
N26 customers feel betrayed by the German digital bank’s decision to quit the UK - doener
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/17/n26-customers-feel-betrayed-by-german-digital-bank-for-leaving-uk.html
======
zimbatm
A sample of 3 people is not representative of all the customers. This article
is pushing for sensationalism.

Switching bank accounts in the UK is dead easy. Open the new bank account,
give them your old bank account reference and they do all of the switching for
you, port over the scheduled and direct debit payments.

N26 is not competitive in the UK compared to Monzo, Starling and Revolut. Just
pick one and you're good to go.

~~~
djmobley
There are other implications to switching banks, e.g. credit reference
agencies will often deduct points if you frequently switch current accounts
and/or don’t have at least one long-standing account.

Also worth noting many of the challenger banks do not yet report to any/all of
the three main credit reference agencies.

~~~
loriverkutya
Monzo and starling does, Revolut does not have a bank license in the UK.

~~~
djmobley
Monzo report to TransUnion and Experian (as of last month), but not Equifax.

Starling report to Equifax and TransUnion, but not Experian.

I don’t believe Revolut report to anyone.

------
kmlx
last year N26 was like: "we've just opened our London hub. we're adding
hundreds every day. we'll be hiring hundreds of people".

this year: "With the UK having left the EU at the end of January, we will in
due course no longer be able to operate in the UK with our European banking
licence. Therefore, we are writing to share the news that we will be leaving
the UK and closing all accounts."

translation: "not enough signed up in order for us to apply to the UK
regulators."

honestly, this was by far the worst kind of response any startup can have.
really amateurish.

~~~
mytailorisrich
In the UK, in the past years, we have got used to anything and everything
being blamed on Brexit so people have really grown cynical about this
'reason'.

Here, considering that they are faring poorly and that they launched in the UK
_after_ the EU referendum many people think (rightly IMO) that they are taking
the piss by blaming Brexit.

It's also not clear whether a full bank licence is required to offer basic
current accounts. I believe that Revolut operated for years without one and
that the bank licence they have now is in fact an EU licence.

They seem to want to focus on the US, that's their choice.

~~~
ptah
can you give examples of things blamed on brexit that is not, in fact,
brexit's fault

~~~
flurdy
Queues in Schiphol...

~~~
rusk
No, but expecting queuing to get _better_ as a result of brexit is just
ridiculous.

------
AlexAffe
I can totally see how staying in a market this volatile - due to Brexit of
course! - can pose a too big and complicated task to a startup. That's fine I
think. Better to estimate your ability to provide a good service up front and
make professional decisions, even if that means sacrifice.

~~~
peteretep
Brexit will have many challenges. But blaming “volatility” instead of
competition is letting N26 off the hook for simply not being all that
compelling compared to it’s competitors.

~~~
rusk
I think maybe you are "half right" in that the additional costs imposed by
brexit just meant it wasn't worthwhile.

~~~
thu2111
So far nothing has actually changed, despite the headlines. Transition period
etc. If you believe the FT then the big impact so far is a slightly weaker
currency which should help a German firm, not hinder them.

It's really not clear where this volatility would be coming from, or what that
actually means precisely, or why it'd be an issue now and not when they
entered the market, or why they'd find it so hard to get a UK banking license
if they did end up needing one. The costs of getting a banking license are
high _if you 're creating a new bank_, because there are so many policies and
laws to comply with that require infrastructure e.g. AML enforcement.

But if you're already operating the costs of getting a license would pretty
minimal. So many of the requirements are about demonstrating you _could_ run a
bank in theory, that a process for converting an EU-recognised license to a
UK-recognised license would certainly be very streamlined. This is doubly true
because the UK has focussed on making it much easier to create new banks in
the past 10 years. The banking application process is far easier than it used
to be.

~~~
rusk
The relationship between the UK and mainland Europe is changing dramatically.
The UK think they’re going to force things their way by economic might alone,
but the social ramifications of all of this will last far longer than you
might expect.

------
ptah
> “never gave any indication that the U.K. leaving the EU would make trading
> difficult for them.”

duh. it should not be something you have to say. the opposite would be
surprising and would be worth stating. my point is the default for banks is
that brexit will affect their licence to operate in the UK

~~~
Semaphor
Yeah, every contact I have with UK institutions had been sending me letters
for well over a year now about their brexit plans. OTOH, N26 (which is also my
bank) really should have notified customers about their plans way earlier.

~~~
ptah
customers should have been wary that N26 did not have a brexit plan

~~~
mytailorisrich
They launched in the UK _after_ the EU referendum... It's not like Brexit
meant that they suddenly had to rethink their strategy, is it?

No, they are faring poorly in a very competitive, crowded market and have
simply decided to focus on the US.

~~~
ptah
the nature of the withdrawal agreement was not clear until brexit actually
happened

------
101404
Leave means leave and this is what leave means. UK voted for this and actions
have consequences. Many others will follow. Hardly anything to get upset
about.

------
kmlx
this is N26's deleted blog post before this announcement:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQgcNPyXUAcsVrK?format=jpg&name=...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQgcNPyXUAcsVrK?format=jpg&name=large)

key quote: "we are 100% focused on ensuring minimum disruption to our
customers whatever the outcome or timing of Brexit"

------
marvel_boy
Monzo and Revolut were a thousand times better than N26. Good riddance N26 !

~~~
notkaiho
What was poor about N26? I have a Monzo account but have not really used the
others.

~~~
marvel_boy
They lied about the reasons to betray 200.000 users in UK. One hint: it was
not Brexit.

~~~
kmlx
it's known across the financial news teams that N26 left the UK due to very
low adoption numbers. applying to the UK regulators did not make sense.

~~~
pgeorgi
As I understand it, the need for UK regulation only came up due to brexit
(before they were in thanks to the common market), so I guess "it's brexit" is
sort of right, even if that leaves it a couple of steps?

Without it they could have coasted along for a while longer with not much
extra effort.

------
znpy
Companies leaving the UK after brexit, UNEXPECTED!

~~~
znpy
People keep telling it's not about brexit.

It is!

Before brexit N26 could keep doing business in the UK with an european banking
license, even if growth was slower than ideal.

Now they cannot anymore, and have to apply for an expensive uk-only banking
license.

If it was because of low market share, they would have quitted earlier.

