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Comment by forgetsusername | Hacker News Reader

>I invested mainly because I like the idea of a bank where I can do everything online.

Is this really unavailable in the US? Here in Canada, PC Financial has been operating like that for well over a decade. Sure, they have kiosks in some of their grocery stores for those people who want to talk to somebody (which is genius, really), but it's entirely virtual. I've operated almost exclusively online, outside of lost cards and things of that nature. Ordering cheques, creating new accounts, switching pins, transferring money, it's all a couple of clicks.

>There's no reason I should still have to call or go in to a store to change my address/unblock my card

So you'd prefer your bank didn't freeze the card based on what they deem to be suspicious activity? Good luck to those banks...

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> Is this really unavailable in the US?

This is in the UK, and it might be available but certainly not with any of the major banks

> So you'd prefer your bank didn't freeze the card based on what they deem to be suspicious activity?

They'll still block cards on suspicious activity, but they allow you to manually unblock/block cards using the mobile app, and they can also use your phone location in their algorithms if you open the app while abroad

> This is in the UK, and it might be available but certainly not with any of the major banks

I recently opened an account with HSBC fully online; didn't need to go into a branch. Think I have been to my Santander branch once over 4 years. I think the real advantage of 'online only' is not for consumer convenience but for lower operating costs on part of the bank. Smile and Egg were online only banks created in the late 90's, so the idea isn't new.

I guess we might disagree on the definition of major bank, but I've had an account with Smile[0], part of the Co-Operative Bank, for over 10 years. It's an Internet only bank, with no physical branches. I've always done everything online. What does Mondo offer that Smile doesn't?

Also, as it is actually part of the Co-Operative bank, on the rare occasions where I've needed to withdraw a large lump sum of cash, I've been able to use those Co-Operative branches (that's happened about three times in 10 years).

I also have a Number26 account,[1] which I only opened a few months ago. Again, I don't see the Mondo advantage. In the Mondo Beta phase customers must be London based and iPhone users. No such Number26 restrictions.

I suppose I just don't understand the Mondo hype. They're good at marketing, but don't seem to offer much that isn't already available elsewhere.

[0] http://www.smile.co.uk

[1] https://number26.eu/

I'm a Mondo user. Things I like about it:

- no login bullshit (no pinsentry, or being timed out after 5 minutes or whatever)

- instant card freeze/unfreeze from the app. I don't have to talk to anyone to do it

- push notifications for every purchase (including full text entries for where the transaction was, and a cute little topical emoji)

- no hassling with PDFs of my transaction history, there's a god-damned API (and for the average consumer, there's the potential to have a constellation of 3rd party apps to deal with anything on the API). There's also in-app transaction breakdowns (for instance, I can see how much I spend in a particular category, or at a particular place). SHOW ME ANOTHER BANK WITH AN API

- I always know how much money I have in the account; there's not "available balance/actual balance" bullshit.

Honestly the main thing is that's really easy to use. I'm generally terrible at keeping track of how much money I have (usually because I avoid cash machines (I don't know who's still using cash in London, pretty much everything is contactless) and logging into online banking is a hassle). With Mondo, I can find my balance in one tap.

And yeah, they've earned my loyalty and I invested in them yesterday. Sign up for a card, use it, then criticise it.

I'm not sure if any other bank provides their own API for people to hack their own accounts with, but all my high street bank accounts are accessible to an ecosystem of third party apps that do things like transaction breakdowns via Yodlee (an API intermediary)

If you ask the bank they'll let you use it. I's still in a sort of beta phase but all UK banks have to have them soon under a HM treasury directive on 'Open Banking'.

Apart from the API, which I just haven't looked into, my Number26 account has all of those things covered. I'm also not restricted to being a London living iPhone user.

I just don't understand the Mondo hype. Their service isn't unique in Europe and with their beta restrictions, I think their offering is behind some competitors.

Isn't Number26 Germany only for the moment?

He said he didn't want to have to physically visit a branch to unblock his card, not that he wanted a card without fraud protection.

Ally Bank?

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