Our New Fair Use Policy (For users based in Germany)

We’re proud of the fact that many of you use NUMBER26 every day and engage with us in an honest and communicative way. This is a level of trust that we’re working on sustaining and strengthening. Transparency is one of our key values. That’s why we developed the new Fair Use Policy with concrete feedback from you, our users. Here are some stats from the survey we conducted:

• We invited a representative sample of 5.000 active NUMBER26 users to participate in the Fair Use Survey, and more than 1.000 responded.
• We presented these main options for how a Fair Use Policy might be structured:
  • A) Everyone pays a transaction fee for each ATM withdrawal
  • B) Everyone pays a base account fee
  • C) Everyone gets a certain free allowance of ATM withdrawals after which a fee applies

The results? An overwhelming preference for option 3, with about 84% of responses indicating that this option seems fair.

With that in mind, we set out to run the numbers and see how we could accommodate as many users as possible, and consider variables like accounts belonging to younger users still growing into financial independence, and accounts with regular monthly income.

Here’s what we decided in full detail, effective starting on 7 September 2016.

• New cash withdrawal Fair Use Policy for Germany-based users
  • What: unlimited free cash withdrawals at 6.000 retailers in the CASH26 retailer network such as Rewe, Penny, and Real all over Germany at your convenience. All it takes is a few taps on your smartphone.
• 5 free monthly ATM withdrawals in Germany for:
  • All users for an initial 3 month grace period.
  • All users under the age of 26.
  • Primary account users, defined as:
    • Users who receive a regular monthly salary or any type of monthly government support into their NUMBER26 account, for at least two consecutive months. - Or users who receive incoming transfers to their account of at least €1.000 for at least two consecutive months.
• 3 free monthly ATM withdrawals for Germany-based who do not meet any of the above criteria after the initial 3 month grace period.
• A €2 fee will apply to each ATM withdrawal in Germany after the free limit.
• Push notifications will inform you when you are about to reach your limit and when you have reached your limit. Additionally, a dashboard in the app will always show your account status.
• These free ATM limits in Germany don't affect the free, unlimited ATM allowance outside of Germany. Nor do ATM withdrawals outside of Germany count against the free limit in Germany.
• Why:
  • ATM withdrawals are particularly costly in Germany. As we mentioned in our introduction, we asked for your input about this issue, and agreed that these are the fairest conditions for those who want to withdraw from an ATM more than 3 or 5 times a month. Don’t forget: CASH26 withdrawals remain free and unlimited. Additionally, we wanted to support our younger users who may still be students or just beginning their careers.

We’ve prepared some suggestions on how to painlessly cut back on your ATM withdrawals in our Support Center if you’re interested.

What is not changing for users:

• Bank account with no account management fees
• Free MasterCard and optional Maestro Card
• Free use of all the features you know and love like MoneyBeam, real-time notifications, and intelligent updates through PULSE26

The Fair Use Policy only applies to Germany-based users. If you didn’t sign up for NUMBER26 with an original shipping address in Germany, the Fair Use Policy doesn’t apply to you. Why? Because the ATM fees are much lower outside of Germany.

Here is our updated pricing.

We hope this article helps explain the “fair” in Fair Use. We’ll continue to bring you the world’s best banking experience with fair and transparent terms and pricing.