I know of a similar company to N26 where <i>not a single customer</i> flagged up by the AML system ever managed to get a payout of the money's in their account. There were literally thousands of frozen accounts. The phone customer service people were told to reply "I'm afraid the issue is still under investigation and we can't discuss it further until the investigation is complete. [Hang up]". Letters got similar replies.<p>Their account was just frozen forever. Apparently that's the lowest risk thing for the company to do to not get in trouble with authorities for facilitating money laundering.<p>The filters that triggered this were laughable too - things like having an unusual unicode character in your name could trigger it.
They also released statement [1] yesterday, regarding why do they block/close accounts.<p>[1] <a href="https://n26.com/en-es/blog/why-does-n26-block-accounts" rel="nofollow">https://n26.com/en-es/blog/why-does-n26-block-accounts</a>
Although I can understand the need to fight money laundering, it is very scary. From the explanation provided by the N26, it is basically that we may sometimes close your account due to error and there is nothing you can do about that.<p>My friend had deposited some money in one of those online banks. Then it got frozen and they requested some additional documentation which my friend provided. When the service did not release the funds, he went to the court and the bank immediately released the money without explanation. Apparently their evidence wasn't really so convincing to withstand court scrutiny. However, it is possible that the regulations require freezing funds even on the basis of flimsy evidence.
I also found this [1] with the title "N26 Bank GmbH: BaFin orders measures to limit growth and appoints a special commissioner" back dated to 5 October 2021.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/EN/Pressemitteilung/2021/pm_211109_N26_Massnahmen_und_Sonderbeauftragter_en.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/EN/Press...</a>
In Europe, absolutely NOBODY should use those scam banks as their primary one, we have very strong regulations and having physical banks allows to have an immediate answer and contact guarantee.<p>I’ve never heard of account closing, money blocking and lack of contact in traditional banks (at least in Germany/France/Switzerland) while N26/Revolut ask for additional personal info to data mine like bank statements from family and friends.<p>I use one of these online banks just for virtual cards to be extra safe and no more than 100€ in the account