a new credit card, they will mail the card and paper work to any of the locations, so it's not that bad. And all of the banks in the group have an unified online banking system, no branch numbers needed. However, when I switched between the different banks, I had to get new login details for the online bank, which was kinda sucky.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#352

Post by Hamuko »

tnolet wrote: post #122
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)…

Interestingly, N26 here in Germany advertises with “no hidden charges” and then goes on to charge you for almost everything. Like using an ATM more than 3 times a month. What?

My free N26 has five free ATM withdrawals per month. However, that is about five more than I use in the median month, so I don't really care about it. I really only need cash when buying second-hand and really even second-hand transactions are increasingly turning to mobile payments.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#353

Post by xioxox »

luckylion wrote: post #164
felixfbecker wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SEPA transfers in Germany are both free and instant too. Not saying it's not a slow and manually run industry in general, but I have nothing to complain about transactions.

And "free" isn't exactly accurate either. It depends on the account you have, many have a flat rate or some (large) amount of transfers included, others charge per action. My impression is that banking is massively overpriced in Germany. I understand it's not trivial and "I can build that on a weekend", but I don't see the need to spend ~10 euros on the average checking account that has two dozens actions a month. Th…

Germany has huge numbers of banks compared to other countries and so the system is inefficient. In addition the low interest rates mean banks find it hard to make money. My previously free German account now costs some money.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#354

Post by Scoundreller »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #207
qubex wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

In the US and Canada, you’ll have a home branch too. Usually it doesn’t come up in anything day-to-day.

State laws for one thing may apply to accounts opened in a particular state.

But if a bank merges or gets acquired, or fails, and some branches get sold/divested, and not necessarily to one party.

One could find themselves a customer of a bank that is no longer local to them.

Here’s a merger that had a divesture:

https://www.bauerfinancial.com/2019/12/09/its-truist-theres-...

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#355

Post by alibarber »

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.

To be fair, I can remember when it was 3 days in the U.K. and it only changed because the government put its foot down and stipulated that 2 hours should be the limit for most transactions

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#356

Post by jen20 »

twic wrote: post #304
jen20 wrote: post #21

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.

Let's look at various banks' total assets, as listed on this random website i found [1], in millions of pounds: Monzo 139.82 Starling 206.64 Marks & Spencer 5569.90 Ulster 11641.00 Metro 21647.00 Co-operative 23102.80 Coutts 34280.00 Clydesdale 43583.00 HSBC (retail) 238939.00 Barclays (retail) 251305.00 On that measure, at least, Metro Bank is a hundred times bigger than either Monzo or Starling. Assets are not the…

This would be a more compelling argument if I lived in London ;-)

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#357

Post by joshuaissac »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #207
qubex wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Other than having to enter the branch number, are there are other restrictions based on where you opened the account in Germany?

I ask because in the UK, each bank branch has a six-digit "sort code", which others will need to know in addition to your account number to transfer you money. However, you can open an account at a branch and never step foot in that branch again afterwards, only ever using other branches. Account numbers are only unique for the same sort code.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#358

Post by alibarber »

BTinfinity wrote: post #338
szatkus wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you just say where you moved to? It's quite interesting in context of your earlier comment.

Finland if we believe his LinkedIn, no idea if it's up to date though

Correct. It felt a bit impolite to moan about it, as I’ve found that once you get established and figure out the system everything else here works very well. That said all the natives that I know don’t exactly love their banks - so it’s ripe for disruption but I feel the market is always gonna be quite limited, due to inertia and size.

Online banking is also _the_ identity service for logging into official and semi official systems here (unless you’re a nerd and want to hook up a smart card reader and your [optional] ID card - which I totally am) and I guess there’s a heap of compliance to deal with to enter this space, which would further limit entry to the market.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#359

Post by mr_isomies »

Zenst wrote: post #2

As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. I do frequent the web, youtube, bus stops, tubes, trains and utterly exposed to all forms of marketing. So from my perspective, this does seem like marketing failure from the start - at least from my perspective. Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would…

Interesting. Maybe it's a demographic blind spot? I do all of my UK banking on Transferwise, and so have heard of or researched Revolut, N26, Monzo... In fact, I think that both Monzo and Transferwise are UK based, and I've definitely seen their ads in the tubel, know people who work there, etc.

They also offered a solid metal card and lounge-access perks, so I suspect that their core demographic are young-ish "digital nomads". Maybe that's where most of their marketing went to?

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#360

Post by greatpatton »

Zenst wrote: post #295
greatpatton wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it has to do with the fact that when you have a smaller customer base and additional cost when running on razor-sharp margin, it doesn't make the cut. So yes it has to do with the Brexit as this is the reason for future additional cost, especially today when EU negotiator said that it will be very unlikely for the UK to get financial services equivalence. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/11/barnier-t…

They started in the UK in October 2018 - more than two whole years after the UK voted to leave the EU. It's as if they never knew what the UK people voted for!

At that time it was not certain that Brexit would be equal to no deal (at least for finance services). Now that this is the most probable outcome they have to take action.
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