Jul 24 2022

N26 Review

Category: Mobile Computing,Money,ReviewsTeknovis @ 08:54

Background

There is lots happening in the consumer banking space in Ireland at the moment. Two banks are leaving (KBC and Ulster Bank), and the others are vying for the business.

Thankfully these departures do not impact me because I use Bank of Ireland. However, I really dislike Bank of Ireland for the following reasons:

  • The mobile app experience is horrible. It uses really old technology. I think that it is simply a web browser wrapper for a mobile website.
  • The mobile application looks really dated. Perhaps it would have looked good 15 years ago.
  • The mobile application is extremely cumbersome to use.
  • The mobile application does not provide any notifications relating to money entering or leaving the account.
  • The desktop interface is equally horrible – especially on a widescreen display.
  • The ability to self-service is very poor.
  • There are no analytics.

Requirements

So I started looking around for a new bank. My initial intention is that the new bank account will complement (rather than replace) my existing bank account. This can obviously change if the new bank account works well.

I do not use a wide range of banking services. Instead there are a few services that need to use a lot. So my criteria are fairly simple:

  • Support for Google Pay/Google Wallet.
  • Full support for both mobile and desktop interfaces, because I use both my phone and my computer for banking.
  • Send and receive money within the Eurozone using IBANs (but not particularly urgently).
  • Free or low cost for basic services.
  • Primarily for use in the Eurozone (not only Ireland).

I am not interested in ATM withdrawals, savings schemes, foreign exchange, travel services, crypto currencies, and any general gimmicks.

Options

Irish Banks and Financial Institutions

I looked at the Irish banking options, but none particularly excited me. If I had to use an Irish option, then I think that the Credit Union option looked the most promising.

Revolut

Next on my list was Revolut. I know many people who happily use it, but my general impression is that it is aimed more at teenagers, and that it focuses more on gimmicks rather than core services.

Nonetheless I investigated Revolut, but ultimately there were two things about which I was unhappy:

  • Russia and the UK feature in its ownership and operations.
  • The desktop interface appears to only provide a subset of services.

N26

I had heard of N26 before, and it is generally mentioned in reviews of online banks, such as the following:

So I decided to proceed with N26 after reading as many reviews as I could online.

Fun fact: N26 got its name form the number of cubes in a Rubik’s Cube!

Opening the Account

The N26 website stated that I would be added to a waiting list before I tried to open my account, but there was no waiting when I opened my account. The process for opening the account was very straight-forward.

I initially opened a free “Standard” account. However, my intention was to then upgrade to a “Smart” account (more about this later). My reasons for updating were that I was interested in:

  • Spaces
  • Shared sub-accounts

You can see the differences between the various accounts in Find a plan for you.

Physical Card

You can order a physical card with the Standard account, but I have not dine this yet. I will probably get one as a backup, although I do not currently see any need for it.

One thing that I dislike about all of the cards is that they look so bland!

N26 Debit Card
N26 Debit Card

I would love (in other words, pay) to be able to upload my own image for printing on a physical card!

Experience to Date

I have been using the account for a few months now and so far I am loving it!

The mobile and desktop interfaces are lovely. I use the dark themes, and they look great! I love that retailers’ logos appear alongside their associated payments. It makes finding a particular payment very easy.

Electronic transfers, online payments, and contactless payments all work flawlessly, and I have had no problems so far. I love that I get notifications on my phone when money enters or leaves my account.

One thing that I am not very clear on is how contactless payments above 50€ work. I have had one purchase that was almost 100€. The merchant told me that it accepted contactless for this, so I used my phone. I was asked for a password, but it was not clear to me which password I should use. I tried one, it did not work, and then I paid using a different method because I did not want to lock my account.

Problem

I have only had one problem so far… My partner tried to open an N26 account at the same time as me, but this application was rejected with an unhelpful message:

We’ve reviewed the information you provided and we must inform you that according to our current verification procedures, we’re unable to offer you an N26 bank account at this time.

It is a useless message, because it does not explain what the problem is, or how it can be solved. This is where a bank with a physical presence would be better than an online bank.

I do not understand what went wrong, because my partner and I have almost identical backgrounds (from a financial perspective).

I pursued this with N26’s online support. The assistance was very understanding of my problem, and I was assured that this would be investigated.

As promised, we received a follow-up email a few days later However, it was also equally useless:

We couldn’t confirm your application to open a new account, since your user information could not be validated.

I have two theories about the cause of the problem:

  • My partner’s passport seemed to be more reflective than my passport, so maybe the details could not be extracted from it.
  • Perhaps some version of my partner’s address was not matching the current address that we provided.

Conclusions

N26 is great so far! However, unless my partner is able to open an account then I will definitely not upgrade to the Smart account, and it is quite likely that I will move to another bank.

