I have had current accounts with AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, Post Bank (blast from the past) and KBC in Ireland. I had high hopes for KBC but found their opening procedure very poor although it seems to have improved. However, their internet and mobile banking were poor in my opinion and their advertising campaigns really got on my nerves which was the final straw. In the end I think I had a KBC account for a month or two before switching to N26.
N26 is a German online bank that allows Irish residents to sign up. Signing up and verifying your identity is all completed via their app. I was fully set up and verified in less than 20 minutes. They have two personal products – Standard and Black. The standard bank account comes with a MasterCard debit card and has no fees – except a €2 ATM withdrawal fee if you make more than 5 ATM withdrawals in a month and a 1.7% fee for non-euro ATM withdrawals. N26 Black costs €5.90 per month and for this the 1.7% non-euro ATM withdrawal fee is waived. There is also included Travel, Mugging and Mobile Phone insurance as well as extended warranty.
I understand N26 is not for everyone and many people will not find value in the N26 Black product. There are downsides to the N26 Bank account which I covered in a blog post below. However, N26 Black is by far the best product for me that is currently available. I don’t want to start a N26 -v- Revolut debate – I recently got a bit of abuse on Twitter for suggesting that in some circumstance N26 works out cheaper than Revolut.
Below are all the blog posts I have written about N26. I decided to do a mega-post so all the information can be easily found for those who are interested in N26.
The N26 Accounts and Features:
Extended Warranty clarification
Free ShopRunner with N26 Black
Spaces: N26’s savings accounts
The sign up process:
How long does it take to receive a replacement N26 MasterCard?
Using N26
N26 implementation of 3D Secure
My experiences:
My experience using the N26 as my main account
My experience with N26 customer support
My experience with my N26 MasterCard being blocked
My experience claiming for delayed luggage with N26 Black
MasterCard blocked due to too many transactions
Currency Exchange Rates:
Exchange Rates Revolut -v- N26
How much N26 Black saved me on my last trip
Correction! Not Irish residents, but Irish citizens.
Sorry, I am just going by the N26 website which says Irish residents.
Has anyone had experience with asking retailers for “cashback” with an N26 standard Mastercard.
I joined N26 with the intention of making it my primary banking account. I’ve been using it for a month now and am close to pulling the plug on my Irish account (I firmly believe Ulster Bank will regret the new fees structure which has taken them from being one of cheapest “Irish” banks to one of the most expensive). Rant over 🙂
Anyway, the only niggle so far has been with “cashback”. I got refused cashback in Dunnes Stores transaction was for 22 Euro incidentally). The checkout operator told me it was “my card” that would not allow it.
N26 claim that there is no reason cashback should not work in a retailer and the actual transaction is no different from their perspective. N26 even went as far as to say that they would not even know if cashback had been given as all they see is the total amount.
This leads me to suspect that there are companies in Ireland whose own point of sale systems may be refusing cashback on “Non-Irish” debit cards. This is certainly the case for direct debits as discussed elsewhere on this site.
So, my questions are :
What experience have people had with “cashback” using an N25 standard card.?
Has anyone managed to get cashback anywhere in Ireland with an N26 card?
Has anyone been refused and if so which retailer ? (obviusly I’m citing Dunnes and one such retailer)