New banks without phones: Atom and Fidor

SnowTiger · 4 February 2015 at 10:15AM

I don't think these two new banks have been mentioned here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30849322:

"Everything you want to do - from a banking perspective - you can do on a mobile," says Anthony Thomson, chairman of Atom Bank, which is hoping to launch in the second half of 2015 and aims to be one of the UK's first internet-only operators.

[...]

But Atom Bank is likely to be beaten to the market by the world's first pure internet bank, Fidor.

Fidor clock
"Another thousand likes": Fidor cut its lending rate by 0.1% for every 2,000 likes on Facebook
The German company is planning to launch in the UK before the end of March.

It describes itself as a "community", because its favourite method of communication is via social media.

In one of its campaigns in Germany, it cut its lending rate by 0.1% for every 2,000 "likes" it received on Facebook. Savings rates increased at the same rate.

Paul_1977 · 6 April 2016 at 4:26PM

Atom bank is now live, but only if you have an invite, which you can get by registering today, and they will send it over in batches.

https://www.atombank.co.uk

I have to say the app is very different to normal banking apps.

diamonds · 6 April 2016 at 4:33PM

Paul_1977 wrote: »

Atom bank is now live, but only if you have an invite, which you can get by registering today, and they will send it over in batches.

https://www.atombank.co.uk

I have to say the app is very different to normal banking apps.

Got the email at 3PM

Paul_1977 · 6 April 2016 at 4:38PM

diamonds wrote: »

Got the email at 3PM

Me also, but no code to open an account yet, apparently its coming today.

diamonds · 6 April 2016 at 4:39PM

Paul_1977 wrote: »

Me also, but no code to open an account yet, apparently its coming today.

Goodo, thanks:)

ChiefGrasscutter · 6 April 2016 at 4:45PM

SnowTiger wrote: »

I don't think these two new banks have been mentioned here.

Oh yes they (or rather Fidor) certainly has...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5326818

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5411744

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5410397

Note especially my warnings in the threads and someone else's actual experience in that the UK ombudsman service will not deal with any complaints and you are on your own dealing with the German one yourself.

grumbler · 6 April 2016 at 5:42PM

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

Oh yes they (or rather Fidor) certainly has...

No, it certainly hasn't 04-02-2015 - when the OP was posted.;)

pmduk · 6 April 2016 at 5:58PM

Fidor has phones, but no phone banking.

Futuristic · 6 April 2016 at 6:11PM

What makes these "online" banks better than ordinary banks? (Apart from people with bad credit history)

Paul_1977 · 6 April 2016 at 8:13PM

They would say, they can offer higher rates.

Doctor_Duke · 6 April 2016 at 8:28PM

I would say right now neither of these so called challenger banks offer any competition to mainstream banks/building societies. Fidor is a joke with poor security, charging for cash withdrawals, no Standing Orders or DD, oh and not even your own personal account number or sort code. As for ATOM nothing yet to compare apart from a fixed saver that doesn't look that competitive compared to existing offers.