When I worked for a UK phone company they did credit checks before giving any sort of contract, sim only or with a handset.
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Has anyone had a reply to the credit check yet? I wonder if the specialist teams don’t work over the weekends?
It is possible, but it’s the model of legacy banking to not stop payments rolling into borrowing, and charge the customer more for it. I’m agnostic to that model (I prefer Monzo’s) but I don’t blame the banks wanting to see if their lending bet is likely to result in grief. I don’t know if N26 intend to follow this model, or be more like Monzo.
Maybe N26 have fallen victim to misunderstanding UK banking culture, and mistakenly hard searched everyone, if the CRA system is different in Germany? That would be sloppy.
Wonder if that’s just because they could? Like high street banks hard searching just for identity checks and to back up a dodgy lending model. Monzo have proven it’s not necessary but it’ll take a lot to wean legacy banks off their CRA fixes.
I do blame them. 100%. They choose to do this on customers who want no borrowing options. They charge if a payment is rejected so they still make money. So yes, I blame them for doing it where it’s not necessary to do so.
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Interesting chat, this. Without scrolling up, I wonder if anyone in the know has yet given a profile of how German banks usually operate, particularly in this area of credit checking.
That might shed some light on the “do they always do it?” v “are they trying it on?” debate.
It might also save us being surprised when they act or respond differently to UK banks. It’s all a bit of a mystery right now.
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Alex Weber responded to me on Twitter, so will see what he says…
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I’m opposite - if I don’t have enough money and hadn’t realised, the bank letting my transaction through and charging me a few pence in overdraft fees is certainly better than declining the transaction. I obviously want whatever I’m buying and would rather not have the embarrassment. Monzo seems to arbitrarily decline your card anyway, as does Starling and other ‘new’ cards.
The Experian link you included in your Tweet is really helpful, so thank you. It explicitly states that “a hard credit check shows you’ve applied for credit” and, since I haven’t done this, I’ve raised a query with Experian.
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I would never be a client of that company. I didn’t know such disgusting business practises were still allowed in the UK. Certainly a holdover from the 20th century
I have a Deutsche Bank account here in Portugal. No credit checks or income enquiries whatsoever. The same as for my N26 account
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Then you apply for an overdraft, easy. I don’t want overdrafts and want transactions declined if there are no funds. I don’t know why you’d be embarrassed by a card decline.
Most often when a transaction hits and there are no funds, it’s because it’s a fraudulent or unauthorized transaction that obviously wasnt accounted for so I’m glad it got declined and I avoid the hassle of trying to get my money back. Having accounts where I only put the exact amount of money I need for an online purchase is a must for me. Saved me multiple times from merchants like Amazon charging me out of nowhere due to what they then claim where technical errors
If in the UK banks will just let you go into overdraft without you having arranged one with them, then that seems incredibly deceptive. How do you handle subscription free trials that you don’t remember to cancel, as an example? If a bank did that to me I’d just wish them good riddance. I won’t pay back money they decided to “borrow” me without my consent
Think this has stopped being about N26…
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It has, and there’s plenty to talk about, still. I wonder if N26 are viewing the UK differently from other countries (Brexit or otherwise). Our friends in Portugal, for example, seem to be so.
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It’s Monday - I wonder if we get a reply from their “specialist team” today…
The offer I was sent read more like “2 months free when signing up to a 12-month N26 Metal account”.
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Is everyone having the hard check on the metal card? Random thought about the 12 month minimum term counting as credit
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No idea, I don’t have metal and tbh… I haven’t really used the card… stuck a tenner on waiting to see if they would roll out other features quickly (Apple Pay etc)
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they never done a search on my credit file but I have a UK ACC, I’ve check all the major credit reference agencies and no sign of N26 there, the way my account was open I did a video call with them