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

Delta2113

bennyx_o wrote: »

The €5 is to cover the Government Stamp Duty on the debit card, so at worst, you'll be €2.50 worse off than with an Irish bank.

Wrong - 5 euro, if you don't use an atm to withdraw any cash during the year with Number26 card.

Arbie

My experience so far has been poor. Support via chat/email is a waste of time. After 4 emails and several weeks of waiting for a response, I called them; 4 phone calls and many promises later I am still no better off. The agents are generally friendly but they can't answer anything beyond FAQ. On the most recent call I spoke to a supervisor who spoke over me from the very beginning and dismissed everything I said. He couldn't wait to get me off the phone. Bad as the Irish banks may be, I have never had this issue.

I referred several people who have activated their accounts, but I haven't received any referral bonuses. Number26 are still investigating 2 months later.

I am not impressed by their security either. On calls I have only been asked to confirm my details twice, the other 2 times they just started talking to me without verifying name/address/phone number or anything. When I offered to give details to the supervisor he scoffed at the idea. Bizarre attitude. The website just requires your email and password to log in - 2 factor authentication should be standard for new banks.

Overall, very disappointing and unprofessional.

Delta2113

Let's just take it that number26 actually understands this new 12 cent charge (although I have my doubts).

They will take €5 starting in January 2017 and every year from your account balance even if you never used an Irish ATM once in the past year to withdraw some cash.

Do they give this €5 to Irish Revenue? I have no idea. Do they keep a record of transactions and give Irish Revenue the correct amount i.e. 12 cent for each cash withdrawal subject to a cap of €2.50 or €5 depending if you use ATM to withdraw and POS function? I have no idea.

This is totally unacceptable and questionable on a legal basis. They could be pocketing €5 each year for themselves and they are still calling this account FREE.

The Ayatolla

So what's the fastest way to cut this thing off? I'm done with it.

KBC have a very decent app and online banking setup. And I qualify for free banking with them so happy days. Will use Revolut for the sterling purchases and travelling.

Yggr of Asgard

The Ayatolla wrote: »

So what's the fastest way to cut this thing off? I'm done with it.

KBC have a very decent app and online banking setup. And I qualify for free banking with them so happy days. Will use Revolut for the sterling purchases and travelling.

Withdraw funds, block card and send them an e-mail telling them that you don't accept the changes to the T&C in form of the 5€ charge and ask them to close the account. You should not get charged the 5€ in that case.

The Ayatolla

The Ayatolla wrote: »

So what's the fastest way to cut this thing off? I'm done with it.

KBC have a very decent app and online banking setup. And I qualify for free banking with them so happy days. Will use Revolut for the sterling purchases and travelling.

Log into your account, scroll down to "Cancel account" and complete the pdf.

The Ayatolla

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Withdraw funds, block card and send them an e-mail telling them that you don't accept the changes to the T&C in form of the 5€ charge and ask them to close the account. You should not get charged the 5€ in that case.

Thanks. Job done. They definitely have some positives, the app is great in fairness but they're just too new to the EU market, and with Ireland's never-ending ****e with debit & credit cards, it's all a shame really.

For anyone exploring current Irish banks, KBC seem to be the best from what I can see. Moved from Permanent TSB.

Some advantages:

Touch ID login for iPhone app View pending transactions 4% interest rate on regular saver account Free banking (lodge 2500 monthly) Contactless Debit Card and Credit card Open new savings accounts within the app Setup standing orders, new payees on the app.

What put the frighteners on me was I saw mention of the Wirecard bank. Now I remember using their prepaid Mastercard way way back in the day. The experience was far from pleasant.

Yggr of Asgard

Deleted User wrote: »

Log into your account, scroll down to "Cancel account" and complete the pdf.

Just make sure you point out it's because of the fee as otherwise they might try to get 5€ out of you.

5€ is a T&C change and hence gives you the right to cancel before it becomes effective. Even if the mail did not state that, it's the law, but they don't seam to care about legal operation anyhow.

bennyx_o

Delta2113 wrote: »

Wrong - 5 euro, if you don't use an atm to withdraw any cash during the year with Number26 card.

