Do people see N26 as a competitor? is there anything either are doing that beats the other?
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/n26-fintech-startup-mobile-banking
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I guess so… I also have a N26 card.
Benefits:
- They have a great web frontend
- They are already a bank and provide current accounts
- The app experience is great. Slightly better than Monzo in my opinion.
- Fancy see through credit card
Drawback:
- They just recently introduced new pricing and seem to have a big focus on monetising (see https://n26.com/eu/pricing/)
- only 5 free ATM withdrawals a month. However, you can always get free cash out at the supermarkets in Germany.
- Not available in the UK yet
- Not a coral coloured card.
I guess they are slightly ahead of Monzo in overall development and maturity of the offering.
Given the Brexit unsecurity, I don’t see them entering the UK market soon though.
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Thanks redorbluepill (weird, i just read an article about a Matrix reboot). The cash withdrawal limit is a strange decision. I’m in the UK so sadly can’t test the service though i have since read a lot of negative reviews about their customer service
I guess N26 aren’t strictly a competitor because of this but obviously Monzo is planning international expansion & at that point, they will be.
When it comes to their benefits, Tom’s said that as a business, N26 are about a year ahead.
But at this point, I think it’s a bit too early to do a proper comparison. 300,000 customers isn’t a lot, in the grand scheme of things & Tom’s also said that Monzo need at least 1m before they can be considered a significant player in just the UK market.
It’s also worth remembering that once Monzo has their full banking license & launches the current accounts, they’ll be able to provide a much wider variety of products / features.
So it’s still very early days.
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Not sure what the negative reviews were about? It’s definitely a little strange as you first chat to a robot that tries to answer your question. But you can ask for a live representative and it’s ok. You can also call a hotline and my wait today was around 3 minutes. Very friendly support and my problem was resolved. But I think that the in-App support by Monzo is better and usually faster.
If I remember correctly they stated that they had some users who used ATM withdrawals a LOT… and given they have to pay the ATM fees they decided to restrict the use and charge 2 EUR after the 5 free withdrawals.
It sounds bad at first, but I also use my Monzo mainly for card transactions abroad and just get some cash for security. So I believe it’s not that big of a problem in the end.
it was a lot of angry “no help” reviews. but then people are keen to type angry reviews and less so when happy so i take with a pinch of salt. Agreed about cash withdrawals, i rarely use cash anymore!
N26 has all the bells and whistles but you have to pay for them unlike 
The black package isn’t great in terms of what it offers - the insurance part is fine but for the most part you will get a better and more comprehensive deal through the FlexPlus account offered by Nationwide. Mobile phone insurance only covers domestic thefts and not losses or accidental damage, it only covers one person and device - not the whole family.
Travel insurance is similarly limited in terms of who it covers.
For the average user - Monzo is a far better deal and I, myself appreciate the openness of the team when it comes to the development timeline and great support provided by the one-of-a-kind Monzo team 
.
Thanks, but no thanks N26.
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300k users isn’t that much considering they reached 100k in jan 2016 and have since launched in many countries. I thought it would be more like a million as tom mentioned them being a year ahead alongside Nubank in brazil who have about 1m customers. I think Monzo will have 300k a few months after current account launch (150k at launch then a quick doubling up as the viral marketing goes mainstream), so maybe the gap in progress is narrower than suggested in terms of user numbers, more like 6 months ahead…