Number26 launching free mobile-first bank account in Ireland (Revolut alternative)

Yggr of Asgard

With account set to German language I only had 2 minutes wait to someone on chat.

She had a canned response for my question and was adamant that number26 is doing the right thing.

When pressed, she offered to escalate it internally but told me that this would not change the terms and confirmed the only option is to decline the new terms in time and close the account or accept the new terms.

When I told her that most likely this will result in me leaving she could not care less about it with a "dann mach das doch" , similar to "well go ahead".

So clearly they are ware of it in support but management have made up their mind.

inel

I believe it could be helpful at this stage someone to raise the issue publicly, on facebook or twitter (or not?).

Mentioning that there is some change in the new Terms for residents in Ireland, asking for 30 euro per year, emphasizing that such a charge is obviously wrong for such type of account/card and would prevent many Irish customers from opening or keeping their account. Asking for clarifications..

Delta2113

inel wrote: »

I believe it could be helpful at this stage someone to raise the issue publicly, on facebook or twitter (or not?).

Mentioning that there is some change in the new Terms for residents in Ireland, asking for 30 euro per year, emphasizing that such a charge is obviously wrong for such type of account/card and would prevent many Irish customers from opening or keeping their account. Asking for clarifications..

-Maybe e-mail Charlie Weston Irish Independent or other newspapers, joe dufffy show.

soirish

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

So clearly they are ware of it in support but management have made up their mind.

Or maybe the management team is completely out of sync.

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/valentin-stalf#/entity

http://domainbigdata.com/email/valentin.stalf@number26.de

Give him a buzz?

inel

Delta2113 wrote: »

-Maybe e-mail Charlie Weston Irish Independent or other newspapers, joe dufffy show.

I'm not sure if it should go that far .

But in any case posting on their facebook page or twitter is instant and could be quite alerting for them, don't underestimate the power of social media, especially when they are trying to expand to new markets and negative publicity is the only thing they don't want.

It is not that we support something illegal or wrong, it is clearly their mistake and should be fixed before it is too late.

bk

As I said, write to Revenue and the Central Bank.

It is very likely their customer support staff have no idea what they are talking about and haven't escalated it to management.

Trust me, if they are incorrectly charging Tax, then Revenue and the Central Bank will come down on them like a ton of bricks, they really don't take overcharging bank customers lightly.

the.red.baron

If I haven't enabled the card yet, then I am in the clear, is this the case?

soirish

Tried their chat support again and here is their answer: I guess I can´t help you with that.

Mind-blowing.

Yggr of Asgard

the.red.baron wrote: »

If I haven't enabled the card yet, then I am in the clear, is this the case?

In theory, however as the duty is on the account (not card as people think) if you have used the account you might be still liable in their eyes.

At this point and with the support quality, your guess is as good as anybodies.

The Ayatolla

Meh, I'm just gonna cancel it at this stage. What a mess.

You can cancel it online I believe?

Or do they need a signed letter?

The Ayatolla

Meh, I'm just gonna cancel it at this stage. What a mess.

You can cancel it online I believe?

Or do they need a signed letter?

Yggr of Asgard

The Ayatolla wrote: »

Meh, I'm just gonna cancel it at this stage. What a mess.

You can cancel it online I believe?

Or do they need a signed letter?

If you are going down that route make sure you first decline their new T&C so that you don't get stung in case the closure drags on or they suddenly want stamp duty for the 2015/16 period.

Declining their T&C in writing will trigger an account closure.

If you just want to close, log onto the webpage. Under Settings there is "Other Settings" and than "Cancel Account". That downloads a PDF you need to download, sign and send to them.

soirish

So chat support finally provides somewhat adequate answers (that is after I asked if this should be escalated to their CEO Valentin Stalf):

We are working on that right now to make sure that everything is correct and goes well.
As soon as there is anything new we will inform our customer for sure.

palec69

They just deleted my comment from here

https://number26.eu/1-year-old-100-000-customers-strong/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_100k_en_2&utm_content=bt_blog_1

I just mentioned the €30 stamp duty

Yggr of Asgard

I just contacted Wirecard with a complaint about this as the card is issued by them and my contract for the card is with them.

As they are a regulated bank they have processes how to deal with complaints and it gives me the opportunity to complain to the regulator and ombudsman in case they can't resolve the problem.

JTMan

What address did you utilise for Wirecard? I would like to file a complaint too. Cheers.

Yggr of Asgard

JTMan wrote: »

What address did you utilise for Wirecard? I would like to file a complaint too. Cheers.

I took the one out of the Terms & Conditions documents:

Wirecard bank AG
Einsteinring 35
85609 Aschheim
Germany

service@wirecardbank.com

If you check the pre-contractual summary it gives you a good summary of your rights:

https://number26.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/GrundlegendeVorvertraglicheInformationen_FINAL_191115_EN-GB.docx.pdf

bertie4evr

The price list has been taken down now. I still can't decide if it's good or bad news :pac:

Edit: Hold the phone, just looked through the terms, they updated it and it's now €5 p.a.! Happy days.

dohouch

bertie4evr wrote: »

The price list has been taken down now. I still can't decide if it's good or bad news :pac:

Edit: Hold the phone, just looked through the terms, they updated it and it's now €5 p.a.! Happy days.

