This is bad for innovation.
N26 will be leaving the UK
471–480 of 517 posts
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#472Businesses 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)…
For whats worth the service was really good with N26, sad they had to move out of UK. I hope other companies does not follow their footsteps.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, let me think. Ah, right, 2008!
What, specifically, are you referring to?
The devastating financial crisis triggered by short sighted greed from entities which should have been better regulated.
Obviously that is a simplification, but it shows why letting each customer choose for themselves how unregulated their bank should be is recipe for disaster.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Finland Weird. Transfers were instant when I moved over there almost 20 years ago, and you could already do them online if you wished (there was a system of codes on a paper or a card, on top of login+password). And that was in very traditional banks like the Postal Bank (Postipankki/Leonia/Sampo: it changed name at least 3 times during my stay). I cannot imagine it can have gone worse during the last 10 years. Ope…
In Estonia transfers went from instant to slow after enforcing the SEPA payments. Same made transfers faster in other EU countries. Different starting points. Probably similar case in Finland. * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area
Hmmm... the introduction dates would match me leaving from there, so that would be a possible explanation. On the other hand, the existing system was already using IBAN and stuff, so as an ignorant customer, SEPA looks like an acknowledgement of what was already in use, not requiring any change in the process. Dunno.
In your case, when you say slow, how slow has it become?
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#475Businesses 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…
Sounds strange to me, I have a free account with N26 in France with free debit card, and also most banks here do instant transfers now.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
Well, you don't strictly need an account in dollars to invest in US securities (but you are more exposed to exchange risks) while it is handy for other kinds of investments in US dollars.
As riffraff said, Fineco is one of the very few banks (maybe the only one) that gives the possibility to have foreign currency accounts (linked to a "main" Euro account) at a "reasonable" cost, which is a good thing to have if you deal a lot with the US (both with receiving US dollars and spending in US dollars), but that is not needed for "normal" activities.
The "conto in divisa estera" (that quite a few banks have) is basically aimed to business entities (like firms doing import/export) and is usually rather expensive, or - to be more accurate - has very high fixed costs.
The alternative in the case of someone receiving US dollars may be some form of accounts with credit/debit cards issuers, but - again generally speaking - they - besides offering less possibilities (and not being "properly" a bank) tend to have low fixed costs but higher commissions/fees on single operations.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know anything about Hello Bank ?
I looked at it and got the impression that it was BNP's low cost product, aimed at a younger audience, perhaps with no banking record. I use Boursorama Bank in France and they're pretty good. Setting up the a/c and transferring over from HSBC FR was relatively painless, though they dropped a few of the direct debit mandates that I had to recreate manually. I think the account is free as long as you actually use it ac…
um - why hasn't anyone mentioned www.transferwise.com/borderless yet ?
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#478TransferWise.com/borderless is a pretty neat solution to a few of the problems N26 was solving. Anyone here - tried it out ?
Disclosure: Been building this for 6 years :-)
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#479Earlier 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 really depends on the country you moved to. Banking in Germany will be much shittier while what you describe is norm in other countries for example.
"Banking in Germany will be much shittier"
Don't know mate. I don't know the UK banking system so well. But if I take HK experience with HSBC and SC and Newcomers in the UK like Revolut then I doubt your statement will make any sense.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#480Earlier 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…
It really depends, Slovakia and Czech Republic usually have very modern banks. I can do everything through the app, I don’t remember the last time I had to go to an actual bank office. Apple Pay / Google Pay is almost everywhere, fast and easy bank-wire transfers, modern and secure apps with face/touch id...
All this seems really very biased.
I think Germany has instant transfers for a fee but I am not sure. There was never a need for it.
Czech has instant transfers already? Great. The CZ Bank I know charges 6 Euro per incomming EU Euro transaction.