Number26/N26 Mastercard/Account now for Irish Residents

jeffk wrote: »

Got the letter to say DE IBAN setup in May and then told by customer care (well after a 30 minute wait I tried sales and got someone in Limerick) that tried to take it and it didn't work

At times youd say is all this worth it, but then not paying for banking at times is priceless

Do you have an account anywhere with an Irish IBAN? I gave Vodafone my credit union IBAN to see if it worked as a workaround. It did, and then I changed my payment preference to my N26 debit card.

jeffk wrote: »

Yeah i have a credit union and ebs one, but I pay the bills as parents older so handy to get notified when payment taken

But I might just go with credit union as the app is sightly out of dark ages and can use fingerprint to unlock (not there usual text two factor messing)

I found that they really only take the Irish IBAN as a formality (although that's still against the rules). Immediately when the account is open, you can change your payment preference to debit card and give your N26 details. I've only ever paid Vodafone that way.

Definitely report this company to the CCPC. Say that their practice restricts your freedom to use the SEPA account of choice, reduces the number of phone/broadband providers you can choose from, and requires people to get (and probably pay for) a banking service they mightn't want. None of this is allowed, and more people need to flag it.

N26 do virtual cards? never knew that.

Is your first card not free with N26? I mean including postage. I don't think I paid anything for mine, although I signed up a couple of years ago.

N26 chat is very hit and miss. I made a complaint to them which was upheld. Luckily I had a transcript. Operatives gave wrong info, denied I had a n26 you account when I had. Would seriously reconsider using them as if you have problems nowhere to go to.

In saying that used their Mastercard in England and it worked perfectly.

I also found it quite cumbersome to open an account. Id has to be resubmitted many times.

You sure you didn't get an email about customs charges?

Of course open a charge back, you did not get the goods. Same thing happened to me for the Google store, never got earphones, according to tracking they were stuck somewhere. Got my money back via charge back on N26.

They will get the money off the bank (PSP) who provides the cards acceptance facilities to the merchant. That bank will thus get the funds off the merchant plus a hefty fee. Of course that's if N26 accept your charge back.

They are looking for written confirmation of goods not received.

Is that just a letter signed by me saying I didn't get the item?

Also they want proof of attempted resolution with merchant.

I can't see anyway of contacting seller

When you get a new card (e.g. by switching from Basic to Metal like I did), your previous cards are de-activated. I had to change my card details to continue paying for a whole list of services. Did you get a physical card recently?

Oddly, when you get a paid N26 account, you can order an extra coloured card (same account, different card details) for free, so the room for confusion is huge.

Did you freeze the card or exceed/reduce your daily spending limit? Are you using Spaces? Your overall balance could be higher than the funds in your debit card wallet. I've never had a problem like the ones you're describing.

I referred my wife. She doesn't have the physical card but added the virtual one to Google Pay.

She bought a pair of runners with it (using Google Pay) which cost €50 in a shop on Friday and that night we both got €50.

So she basically got her runners for free

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.