My mistake, I thought it was €2.50 and 12c for each ATM withdrawal up to a maximum combined charge of €5. Even with this, it's still less than some will be charged by banks in quarterly fees.

I can see the frustration, they haven't handled this well at all, and to then turn around and say they're just charging €5, when they still clearly state on their website there are no fees for account management or the MasterCard.

How do they handle complaints? Has anyone tried, then progressed to the Financial Services Ombudsman?

The Ayatolla

Deleted User wrote: »

Log into your account, scroll down to "Cancel account" and complete the pdf.

Is there an English PDF?

Does this have to be posted off?

Yggr of Asgard

bennyx_o wrote: »

My mistake, I thought it was €2.50 and 12c for each ATM withdrawal up to a maximum combined charge of €5. Even with this, it's still less than some will be charged by banks in quarterly fees.

I can see the frustration, they haven't handled this well at all, and to then turn around and say they're just charging €5, when they still clearly state on their website there are no fees for account management or the MasterCard.

How do they handle complaints? Has anyone tried, then progressed to the Financial Services Ombudsman?

We went through this when they attempted to charge 30€ stamp duty, the complaints process does not work, the customer service is useless and even Senior Management did not address the issue.

Complaining to Wirecard bank was effective, they addressed the issue of wrong stamp duty giving that they are the ones who will pay it (remember the card is issues by Wirecard).

However Wirecard in this incident won't care because it's a fee (not stamp duty, that is just mixed in) and it's down to number26 to run the business as they want.

Delta2113

Should we wait until we get our funds back in too regular Irish Bank Account before cancelling or does this matter?

I presume we still have another few days if not more before cancelling due to a change of t & c's?

Yggr of Asgard

The Ayatolla wrote: »

Is there an English PDF?

Does this have to be posted off?

There does not seam to be an English version. In principle you need to fill it out, sign it and than post if off via snail mail or scan it and send it via e-mail.

Here a quick guidance

Top part of the of the form is your data

Nachname Last Name
Saemtliche Vornamen First Names
IBAN The IBAN of our number26 account
Karten ID The 10 digit number on your card under your name


The 2 radio buttons determine the date of closure:

Zum naechstmoeglichen Zeitpunkt Immediately
am insert a date if you would like to close at a specific date

The next part deals with where any positive balance should be paid to in case you have a balance on the date of closure:

Kontoinhaber Holder of the account
IBAN of the account you want to get paid to
BIC

The next point than request that they confirm that you have canceled and de-active the card.

Datum, Ort Date and City
Unterschrift Signature

Having said this, if your account is 0€ and you have de-activated the account, sending an e-mail that you don't accept the T&C changes of the 5€ Fee and request the account to close should be sufficient.

Yggr of Asgard

Delta2113 wrote: »

Should we wait until we get our funds back in too regular Irish Bank Account before cancelling or does this matter?

I presume we still have another few days if not more before cancelling due to a change of t & c's?

Once a withdraw is executed you can close the account, however it might be beneficial to wait until the amount hits your Irish account so that in case of problems you could go back to them.

Well it's tricky with the time frame, in principle as this is a fee they should have notified us via a specific process and advised us of our right, however they did not do that.

So it's not clear what the time frames are that you have to keep to tell them you won't accept the change. In principle it should be 30 days according to the T&C but it's not clear from the mail.

Yggr of Asgard

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

sending an e-mail that you don't accept the T&C changes of the 5€ Fee and request the account to close should be sufficient.

I did this very same thing back when they were trying to charge €30. Never heard a single thing back from the feckers.

Yggr of Asgard

Deleted User wrote: »

I did this very same thing back when they were trying to charge €30. Never heard a single thing back from the feckers.

Yeah well, I have no idea how they run their company, no wonder that there is trouble with them getting a bank license.

You might want to send the pdf via e-mail or via postal mail to be sure.

The Ayatolla

Ive de-activated the card anyway and sent the email with all my details.

