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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#381

Post by wdb »

cosmodisk wrote: post #379
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…

Some parts of the UK banking are good,some are bad, and some are outright fully fledged idiocy. In mainland Europe it varies a lot depending on a country, i.e. Scandinavian banks in Baltics are pure shit.I had some funny situations with banks since I moved in to the UK: Barclays refused to open a bank account because the letter from the job centre( Confirmation of National Insurance Number application) had its logo i…

Ah yes, after spending a lot of effort to open a bank account to receive your monthly pay; it ended up some weird account were you could only use your debit card at their ATMs. Madness. UK banks are weird

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#382

Post by ztratar »

symboltoproc wrote: post #375

Can anyone explain why they can not get a UK bank license and migrate their customer to the UK bank? I suspect that the main motivation is not Brexit but fiercer competition in the UK (e.g. Monzo).

Migrating banks puts your users through a migration themselves (new terms, transfers, new issued cards, etc). It's very difficult.

On top of that, their UK business wasn't doing very well.

So why double down on a losing bet and go through a ton of pain for it?

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#383

Post by cosmodisk »

twic wrote: post #280
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)

Looking more broadly than just challenger banks: https://www.which.co.uk/money/banking/bank-accounts/best-and... Top of the list (as it often has been for decades) is First Direct. This is a challenger bank in its own way - it was launched in 1989 to pioneer telephone banking, a disruptive technology at the time! It now has phone and internet banking, but still has no physical branches. Monzo and Starling, the proper…

I've been using Metro bank for ages,they are pretty good and easy to deal with. Not sure how good or bad they are with their products ( mortgages, etc.), however for purely having them as a money box is quite OK.Also,they print card in store while you wait,so no need to wait 2 weeks for it to arrive in post.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#384

Post by cosmodisk »

easytiger wrote: post #268
user5994461 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+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.

How is that legal under KYC laws etc?

I find the application of KYC differs widely not just between different banks but also between people working within the same banks, sometimes even within the same branch.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#385

Post by smabie »

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…

Do Italians not invest in US securities at all? Seems kind of strange...

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#386

Post by satysin »

alibarber wrote: post #216
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'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…

Oh. My. God. YES!

I moved from the UK to [redacted] in 2018 (in part due to Brexit but that is a longer story) and dear god the banking systems here are utter shit.

I am with HSBC and I can't even change the PIN on my debit card! Hell I couldn't even get my card and cheque book (yes they still use cheques here!) delivered to my address as it was a temporary one so I had to collect it from my branch in person.

If I buy something on my card it takes at least three days before it is listed in the HSBC mobile app or web site.

I generally use cash so it isn't a huge issue for me (check my post history for some explanation on why I mostly use cash) but god is banking frustrating here.

The only positive is that I do have an actual account manager (as in the same person) who I always deal with and he is excellent at sorting my problem. I have to say I do like that consistent human content. Obviously if it is an emergency I use their emergency line (lost card, etc) but for general inquiries that don't require instant action my account manager is my go to.

(thank you for bringing this up I feel I needed this quick rant!)

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#387

Post by AdamGibbins »

qubex wrote: post #337
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)

Revolut

Revolut are not a bank, they're not operating as one and are not regulated as one, so do not get FSCS protection. They hold a banking license with Lithuania, however are not actually issuing accounts under it - and if you read about Lithuania's banking system its all rather Iceland like and I don't have high confidence in it.

I would not store my money with them.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#388

Post by AdamGibbins »

virgilp wrote: post #324
Nextgrid wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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£.

Are you sure they're not a bank yet? They got their banking license a while ago: https://blog.revolut.com/we-got-a-banking-licence/

Note this line in the link you just posted:

> It's worth pointing out that this scheme is not currently in place

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#389

Post by distances »

doublerabbit wrote: post #135
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…

It may also be that the EU banking system has customer tracking, the UK does not. N26 relies on customer tracking, so you can’t just withdrawal a large amount of money and disappear. It is all brexit related, why can’t you see that? Why else would they suddenly pack up shop? Unfortunately This is just the first to come.

> It may also be that the EU banking system has customer tracking, the UK does not.

Can you explain a bit more what you mean by this? Tracking exactly in which sense?

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#390

Post by Retric »

K0SM0S wrote: post #362
lottin wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mechanism through which wealth is redistributed among EU countries is the EU budget. The wealthier countries (Germany and several others) are net contributors to the EU budget, whereas the more economically challenged nations are net receivers of EU funds. However the EU budget is quite tiny in relation to the EU economy, so the redistribution of wealth among EU members that takes place in this way is modest.

Modest is putting it mildly, it's pretty much irrelevant as a net transfer (would take something like 50+ years to align countries, and by then other factors are magnitudes of order more salient in the output). EU budget always had a kind of political and strategical value attached to it — e.g. to protect agriculture, which is sound strategically (to be able to feed yourself in isolation if it comes to that), but the…

EU budget is a “puddly” 150b/year. Still, with the vast difference in economic development it adds up to a 500+$ per person per year funding differences between several country’s. Which as you say is not going to change things dramatically in a given year, but it’s still meaningful over decades.

Of note, England negotiated a rebate before joining. So, it’s a demonstrated issue for them.

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