That's a relief:pac::D:p:);)

NeverWaining

bertie4evr wrote: »

The price list has been taken down now. I still can't decide if it's good or bad news :pac:

Edit: Hold the phone, just looked through the terms, they updated it and it's now €5 p.a.! Happy days.

Excellent! Though I get the feeling they haven't really sussed it out yet. It shouldn't be €5 stamp duty as that has been abolished. What it should be is a 12c ATM withdrawal fee up to a maximum of €5.

Not as large a mistake as the €30 one but you'd really think a financial organisation should be getting these things right.

Yggr of Asgard

The German version of the FAQ now also says 5€:
https://number26.de/support/fallen-wirklich-gar-keine-kosten/

However as much of a victory that is, it's still not compliant as it should be the ATM Withdraw Tax.

bertie4evr

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

The German version of the FAQ now also says 5€:
https://number26.de/support/fallen-wirklich-gar-keine-kosten/

However as much of a victory that is, it's still not compliant as it should be the ATM Withdraw Tax.

I cannot find the details of it anywhere on Revenue's site, which is alarming. The only reference I found of it is this PDF outlining Stamp Duty. So I suppose we send this onto Number26 now. Still though, Number26 were quick enough to change this so hopefully they should have this sorted out soonish.

soirish

After another German mess not sure if I'm relieved to see this eventually got fixed.

Yggr of Asgard

bertie4evr wrote: »

I cannot find the details of it anywhere on Revenue's site, which is alarming. The only reference I found of it is this PDF outlining Stamp Duty. So I suppose we send this onto Number26 now. Still though, Number26 were quick enough to change this so hopefully they should have this sorted out soonish.

The only reference to it is in the Budget Summary document:
http://www.revenue.ie/en/press/budget/2016/budget-summary-2016.pdf

Otherwise Part 9.1 of the Revenue Operating Manual you linked is the only way.

JTMan

Making progress with this crazy situation.

Has anyone already complained yet about the 5€ fee being wrong?

I have contacted customer service with a link to the Revenue page.

Yggr of Asgard

JTMan wrote: »

Making progress with this crazy situation.

Has anyone complained yet about the 5€ fee being wrong?

I have contacted customer service with a link to this Revenue page.

I just updated my outstanding complaint with Wirecard, Number26, Valentin Stalf and the BaFin (yes I complained to the regulator) accordingly. My Excuse, I'm German, we like to complain.

What worries me the most is how they communicated this whole mess.

What is stopping them to change their mind in April again and simply take the money claiming they had announced it. The Price-list has not even a last changed date on it and it's uploaded with the same link reference showing an old upload date.

Delta2113

This does prove to us that they really haven't a clue. Will they charge us 5 euro for 2015? We now have to launch a new campaign I suppose for 12 cent.

throwaway10

Have an issue with this. There were a number of unauthorized transactions on my card last week. I am trying to get a chargeback going, or at least have them look into it, but I see absolutely nothing in regards this in their FAQ, unless I am being very dense. yes, I have cancelled the card and changed my login details.

Yggr of Asgard

throwaway10 wrote: »

Have an issue with this. There were a number of unauthorized transactions on my card last week. I am trying to get a chargeback going, or at least have them look into it, but I see absolutely nothing in regards this in their FAQ, unless I am being very dense. yes, I have cancelled the card and changed my login details.

You need to contact support, best for this is to call them https://number26.eu/contact/ or do the chat in the app/web.

You should do this soon to be able for them to get the investigation started.

Because of the real time notifications they will ask you why it took you so long to spot that it there was something wrong.

If there was no negligence (not saying there was) you will only be hold accountable for up to 150€ of fraudulent charges that happened until you blocked the card and nothing once you blocked the card.

You can not dispute charges online I'm afraid, calling/chat is the best.

Hope you get this sorted out.

throwaway10

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

You need to contact support, best for this is to call them or do the chat in the app/web.

You should do this soon to be able for them to get the investigation started.

Because of the real time notifications they will ask you why it took you so long to spot that it there was something wrong.

If there was no negligence (not saying there was) you will only be hold accountable for up to 150€ of fraudulent charges that happened until you blocked the card and nothing once you blocked the card.

You can not dispute charges online I'm afraid, calling/chat is the best.

Hope you get this sorted out.

Thanks so much for this. I had lost my phone, and kindve forgotten about it to be honest. I had the card set up for my uber/hailo/itunes accounts etc and charges were going through fine, so I thought nothing of it. I will fully accept a little negligence, to be honest, but I would just like it looked into. I went to pay for a hailo today and the card wouldn't process the payment, which caused me to login via the browser and check, and lo and behold, there was 300 euro or so of charges that I didn't recognise. Popped an email in, but I will call tomorrow.