Couldn't care less if they leave the account open and charge it €5 for the rest of my days, I won't be using the bloody thing and won't ever need credit in Germany!

Allyall

Why is everyone deactivating? Or are they? I read it that the first (if any) charge, won't apply until January 2017. That's quite a long time for a lot of things to change. Or am I missing something else? I haven't read far back, I presumed everyone is talking about the last email.

Yggr of Asgard

Allyall wrote: »

Why is everyone deactivating? Or are they? I read it that the first (if any) charge, won't apply until January 2017. That's quite a long time for a lot of things to change. Or am I missing something else? I haven't read far back, I presumed everyone is talking about the last email.

Not doing anything means you are accepting the 5€ fee (again it's not stamp duty, it's a fee).

It's a long story but we went from free to 30€ stamp duty to the correct 12 cent per ATM withdraw (capped at 2.5/5.0) to now 5€ fee (on a fee free account) which has no relation to the 12 cent calculation.

I think people are frustrated with the incompetence that number26 is displaying and the sneaky way of implementing a fee rather than charging the correct amount of stamp duty.

Plus if you read the mail, it is in violation of their own T&C and of German/Irish law as it does not fulfill the basic requirements about a contract change notification.

So people start mistrusting number26.

Ich habe die Schnauze voll.

GreatDefector

Does anyone know any Irish Bank either free or paid that offers instant transaction notifications in their app? Categorisation would be nice but not essential

I really hate PTSB and their pending transactions are a pain

(need Irish IBAN, but that's a different story)

Yggr of Asgard

GreatDefector wrote: »

Does anyone know any Irish Bank either free or paid that offers instant transaction notifications in their app? Categorisation would be nice but not essential

I really hate PTSB and their pending transactions are a pain

(need Irish IBAN, but that's a different story)

Check with KBC in their talk to forum, they have pending transactions according to their marketing but I don't know if it's real time notifications.

kellsred

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Check with KBC in their talk to forum, they have pending transactions according to their marketing but I don't know if it's real time notifications.

Check that their app is compatible with your phone before you move everything to KBC

Niemoj

I signed up for an account over 3 months ago when this deal was posted, never got around to verifying and totally forgot about it!

Yggr of Asgard

Here is the latest answer from number26:

These are the rules stated by our Irish lawyer. We only apply the law exactly as it is. I'm really sorry about this, but I would like to remind you that it is definitely not our choice to apply this stamp duty fee as our policy is absolutely no extra fee. But unfortunately, the Irish government forced us to do this. The money we collect from the stamp duty tax is not for us, but this is directly going to the Irish government. I'm really sorry about this but once again we simply apply the law regarding banking in Ireland.

Interesting that they blame the Irish government for their own inability to do this correctly and who ever their Irish Lawyer is he certainly needs a lesson in the law.

Nollog

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Here is the latest answer from number26:



Interesting that they blame the Irish government for their own inability to do this correctly and who ever their Irish Lawyer is he certainly needs a lesson in the law.

I got the same. I told them the lawyer is incompetent and they lost all my trust. Will be canceling

Yggr of Asgard

/\/ollog wrote: »

I got the same. I told them the lawyer is incompetent and they lost all my trust. Will be canceling

Get onto them via chat, they send you an e-mail with the form which means that you already have an incident number to which you can reply back with the filled form, makes it faster and keeps a record of you request to avoid being charged 5€.

Amouar

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Get onto them via chat, they send you an e-mail with the form which means that you already have an incident number to which you can reply back with the filled form, makes it faster and keeps a record of you request to avoid being charged 5€.

As much as I don't agree with the 5€ charge, I will not be going to cancel my account as revolut might start to charge some fees after 12 months and N26 might become a better option. (It already is during week ends).

Now I have to pay 5€ for N26 , up to 5€ for revolut , up to 5€ for my AIB debit card and 30€ for my AIB credit card :rolleyes:

Lucas Hood

It's a bit annoying they can't get it right but a 5er for years banking is pretty good.