Number26/N26 Mastercard/Account now for Irish Residents

Got my money back today, impressed how quick it was, did it all through the app as well.

Had it delivered within about 5 days, I think.

You moving on is perfectly understandable as we all have better things to do than spending hours trying to get companies/organisations to comply (back in the days I’ve spent s lot of time on Leap card auto top-ups refusing non-Irish IBANs but I think I have had enough).

But us giving-in really gives an unfair advantage to Irish banks :-/ With KBC/UB leaving the market there isn’t s single bank left which IMO offers decent current accounts due to their poor Apps and/or high fees. But I am still thinking I will probably have to open an account with one of them due to this IBAN discrimination issue (otherwise I’d be perfectly happy with a non-Irish bank).

I am not necessarily a big fan of theirs, but it looks like Revolut are applying for Irish licences for as an e-money provider initially and as a bank eventually. If they ever get a bank license they would be able to provide Irish IBANs with full banking services which could shake the market a bit.

@Bob24 I agree with you. Everyone should flag every IBAN discrimination issue they come across.

Yes for sure. Sometime you wonder if regulators are trying to protect national players they are cozy with, or if it is just incompetence/laziness.

And it isn't just related to banking. Same thing with the DPC and privacy issues, maybe even worse (and while I am not as familiar wit those matters, my impression is that ComReg tends to let telecom companies get away with strange things).

As regards N26 my experience is that their customer service is mediocre. The agents on the chat function are very hit and miss, sometimes give incorrect information: for instance one agent insisted I had applied to open a standard n26 account when it was a premium n26 "You" account. Another two agents insisted only " Metal" premium customers have access to the phone service whereas " You " customers also should have access according to T&Cs, but this phone service is NOT in service when you ring the Irish number and I tried several times but it says "out of service" . In my experience Human Agents on the chat often dont answer specific questions put but send links or avoid answering unless you repeat the questions. Chats can be quite protracted and non- premium customers can have long wait times. They can also terminate chat abruptly before issue resolved. This happened a few times.As regards e mail you will wait a long time to get a reply. I also have read reviews on Google and trustpilot saying accounts can be suddenly closed and other comments echoing what I have experienced.

It is quite difficult to open an account: Passport ID has to be photographed and uploaded several times before accepted( eventhough images are crystal clear). If you have to video -chat an agent to verify ID they can be quite abrupt. I tried to help an elderly friend with this and eventhough I wasn't in video chat once agent heard me in background they said they would terminate call. My friend had difficulties in hearing what agent was saying. The agent even mentioned " prosecution" which was ridiculous. The agents are apparently Berlin-based.

On a positive note I signed up for a n26 you acvount. It costs €9.90 per month ( but I got it free with a voucher- this offer is now over) and the account provides 1 years Allianz travel insurance. I'm not sure this account is worth 9.90. I certainly wouldn't pay it.They charged me €9.90 the minute I credited my account with funds.I immediately requested a refund and received it.

I used the Mastercard in London at both ATM and contactless and it worked perfectly despite others saying they had problems. (You will have to pay €10 for physical card unless premium customer or use google pay)The instant transaction notification are quite good, especially in a foreign country or online.The app is easy to navigate. You can set atm withdrawl limits, stop online transactions or stop overseas transactions. These are excellent facilities not on Irish banking apps.

Negatives : mediocre customer support if you have issues. No person to speak with or call in to unless living in Berlin.

I fear this is the future of banking in general. All online, no branch network, & nobody to speak with or see face to face if you encounter problems.

It is much worse in Germany, most German companies just point blank refuse to accept non German IBANs, even some state entities breach the regulations and nothing is ever done about it

You probably aren't the first one, but as mentioned on the thread regulators are a bit useless. For exemple with regards to leap cards refusing non-Irish IBANs it took 3 or 4 years to get sorted (and no Irish regulator ever did anything, it only got resolved after some of us reported the issue to Solvit and the relevant section of the European Commission which actually went directly to the Irish government about it asking them why they were not compliant with the regulation).

Having said that the Central Bank won't dot anything for you on this as it is not their remit (they only regulate banks and financial services providers). They will probably direct you to the CCPC or maybe to ComReg (the CCPC usually deals with IBAN discrimination, I am not sure whether all complaints related to Vodafone should go to ComReg since it is a telecom company or if the IBAN aspect remains with the CCPC).

I reported Vodafone to the CCPC (who were very fast and helpful) too, but it was hard to make it progress because Vodafone wouldn't accept a formal complaint. You couldn't complain to Vodafone if you didn't have an account with them, and you couldn't have an account if you didn't provide an Irish IBAN, so I couldn't get Vodafone's permission to complain 🙄. I used my Credit Union savings IBAN as a workaround, and then I guess they considered my complaint moot, but the fact remains that people who don't have a workaround (nobody should need one anyway) just can't use Vodafone.

To be honest their staff which couldn’t figure out why their system was refusing a DE IBAN when they flagged it with Ireland as country of origin isn’t very bright.

But yes there is no point in the system requesting that information in the first place. The country code is obvious at the beginning of the IBAN, and it even contains the bank’s code from which you can looked up the full bank’s details from public databases.

Regardless of where they are based, entering an IBAN starting with DE and then selecting Ireland as a country should give a clue of why the system is saying no. I understand from your post they thought they were supposed to select your country of residence … but since it is something they input alongside the IBAN it could have came across to them that their system was possibly looking for the country of your bank.

And IMO it doesn’t have anything to do with having heard about N26. It could also have been someone with a Spanish IBAN from Santander, a French one from BNP, or an Estonian one from a small bank most of us have never heard about; and it would have made no difference (similarly the IBAN would have started with ES, FR, or EE and they would have had to select the corresponding country).

@unkel, I sympathise completely, but it sounds like the CCPC will be quite helpful if you can manage to get a response to a formal complaint.

@Bob24, I see what you mean, but I don't think they routinely use IBANs for domestic transfers in the UK.

I asked the credit union about making loan repayments by DD from N26. They said that they insist on Irish IBANs because the fee for a missed direct debit was higher with N26, and that the CU doesn't pass that on to the member. In the end, they let me do it by standing order instead.

N26 don't seem to have any functioning anti-fraud system.

I have been a customer for a few years, never any problems until this week - account cleaned out (by a merchant in Jamaica!).

The merchant processed repeated payments for the same amount until the transaction was rejected. Then they reduced the request and kept going until they got it down to 18c.

Even a rudimentary anti-fraud system would have blocked this.

There were no auth requests to my phone app.

Contacted N26 today and response is pathetic - they will process a chargeback via MasterCard and "try and get my funds back". No sense of urgency, they don't seem to think it is a matter for their fraud department (assuming they have one).

They're treating this as if it were some disputed transaction, rather than a criminal act. Not impressed and will be leaving as soon as they get my money back.😡

The exact same thing happened to me and the same response from n26