Why has N26 so few customers in Ireland?

S

someCitizen

Registered User
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Heya,
I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.

I've been using N26 for several years and found it a great bank but have noticed that it remains quite niche compared to revolut which has gained a lot of traction.

With the withdrawal of 2 major banks forcing many to reevaluate their options I had hoped N26 would benefit and it might even cause somewhat of a network effect but at least from what I've seen there has been very little uptake in accounts.

Ive noticed that there are few features being rolled out in Ireland whereas there even some savings options in other European countries. I was actually quite annoyed at their recent "n26 day" gimmick which from what I could tell had some prizes for people who would praise them on Instagram.

I would like to recommend n26 to others and thought this would be a perfect time to do so but instead I find myself becoming disappointed that it has made little progress in Ireland despite it seemingly being a perfect place to gain customers.

Is it time to just move away from them to something more commonly used?

Any informed opinions or idle speculation welcome
 
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Ireland clearly isn't a key market for them, and with a modest population, and circa 2 million of us now using Revolut, they may feel that they've lost their opportunity here (which is a pitty, as I've read a lot of positive things about their service, compared to Revolut, for example).
 
banjopotato said:
Main reason I didn’t go to them from KBC: no joint accounts.
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They have shared spaces which are effectively the same thing. You do have to pay for those.

Biggest annoyance for me so far is that you can only save a payment contact when making a payment, and it will not save the reference with that contact. So bill payments or repeated transfers with the same reference require you to copy paste that in from somewhere.
 
Joined up early on and their customer service was very poor. For example, they ran a cashback promotion for referrals - I signed up several relatives, met all criteria, never got cashback and N26 stopped replying after a couple of enquiries. Some menus and notifications on the English version were still in German and the website felt unfinished. The app notifications were not as reliable as Revolut. I found a combination of KBC and Revolut much better.
 
Both banks thrive on critical mass since people use them primarily for instant transfers to their friends on the same app but don't want to open an account with both of them. Revolut hoovered up the Irish market before N26 could gain much traction. Also, Revolut offers slightly better exchange rates (on weekdays) and has a slightly sleeker app. Finally, N26 didn't make enough of the fact that unlike its competitor it has always held a full banking licence in a reputable country with full deposit insurance.
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I’ve been using N26 more than 2 years, find it really good. Had to contact support once or twice, all good, and way better than Revolut, which is appaling.

N26 now handles the vast bulk of my banking, i just have one bricks and mortar joint AIB account left, which is hardly ever used, so low fees, but handy to have, for any cheques that occasionally come, or cheques in both names, and as a backup.

I do also use Revolut, but only for casual for casual purchases.
 
I'd consider switching everything to Revolut but too many stories on Twitter of accounts frozen for months on end by rogue "money laundering prevention" algorithms while their desperate owners are stranded abroad and being fobbed off by "automated customer assistance" chat bots. Not sure how much of this is true but still.
 
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I'd say that more than enough of it is true, to avoid putting your full confidence in Revolut. In fact, the stories about their "customer service" on AAM alone, should tell you that
 
N26 seem to have moved the instance transfers to behind their paid options now. You can receive SEPA instance for free, sending costs €0.99. Their normal transfers are still pretty fast always showing up the next day.

The biggest feature which they don't seem to want to advertise is the free foreign exchange. It is basically revolut, with no fees or limits except from an ATM.
 
Revolut I use for day to day spending, N26 if I'm moving bigger amounts of cash - it feels more like a real bank.

The N26 interface seems more professional than Revolut's to me at least, less visual noise.

My hope is N26 or Revolut offer interest paying savings account here. It will be panic stations for BOI and AIB at that stage, their customer deposits which are now profitable will not be as sticky as they're used to. They could rely on people's reluctance to sign up to another bank before - but this time they've already signed up - they just need to move the money.

N26 were launching some partnership with raisin but that seems to be on hold now - hopefully that comes back on the scene.
 
I use a paid N26 as my main account. Not sure I'd trust revolut with my salary. I do have a revolut account that i throw money into to use for casual purchases - can just top it up instantly from the N26 account via apple pay.
 
ryaner said:
They have shared spaces which are effectively the same thing. You do have to pay for those.
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But doesn’t that require two paid accounts? Two ”Smart” accounts is €10/month. My AIB joint account costs about the same and I can walk in and talk to them if there’s a problem.
 
There is a network effect. If everyone else has Revolut you'll get Revolut. This is why they are so obsessed with rapidly building market share in a given country.

Penetration is pretty uneven. Per capita it seems to have most users in Ireland, Romania, Poland, UK but very few in Germany or Netherlands.
 
ashambles said:
Revolut I use for day to day spending, N26 if I'm moving bigger amounts of cash - it feels more like a real bank.
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Agree. The Revolut app looks like it was designed 10 mins ago and is on first iteration, amateurish and busy and not intuitive.

Similarly I use only for fx or small daily purchases.

I like N26, it does have a few minor drawbacks, no joint account nor does it remember account names for the likes of paying credit card bills but to me it's head and shoulders above Revolut....reminds me a bit of the Betamax V Vhs war, the poorer product gained market share (VHS)
 
banjopotato said:
But doesn’t that require two paid accounts? Two ”Smart” accounts is €10/month. My AIB joint account costs about the same and I can walk in and talk to them if there’s a problem.
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Both accounts would need to be premium yeh. If all the people are using N26 as their primary account, it probably isn't an issue though and is the same with other banks - you can't have a shared account in AIB with a "free" account.

N26 support has also been really responsive when I've used it. I've gotten responses from a person quicker than it takes to get through to a person on the phone with UB. Definitely quicker than it'd take to get to the branch down the road.
 
Use N26 for all DDs & SOs, no IBAN discrimination whatsoever with any company / state or government agency.

App covers all the basics and on top of this, has plenty of nice touches, like showing you which regular payments have been paid, and which are due (and in how many days' time).

N26 was always a bank, whereas Revolut has evolved from a payments company. It shows in their product offerings.
 
I prefer N26 app. It seems more professional in appearance than Revolut. However, N26 chat function is poor. It is long drawn out chats and pro forma replies where you have to repeat the question You want answered. They frustrated my attempts to gain the refer a friend reward just honouring one refer a friend unlike Revolut. I prefer N26 as they are German backed however, no way would I rely on either N26 OR Revolut for all my banking needs. Just have a look at trustpilot reviews before making a decision.
 
Think the lesson is always have more than one ease of access account. It seems with a whiff of fraud you can be bankless for days now with loop the loop phone "support" A drawback is surely having to set up all the dd's etc again, thought about it for Ulster closure but switcher service seemed easier, let's see of course
 
Maybe try the Bundesbank, they were extremely fast in responding to my fraud issue with N26 and I got my money back rather quickly. The email address is schlichtung@bundesbank.de
It all has to be in German, have a read of what I did: https://www.reddit.com/r/irishpersonalfinance/s/FK3R1154rV
 
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