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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#51

Post by Hamuko »

detritus wrote: post #19
treebornfrog wrote: post #8

Sad news, I've been using them for over a year, their card design is the most beautiful I've seen yet in the UK (1). (1) https://miro.medium.com/max/4000/1*XScUHKRVuzfiRKttAfJ64w.pn...

Mmm, not sure I'd agree with your estimation, but "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and all that. Seems a little form over function to me - I'm not sure how wonderful an idea it is being able to read the three security digits on the reverse. Not sure if I'm just paranoid, but I scrape those off every time I get a new card.

The CVC is behind the MasterCard logo on my N26 card.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#52

Post by seemslegit »

odiroot wrote: post #47
btzll wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand? People get their accounts locked for no reason?

Yes, very common here in Berlin expat community.

I don't think it's about the expats specifically, native Germans just don't encounter it because they have little need for N26 in the first place and are mostly happy with their traditional banking services.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#53

Post by jotm »

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)…

My first German bank account was with Sparkasse, and I had to request a MasterCard separately (the main card was Maestro I think? useless for online payments).

It wasn't even attached to the account, I had to transfer money to it (so, a prepaid card) and couldn't even see the remaining balance (I really tried).

Terrible experience, but they were the only option for me at the time.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#54

Post by [deleted] »

princekolt wrote: post #16
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…

I'm still trying to understand the point of your comment, but regardless: You haven't heard of it. So what? People will be affected by this. This will also not be the only company who will have to leave the UK because they've deemed the cost of legalising their business there after Brexit is not worth the benefits. So you're either in denial about that fact or you think it doesn't matter, which perhaps works for you…

[deleted]

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#55

Post by mellosouls »

Karishma1234fff wrote: post #43
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)…

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.

Depends on whether those regulations are socially useful or not. It's not a given that should be the next step.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#56

Post by marrs »

princekolt wrote: post #16
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…

I'm still trying to understand the point of your comment, but regardless: You haven't heard of it. So what? People will be affected by this. This will also not be the only company who will have to leave the UK because they've deemed the cost of legalising their business there after Brexit is not worth the benefits. So you're either in denial about that fact or you think it doesn't matter, which perhaps works for you…

I think the point of parent's comment is that hardly anyone in the UK has heard of N26, so perhaps we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's all due to Brexit. Let's be honest, if they had a market here worth saving, they'd apply for the licence.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#57

Post by Hamuko »

raverbashing wrote: post #13
Symbiote wrote: post #7

> With the UK now having left the European Union, we will in due course be unable to operate in the UK with our European banking license. Isn't this still up for discussion? Since they're only giving two months notice, they could wait until much later in the year before shutting up shop in the UK.

It's not like they couldn't obtain an UK license if they wanted to. Revolut got a banking license from Estonia to continue to operate in the EU. (For a company of their size) it's their choice, more than the effects of Brexit.

>Revolut got a banking license from Estonia to continue to operate in the EU.

That doesn't really feel like a fair comparison.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#58

Post by eugenijusr »

This is not the first market this bank has pulled out from. A couple of years ago they stopped signing up people from two EU markets they previously served (Latvia and Lithuania) without any reason. Granted all existing accounts remained untouched, still these accounts get somewhat crippled functionality and their future is unclear. Although their app is great and I didn't have any big issues with the service itself, I'm somewhat wary of keeping any larger sums of money in my N26 account.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#59

Post by avh02 »

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 was with hsbc for a year in the uk, I'd definitely not call it "generally very good" (ridiculous app and login infrastructure), but I have a sample size of one.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#60

Post by dividuum »

jamil7 wrote: post #37
3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #24

Brexit makes for a convenient scapegoat when your business isn’t compelling to U.K. customers.

You might be right, here in Germany the banks are extremely archaic and make things difficult if you're a foreigner and just moved here. N26 onboarding is streamlined (video call on your phone) and can be done in at least English and German, maybe other languages now they're expanding. They also invested heavily in native mobile experience first while the other banks where struggling to offer decent online banking.

Not sure how that's today, but a few years ago their "mobile experience first" stuff resulted in quite some security issues: https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money. That alone would be enough for me to not trust them with any of my money.
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