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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#421

Post by _-___________-_ »

wjoe wrote: post #185
Glawen wrote: post #163

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…

This is pretty standard in the UK these days, most debit cards are Visa/Mastercard - 10 years ago most debit cards were Maestro or Visa Electron, although I still didn't have much difficulty getting a Visa debit card for travelling. I found it very odd when I was in Germany that this wasn't the case, Visa/Mastercard were entirely considered credit cards, and debit cards used some entirely different system. I couldn't…

> debit cards used some entirely different system

Maestro is pretty common, but there's also something called EC-card or similar. However, the Berlin subway machines now take visa/mc too.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#422

Post by knorker »

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…

What?! How can it possibly be worse than in the UK?

I've lived in the UK and another European country, and if I didn't recognize brands like "HSBC" and "Barclays" I would have thought they were failed non serious players.

The UK is quite literally decades behind some other countries, in banking.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#423

Post by [deleted] »

riffraff wrote: post #315
alibarber wrote: post #276

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.

[deleted]

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#424

Post by _-___________-_ »

pzumk wrote: post #182
tnolet wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Which is not a hidden charge because they tell you in their app and via email, also when registering an account. N26 wants you to use their cards (or Apple Pay), and to be honest I have not been withdrawing any money from an ATM for 5+ months. I’m from Hannover, Germany.

Visit Berlin some time and you'll see why someone in Germany might want to take cash out more than 5 times a month :)

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#425

Post by laurencerowe »

wjoe wrote: post #185
Glawen wrote: post #163

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…

This is pretty standard in the UK these days, most debit cards are Visa/Mastercard - 10 years ago most debit cards were Maestro or Visa Electron, although I still didn't have much difficulty getting a Visa debit card for travelling. I found it very odd when I was in Germany that this wasn't the case, Visa/Mastercard were entirely considered credit cards, and debit cards used some entirely different system. I couldn't…

UK debit cards used to be either Switch/Maestro or Visa Delta/Visa Debit depending on who you banked with. The Switch/Maestro cards were then phased out around 10 years ago and replaced with either Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard. I used to travel frequently to Germany at the time so it was super annoying not to be able to use my card anywhere but a cash machine.

Visa Electron was in a different category with Switch Solo. I think they tended to be issued on accounts with no overdraft facility. (I had a Solo card as a teenager and it was only accepted at a handful of places.)

I remember being really annoyed when my

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#426

Post by Nition »

redis_mlc wrote: post #416
Nition wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't really understand why there were so many banking startups in the US until I found out that simple bank transfers cost money over there.

Not even close. The banking startups are collecting account holder information so they can turn around and upsell you on credit cards and other products. But it gets better ... There is no such thing as a startup bank in the US because the government doesn't grant bank charters anymore. All those new companies aren't banks at all. They piggyback on top of an existing bank or the ACH network. That's why none of them s…

Sure, but you need a reason for people to sign up in the first place, right? And if their current bank is already great they'd be less likely.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#427

Post by Nition »

tylerhou wrote: post #414
Nition wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't really understand why there were so many banking startups in the US until I found out that simple bank transfers cost money over there.

Bank transfers of money generally don't cost money. They are just slow.

Oh, really? Last time this came up people were saying you couldn't send $50 to your friend's bank account without something crazy like a $15 fee, and hence everyone apparently used a third-party app like Venmo.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#428

Post by themagician »

tablloyd wrote: post #18

I'm skeptical of Brexit being the reason that N26 is withdrawing from the UK. They started operation in the uk in October 2018, over 2 years after the referendum result and 6 months before the UK was meant to leave until the date got pushed back.

Most people didn’t think the UK would actually leave, including a large part of the people who voted to leave.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#429

Post by virgilp »

AdamGibbins wrote: post #388
virgilp wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yeah but it was 1 year ago...

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#430

Post by kweks »

satysin wrote: post #386
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…

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 bu…

Ex-HSBC customer in France here. It was one of the worst banking experiences possible - incredibly expensive debit cards with very low ceilings, etc.

The "plus" that you mention, having a dedicated account guru can swing both ways: mine left my local branch for another branch 10km away, and I would not perform any significant operation without their presence.. which was no longer in the branch.

Boursorama or N26.

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