Legit but here are some tips – N26 — Love your bank Review

N26 is the real deal! I was so thankful to be able to set up my account within a day without needing work authorization, resident permits, credit checks, or any of the other mountain of paperwork that other German banks may require. As a U.S. citizen staying for under 90 days as a scholar not making any money (and as someone who didn’t have any luck opening a bank account stateside until the very last minute), this was a boon. Two issues however: There are two times when N26 will send you PIN codes via SMS. The first time is during your video call to verify your identity with your passport. I got this one just fine. The second time is after the video call in order to activate your account. Apparently because my phone number is in the U.S., I did not get this one. There is a workaround for this because I ultimately opened my account but there is nothing online warning users that certain countries’ phone numbers won’t be able to receive the second PIN via SMS. The auto-reply to my customer service request said they would take some undetermined amount of time to get back to me, but to use the chat function either on the website or in the app if the issue was urgent (and the issue was urgent). This brings me to my second issue: the chat function took me days to access. First of all, because my account wasn’t activated, I couldn’t get into the app. Second of all, the website link they sent me wanted me to login - again, couldn’t get in because my account wasn’t activated. I eventually found the chat function in the FAQ portion of the website, but even then, it’s only available on certain FAQ pages (the one I found it on was “personal information: changing your personal data”). The graphic for the chat button is a small, thin light grey outline of a speech bubble, which makes it hard to see. I don’t know if they purposely make it hard to find to allow their customer service team some breathing space but I don’t think it should be that hard to get help! Once I found the button though, an agent was patched through to me very quickly and solved my problem in minutes by informing me that I never got the second PIN because my number was from the US and by sending me the PIN over chat (after verifying that I was who I said I was!). So ultimately, my frustrations with N26 were things that are avoidable so I’m hoping that by writing this review I can help someone successfully open an account with them too. I do still recommend them and their customer service team.
Review by symphonic+ on N26 — Love your bank.