N26 Discussion & Feedback

**nickh** · February 19, 2019, 1:18pm

Isn’t that more to do with your browsing history and search results than general advertising?

**NeilM** · February 19, 2019, 1:20pm

That’s an interesting point, I wonder if I go via proxy whether I’ll get the same adverts

**nickh** · February 19, 2019, 1:24pm

**MRMR** · February 19, 2019, 1:26pm

It’s also your browser cookies, and if you are signed into a Google account, they will also have your search history on there. Plus any insights from sites using Google Analytics/AdWords/AdSense will be linked too. And lots of sites use these tools.

**NeilM** · February 19, 2019, 1:28pm

I wonder if its more associatively matching, i.e looking at the search history for Monzo and then suggesting N26.
So rather than being more adverts out there it just focuses precisely on one area.

**nickh** · February 19, 2019, 1:29pm

I would guess so.

There are posts here that show when people search for “Monzo”, the top sponsored link is N26

**NeilM** · February 19, 2019, 1:32pm

Yeah second page I got the sponsored link.

**SeeSeeIE** · February 19, 2019, 8:27pm

Had an email confirmation today about the downgrade of my account to the free tier. I will most likely close it down but will be interested to see where they go.

**megamaster** · February 20, 2019, 10:08pm

You’re maybe generalizing a bit too much. I haven’t seen any N26 card here in Portugal besides mine and I would be really curious to see their numbers outside Germany. Stuff like paying for accounts are an immediate turn off for most people here and stuff like ATM limits are totally unheard of with traditional banks. The only thing fintechs can add over traditional banks besides intangibles like software experience is free fx, which is something no traditional bank offers, except for one or 2 credit cards on the market. That’s probably why Revolut is the only fintech gaining some traction here, tough only with their free offering.

I would hope fintechs start adapting their offerings to local markets just like traditional banks do when expanding to other countries

**PhatPheddy** · February 22, 2019, 10:59pm

Good summary… Nothing I disagree with however I am coming to this as a N26 EUR user, uninvolved with the GBP launch.

For me, N26 has been great… On a par with Monzo, probably a bit friendlier and nicer than Starling. It may be a little less feature dense than either UK fintechs but nothing I really miss. The addition of a maestro card recognises different countries have different spending solutions.

Launch is huge… Bungling it will set them back and early adopters and initial reaction is vital… But in Europe they have been great with me so I can only comment on the product I have used.

**nickh** · February 22, 2019, 11:02pm

Yeah, I get that feeling a lot.

I think it’s helped N26, that the challenger banks in Europe aren’t as good, and the existing banking system can be a bit ropey (even compared with the UK high street banks!)

That’s certainly the impression I get, so I can see why N26 in Europe would be a good fit for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, for anyone who has experienced FinTech in the UK, N26 are coming up mightily short on many factors.

There’s a long way to go though, so a lot can change!

**PhatPheddy** · February 22, 2019, 11:19pm

I think the ‘arent as good’ could well be true when looking UK to UK… My EUR N26 signup, onboarding, initial use… Customer support… Replacement card… Etc etc hasnt been any significantly worse than UK fintechs. Starling was slower CS (they appear to have improved that wait time a little) the style of apps is personal preference (Starling strictly business, Monzo more ‘app’ UI/UX, N26 in the middle).

I am not in any way disputing that the UK launch may have been a mess, I didnt experience it (even tho I tried to and do want dual EUR / GBP… Come on Starling !!) just trying to say that I dont feel the EUR N26 offering was only working in europe due to worse options.

**megamaster** · February 23, 2019, 12:39am

Just because they catered to Dutch users with Maestro doesn’t mean they’re doing the same for everyone else. I still can’t get an answer from them as to why they can’t provide, on request, a maestro to a non Dutch user.

The sense I get from N26 is that it’s fine if you are in central Europe where banking is not feature rich and just not having to pay through the nose for banking will make a lot of people happy.

If you’re outside the Netherlands, Germany or Austria you’ll already have other free options and the German centric support and way to operate will definitely show. They can’t even account for not every costumer of theirs not being in the same timezone as Germany, making a mess out of the timeline and having the same transaction appear with different hours depending if you’re looking in app, in the notifications or on the Web interface. And that’s just one of the problems…

**thesipguy** · February 23, 2019, 5:31pm

My Euro N26 account gets 15 Eur per referral that spends 15 Eur on the debit card

**Peter_G** · February 27, 2019, 9:36pm

After a half hearted UK launch, N26 is off to Brazil!

**neovo** · February 28, 2019, 11:36am

Interested to hear how many UK users they have

**chrisgreen** · February 28, 2019, 12:18pm

Tried to apply for an N26 account back in November right after the UK launch (have never had an issue getting a current account before, or indeed after the N26 incident), but after several weeks of the app sitting on the “verifying your information” stage, I got a very short and unhelpful email from N26 saying:

Subject: kyc.notification.email.rejected.subject

Message: Hey Chris
Apologies, but we aren’t able to open you an N26 account. As a bank we have to follow strict legal requirements for every account we open. Unfortunately this decision is final and our Customer Support cannot make an exception or help you further.

Thanks again for your interest in N26 and we wish you all the best.

Your N26 Team

Suffice to say the “no, you can’t have an account, we won’t explain in plain English why and we will have no further correspondence with you ever again” (and yes, I tried to get clarification for why I couldn’t have an account and was stonewalled by them) wasn’t very helpful. It is entirely N26’s right to refuse an account to anyone , but it would be nice to know a bit more about why.

I have had no problems opening full current accounts with other organisations since I tried to apply for an N26 account.

If anyone has any clue what happened here, I would be genuinely interested in what you think went wrong.

Thanks
Chris

**karlis** · February 28, 2019, 12:57pm

Monzo too has Apple Pay

**MRMR** · February 28, 2019, 2:08pm

Not when the post was made, in December 2017.

**benbagley** · March 1, 2019, 12:42pm

I’m testing it out currently, love the app really clean and everything so far works flawlessly for me. Also having the web portal is really nice.

They’re working on bringing all features to the UK obviously that’ll take time, the UK launch didn’t go great at all but I think eventually when everything is in place (and implemented CASS) I think it’ll be a great product.