The next step is to try opening an account for my partner by changing some of the details (such as using better lighting for the passport photos, using an alternative postal address).

I will follow-up with another blog post…

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Jan 19 2014

Smart Contact Lenses

Category: HardwareTeknovis @ 18:02

There was a lot of news coverage of Google‘s announcement regarding smart contact lenses last week! The original Google blog post is Introducing our smart contact lens project, and some of the many reporting articles are Google Unveils Smart Contact Lens That Lets Diabetics Measure Their Glucose Levels, Google unveils ‘smart contact lens’ to measure glucose levels, and Google developing smart contact lens.

It is exciting technology, and it really makes me wonder what else the future has in store for contact lenses! My personal choice – the ability to change the focal length dynamically in order to “zoom in” on objects of interest :)

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Dec 27 2012

The Rise of Android

Category: Android,Infographic,PatentsTeknovis @ 16:44

I hope everybody is having a merry Christmas! I know I am :)

Anyway, here is a nice infographic by MBA Online charting the rise of Android (click image to see larger version):

Android (Copyright MBA Online)

Android (Copyright MBA Online)

I have heard it before, but it still fascinates me that Microsoft makes more money from Android than from Windows Mobile due to patent royalties!

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Oct 27 2012

Google Data Centres

Category: Cloud Computing,Hardware,NetworksTeknovis @ 07:20

This is really impressive visual insight into Google‘s data centres – Google Data Centres.

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Oct 08 2012

Google Granted Identity Management Patent

Category: PatentsTeknovis @ 20:06

I read an interesting article over the weekend describing how Google was granted a patent for identity management.

The article is Google Granted Pseudonym Patent (You’re Welcome. And, What Is Wrong With You), and the patent is US 8,271,894 – Social computing personas for protecting identity in online social interactions.

I am sure that there is novelty destroying prior art that has been previously published!

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Jul 23 2012

Firefox 14.0.1

Category: Security,SoftwareTeknovis @ 21:51

I updated to Firefox 14.0.1 over the weekend. It does not contain any new user features, but there have been several security enhancements. See the Release Notes for the complete details.

In particular, I like the following two enhancements:

  • HTTPS is now used for all Google searches. That should prevent network administrators from eavesdropping on searches ;) Image searches are particularly fun ;) See Rolling Out HTTPS Google search for more details.
  • It is no longer possible to spoof the HTTPS icon using the favicon on a fraudulent site. I think that this was really necessary to protect ordinary computer users. I also like the way that the real domain name is highlighted to prevent fraudulent URLs. See Site identity UI updates for more details.

For more general reporting on the upgrade see Firefox 14 arrives with “secure search” and Firefox 14 Hides Your Searches from Prying Eyes.

The only downside the the upgrade has been that my favourite theme, Silvermel, no longer works :( Hopefully this will be rectified soon!

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Jul 16 2012

Jelly Beans and Nexus 7

Category: AndroidTeknovis @ 20:43

At the end of last month Google announced a new version of Android (called Jelly Bean) and a new tablet (called Nexus 7).

There were the most useful links that I found for Jelly Bean information:

There were the most useful links that I found for Nexus 7:

I am really just posting these for my own future reference :o

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Jul 07 2012

Patent Wins and Losses for Apple

Category: Mobile Computing,PatentsTeknovis @ 10:02

It has been a busy week for Apple regarding its patents in court!

Firstly,it had a win in the US where it has (temporarily) blocked sales of some Samsung devices! I think that Google will quickly implement a work-around, so I do not expect consumers to notice the ban in practice! For more details on this story see Apple enforces Galaxy Nexus smartphone ban in the US.

Meanwhile, on the same day, a court in the UK ruled in favour of HTC by finding that some of Apple’s patents were in fact invalid! See HTC defeats Apple in swipe-to-unlock patent dispute for more details. I love the word “obvious” – it is so powerful ;)

It will be interesting to see what happens next, given that the two rulings are somewhat contradictory!

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Jun 13 2012

HTC Not Allowed To Sue Apple

Category: Mobile Computing,PatentsTeknovis @ 11:32

A US judge has ruled that HTC is not allowed to use some of the patents that it recently acquired from Google, as part of its efforts to sue Apple! For the full story see Apple blocks HTC’s use of Google patents in US lawsuit.

This ruling could have significant effects on the values associated with patent rights, portfolios, and transfers!

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Mar 26 2012

Google Versus Facebook as Employers

Category: Infographic,InternetTeknovis @ 17:39

I came across this interesting infographic in Job Wars: How Google Stacks Up Against Facebook over the weekend:

Google Versus Facebook (Copyright Mashable)

Google Versus Facebook (Copyright Mashable)

Enjoy!

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