Paul Chris Jones

A month ago, something happened that changed my opinion about N26 entirely, so much so that I've actually closed my account. Read on to find out more.

A mysterious direct debit

Last month, N26 sent me a message that a company called Free Mobile had taken €1.38 out of my account by direct debit. This was weird because I'd never heard of Free Mobile. I googled the name and discovered they're a French mobile company. Why was a French mobile company was taking money out of my account?

I quickly tapped "request refund" in N26's app – an option that lets you reverse a direct debit charge. The princely sum of €1.38 was back in my account in just a matter of seconds. So, I had my money back.

But how could I cancel the direct debit? And who had set it up in the first place?

Trying to cancel the direct debit through online banking

To try to cancel the direct debit, I opened my computer and logged into N26's online banking portal. You see, with most banks, you can simply log in to online banking and then see a list of your direct debits. You can also cancel the direct debits by clicking a couple of buttons. It's not complicated. A monkey would be able to do it.

For example, here's a screenshot from an online banking session with Irish bank Permanent TSB. You can see that I manage all my direct debits online:

I quickly discovered that N26 is not like most banks however. That's because when you log into their online banking, you won't find a way to see your direct debits. In fact, there's no mention of direct debits at all.

What's more, there's no way to do cancel a direct debit through the N26 app either. That's a bit shit.

Speaking to an N26 representative

Since I couldn't cancel the mysterious direct debit myself, I contacted one of N26's support staff.

Alyssa - Hey Paul, how can I help you? Me - Hi Alyssa. Basically I have a direct debit that I don't recognise. The company appears as FREE MOBILE on my account Alyssa - Ok sure, I can look into this for you. Alyssa - If this transaction was unauthorized by you, it could be there is fraudulent activity going on. Since it was a Direct Debit this means that it does not have to do with the card, but rather your account details Alyssa - In this case, you will need to contact the Merchant company and ask how they got your card details. Alyssa - It is a breach of your information, so you will need to get their details and file a police report

At this point I was a little surprised. Contact the Merchant company? Who am I, Inspector Clouseau? Do I look like I solve crimes for a living? Do I look like Batman? And more to the point, can't she just cancel the direct debit so I can just put this situation behind me and just get on with my fucking life?

I asked Alyssa if she could tell more any more about Free Mobile:

Me - Could you tell me anything else about the company - all I have at the moment is their name, Free Mobile? Alyssa - I can not see anything other than FREE MOBILE

What the fuck? N26's representative COULDN'T SEE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE DIRECT DEBIT. That doesn't sound right. You'd expect her to able to see the details of the bank my money went to.

I then asked Alyssa how I could cancel the direct debit:

Me - How would I stop Free Mobile from charging my account again? Alyssa - Right, you can't really which is why you should file a police report. However you can always reverse the charges

What the fucking fuck? N26 CAN'T CANCEL A FUCKING DIRECT DEBIT? WHAT THE FUCK?

As you can probably tell, I'm shocked. You'd expect a bank to be able to cancel a direct debit. You'd even think that cancelling a direct debit would be a fairly mundane task compared to all the other things they have to do, like managing millions of euros of people's money. But no. N26 cannot cancel a direct debit.

So because N26 can't cancel the direct debit, and because I don't know if a hacker has my N26 bank details, I'm closing my N26 account.

I haven't made this decision lightly either. Once you've cancelled your N26 account, you can never open another one apparently. Oh well. At least I still have Revolut.