Number26/N26 Mastercard/Account now for Irish Residents

Yggr of Asgard

And following the German Regulator restricting N26 to 50,000 new customers per month, the Italian Regulator has now told N26 not to open any new customer accounts. Again like in germany this is down to Anti Money Laundering regulations and concerns about N26's compliance.

Brian201888

N26 as of today can assign unique Ibans to your Spaces which is a feature I've been waiting for for some time, will allow me to fully move over to N26 as I like having a seperate bills account to pay DD's out of which hasn't been possible up to now

.G.

Reading a lot of worrying stuff on twitter about N26 closing peoples accounts without notice and denying them access to their stored funds until they send "proof" of where they got them from! N26 response on twitter is poor, directing people to use support chat in the app which they no longer have access to!

Yggr of Asgard

N26 is under immense pressure at the moment with multiple banking regulators in the EU having acted against them (from limiting the number of accounts they can open a month to installing special supervisors in their operations).

Root is their sloppy customer identification which also has driven a large number of fraud cases that are currently been investigated.

In addition, their responses (both terribly slow and unbelievably shoddy quality) to various law enforcement have driven the installation of special supervisors by the German Regulator. Some German state police forces say 75% of all banking related fraud cases involve N26.

So now once they have even the slightest issue with a transaction (suspicious source, out of typical behavior, sending or receiving account being on a watchlist) they react with full force, i.e. limit the account fearful that the regulator will take further steps (including suspending their license).

N26 always was horrible in following processes and regulations (I still remember the credit/debit card tax issue for Irish customers) but now it's so bad that the regulators are acting against them.

Plus following the wirecard debacle the German regulator needs to show that they can be on top of things, so it would not surprise me if BaFin will take further action against N26 soon.

Yggr of Asgard

There are multiple reports in German newspapers that N26 is at present terminating accounts with immediate effect (without giving information and even worse locking customers out of the account until they provide additional paperwork but refusing direct debits etc. while charging cost for said direct debit refusals).

German Customer protections organizations (which unlike our CCPC are actually useful) are currently investigating this as the way the accounts are blocked (no ability to reach N26, not giving timely access to the funds and even worse reporting this negative to the Schufa) might not be lawful.

Seems the BAFIN is scaring N26 management.

Yggr of Asgard

N26 now has a blog post about the recent account cancelations and blocking: Why does N26 block accounts? — N26

harmless

Last year I only had one issue trying to setup an Eir account with N26 as direct debit. That was IBAN discrimination and illegal.

This year my payment has been refused using my card on Samsung Ireland, NCT and AXA Insurance. I used my card last year to pay for NCT and insurancee without issue.

I still use the card frequently without issue on websites outside of Ireland and to shop locally using google pay on my phone.

Should I expect N26 to have issues on Irish websites in the future? It never was in the past. I don't use twitter has this issue been address on there?

Sheep Shagger

With eir did a paper based direct debit form not work?

In fairness to n26, its not their fault that some campanies still have crappy antiquated systems that can't accept a "foreign" IBAN, that's outside their control.

harmless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967271#Comment_118967271

Yes but it would take at least 6 weeks to setup and I only found this out after I finally managed to talk to a manager, none of the reagular sales reps knew about it. The possiblity of Eir messing it up and leaving me with no broadband was too high.

Sheep Shagger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967291#Comment_118967291

Didn't take me that long to set it up, in any case not a N26 issue.

Ceramic

Is there really any advantage to N26 though? They seem to be far less feature rich than Revolut and their customer service is terrible. I found AIB easier to deal with and there's nothing particularly mind blowingly different about the N26 app or services.

Ceramic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967291#Comment_118967291

Eir do direct debit to card - well a recurring payment for most accounts. No real advantage to using IBAN based DD.

harmless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967333#Comment_118967333

None of the reps(including in stote) would give me that offer to start up an account. I was told I could switch later after my IBAN was setup.

Nickindublin

Have been using N26 since Xmas. Not as my main bank yet but plan to go that way eventually. Only issue i have found is Lotto wont accept its card online. I love the spaces Round Ups etc.

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967326#Comment_118967326

Main reason I prefer N26 over Revolut (I have both) is the N26 webapp as I do most of my financial stuff on desktop. Although Revolut have upgraded its weppapp in recent times its still pretty basic. But for a majority of users there is obviously not much demand for this.

bennyx_o

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967333#Comment_118967333

Big advantage of a traditional DD over a card payment is you can recall a DD for up to 8 weeks (or 13 months for an unauthorised DD) which, when it comes to incorrect payments etc is a whole lot easier & quicker than requesting a refund to your debit card in my experience. Also a lot easier to cancel a DD

polydactyl

So I have an N26 for a small sideline I have. But I wanted to use the spaces feature, so I wanted set up a monthly transfer from my salaried BOI acc for holidays. Just to keep it separate. But BOI says I can only set up SO to an Irish bank. Is there any way to set up a monthly payment amt from BOI to N26??

wassie

I have a similar issue with AIB. I just do a manual payment from AIB banking when my salary is credited. No big deal as it only takes less than 2 minutes to log in, transfer & log out.

polydactyl

It’s remembering to do it is my issue. Might just have to if there is no other option

wassie

It's frustrating that in 2022 that we cant have basic automations such as this. Irish banks are years behind other countries when it comes to their apps. Then when they finally rollout 'new' features they rave like its the greatest thing since sliced bread.

AIB still force us to use their clunky card reader for non-irish IBANs, despite having 2FA for mobile & app available.....so 2010!!

.G.

I had a standing order from Kbc to N26 set up without issues. Shame good banks like them are leaving and we're stuck with the pre historic ones.

Nickindublin

I have a standing order from AIB to N26.

OfflerCrocGod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975815#Comment_118975815

I guess you have to add the account as a payee?

Nickindublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118976762#Comment_118976762

You set up a standing order with new account. You will need the card reader to set up new account. Then it just goes every month.

wassie

Good to know. I wasnt able to when N26 first came out and never bothered checking since.

harmless

Has anyone managed to make a payment on nct.ie or axa.ie with N26 this year?

I'ved used it to pay for both since I opened an account in 2018 and this is the first time I've had a problem. It just fails to pay with no error message.

Ceramic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118973544#Comment_118973544

Just beware that they're very specifically not for business use with personal accounts and will close / freeze accounts if they think they're being used for business purposes, even for a small side line. They don't seem to offer business accounts in Ireland yet and it seems there's a very hard distinction between business / personal in their T&Cs.

richieffff

Has anyone had their verification to open an account fail recently? Got a mail saying they couldn't open an account

Got onto chat and they said to try again in the future. But it still says pending in the app.

Nickindublin

Opened mine just before Xmas. Opened OH 2 weeks ago. There not opening free accounts.

wassie

Maybe they reached their limit for the month.

The German financial regulator put a cap of the number of new accounts it can open each month until they have resolved a number of issues related lapses in money laundering controls.