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As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. I do frequent the web, y
by Zenst 7y ago
As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations.
I do frequent the web, youtube, bus stops, tubes, trains and utterly exposed to all forms of marketing.
So from my perspective, this does seem like marketing failure from the start - at least from my perspective.
Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would be Metro Bank and that's only due to them having a solid high street offering and more so niche in that they are open near on all hours. Also associated app and online works well.
But sorry, never even heard of N26 and is it initialy appears to tweak my interest that it may be something N64 related, would of at least had me read/look into it beyond that. Not even that happened, until now and only reinforces the lack of marketing carried out as testified by the aspect that I've never heard of them until now.
That's a shame as marketing is usually an area in which startups/companies tend to overdo more than not do at all.
- TLightful 7y agoAnd here you are typing about them on hackernews. Seems like the marketing worked!
- SirHound 7y agoTheir adverts used to be all over the tube. That’s the only reason I know of them (most people in know IRL opting for Revolut or Monzo)
- treebornfrog 7y agoYes I remember these, 'fast banking' was their motto.
- iamben 7y agoThey also had a card with a transparent part - if you were eating with friends and someone had one everyone would be "ohhhh, what's that?"
- goatinaboat 7y agoAmex was issuing translucent cards in the UK in the 90s. By far the best looking card they ever did.
- benbristow 7y agoMy Amex Rewards card is translucent, got it last year.
- jrv 7y ago> Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would be Metro Bank I'm not in the UK, but isn't Monzo also doing quite well?
- adamt 7y agoIndeed - Monzo has 50% of challenger bank market share. N26 was almost behind Revolut and Starling and had little traction in the UK. Source: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-7647253/Monzo-accounts-half-UK-digital-challenger-bank-market-data-finds.html https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-7647253/M...
- bradvl 7y agoRevolut has ~10m customers. Not all in the UK, but Revolut and Monzo both have enough accounts to be inside the top 10 current account providers in the Uk
- chimeracoder 7y ago> As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. They're a huge presence in mainland Europe, especially Germany, where they're the de facto bank of choice for all non-European immigrants living in Berlin, Munich, etc.
- luckylion 7y agoIs there a specific reason for that, do they offer easy intl transfers or are very welcoming with support in many languages etc? I've vaguely known they exist but have only a few days ago seen one of their ads on public transportation (which doesn't say much, I'm not in the city a lot, but still).
- chimeracoder 7y ago> Is there a specific reason for that They're the only one that allows you to enter a second name via "care of"[0] in the address, and German postal services won't deliver mail if no name on the envelope matches the person registered at that address. In other words, you end up in a catch-22 where you can't sign a lease because you don't have a bank account, and you can't get a bank account because you don't have a legal address yet. There are other ways to resolve this, but the easiest is "find a bank that will let you accept mail at the address where you're staying, even if you're not on the lease", and the only bank that does that is N26. [0] I forget the German term, but basically Ms. Alice Foo c/o Bob Bar Baz Straße 14 99999 Nowhere Germany
- Tomte 7y ago"c/o" is fine, I've used that before. [edit – wrong:] The German-language equivalent (that most young people won't even recognize anymore) is "z. Hd." ("zu Händen" – "to the hands of").
- germanier 7y agoThe German equivalent would be p. Adr. (although I haver never seen that much in the wild). z. Hd. is used in the opposite way, i.e. you write the actual recipient after it, not the address provider.
- princekolt 7y agoI'm still trying to understand the point of your comment, but regardless: You haven't heard of it. So what? People will be affected by this. This will also not be the only company who will have to leave the UK because they've deemed the cost of legalising their business there after Brexit is not worth the benefits. So you're either in denial about that fact or you think it doesn't matter, which perhaps works for you as a schadenfreude for the people affected? I don't get it.
- ars 7y agoHe's saying the reason they failed is nothing to do with brexit and everything to do with the fact that no one knew about them. But they are blaming brexit instead of their own failure.
- greatpatton 7y agoNo, it has to do with the fact that when you have a smaller customer base and additional cost when running on razor-sharp margin, it doesn't make the cut. So yes it has to do with the Brexit as this is the reason for future additional cost, especially today when EU negotiator said that it will be very unlikely for the UK to get financial services equivalence. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/11/barnier-tells-uk-dont-kid-yourself-about-financial-services-deal https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/11/barnier-tel...
- Zenst 7y agoThey started in the UK in October 2018 - more than two whole years after the UK voted to leave the EU. It's as if they never knew what the UK people voted for!
- greatpatton 7y agoAt that time it was not certain that Brexit would be equal to no deal (at least for finance services). Now that this is the most probable outcome they have to take action.
- threedots 7y agoBoth Monzo and Revolut have over 3m customers compared to 1.7m for metro bank. Starling is over 1m. So plenty of traction all for the challenger banks.
- dazc 7y agoHow many of those users are using Monzo/Revolting as their main bank though? I have Monzo for small expenses when travelling in Europe but my main accounts remain with Barclays. I am guessing a lot of people do similar although, I concede, it's hard to find numbers that will corroborate this?
- benbristow 7y agoMonzo is my main bank where my salary comes in, my purchases are made and my bills come out. It works great and unless they start going South I wouldn't look back.
- nailer 7y agoI don't know but I started using Monzo as a more convenient alternative to Barclays and as Monzo added features (and Barclays didn't) I switched my pay to go into Monzo. It's nor particularly hard to email your employer and let them know some new bank details, and the Barclays experience (particularly their slow balance updates) makes it easy to want to use something different.
- jen20 7y ago> Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would be Metro Bank This probably indicates that you are not in fact as well exposed to bank marketing as you suspect - it's hard to argue that Monzo and Revolut have not done well.
- stuartleigh 7y agoOr starling bank for that matter
- Zenst 7y agoI'm aware of those two at least, but from people I know, not one had them and basing around that aspect of traction - sure that may well not represent the market, but at least I'm aware of them, unlike this N26.
- madeofpalk 7y agoThat's so strange/interesting because pretty much everyone I know in London uses Monzo. Granted, my circle is like "young tech/agency workers in London", but I notice people using it at cafes and stuff all the time.
- Normal_gaussian 7y agoBanking is hard; and growing in Banking is hard. Monzo have only recently started advertising [1]; their word of mouth campaign had people sitting in virtual queues over 100k long. [1] https://www.marketingweek.com/monzo-first-ad-campaign/ https://www.marketingweek.com/monzo-first-ad-campaign/
- samdjstephens 7y agoAccording to a quick search - Monzo had 3 million customers as of Sept ‘19 [1] vs Metro Bank’s 1.7 million in May ‘19 [2]. [1] https://monzo.com/blog/2019/09/16/three-million https://monzo.com/blog/2019/09/16/three-million [2] https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/about-us/press-releases/news/metro-bank-reports-strong-growth-in-customer-accounts-despite-challenging-quarter/ https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/about-us/press-releases/ne...
- krilly 7y agoI recently split a restaurant bill with 7 other early-twenty-somethings. I think 5 of us had Monzo (making things much easier). They have been immensely successful among the younger demographic. Monzo have been doing a lot of advertising on public transport in my city (can't speak about online ads because I don't see them). I know one person who uses N26 but he's from Germany, where I believe it's a lot more popular. Starling, Monzo, Revolut and N26 seem to basically be at feature parity with each other and their apps are incredibly similar.
- MrAlex94 7y ago> As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. They've had ads plastered all over central London tube stops.
- rvz 7y ago> As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. Funny and surprising you say this since I just saw a large N26 billboard in the London Tube Station at Angel Station; very unmissable as a Londoner using the tube these days.
- Zenst 7y agoYes, reading few comments about adverts, but none I saw, or recalled. Oh well, maybe I did see them and preglazzed - just wished that happened with all adverts, but alas no. Might be they created the perfect advert un-eye-catching for some demographics - certainly has me more curious now, maybe I just missed them. But many other adverts I saw and can't unsee, oh well.
- drcongo 7y agoI had heard of them, but only because their adverts on the tube were so bad that I couldn't work out what or who they were for.
- tempsy 7y agoThey are the most funded neobank in all of Europe. I don't even live in Europe and have heard of them.
- mrjohnes 7y agoThey ran tons of advertisement on the tube, impossible to miss unless you're walking while looking at the floor. Just google N26 tube ads.
- noobermin 7y agoThis could, in fact, be their stab at marketing at least for EU countries they will still operate in.
- mr_isomies 7y agoInteresting. Maybe it's a demographic blind spot? I do all of my UK banking on Transferwise, and so have heard of or researched Revolut, N26, Monzo... In fact, I think that both Monzo and Transferwise are UK based, and I've definitely seen their ads in the tubel, know people who work there, etc. They also offered a solid metal card and lounge-access perks, so I suspect that their core demographic are young-ish "digital nomads". Maybe that's where most of their marketing went to?