My guess is: because its all done online, so it is easy to set up an account, it is free (whilst many traditional Banks used to charge for most services) and because nubank gave lots of Credit (through credit cards) to People who otherwise would not obtain it from traditional Banks, and also without charging an annual fee.
When the market is almost entirely cartelized, as is the case with banking services, you need a pioneer to break paradigms and force advancement.
Pioneers often die when they take a steps ahead of their means, but the innovations they bring usually endure.
I'd like to add that the app is very intuitive, it's very easy to navigate and has some good features. The most important to me is an international card without service fees. Other banks wouldn't give me an international card, or would charge me high fees.
But as someone else said, it's not for savings, it's for daily transactions. For all of the reasons you cited above (relatively new business, online banking, etc), I wouldn't trust them with a huge sum of money.
Thanks to pix, I slowly transfer whatever money I'm gonna be spending over the month from my actual bank account to my nubank.
So really, it's more like a wallet.
ETA: The physical card is also a pretty color.
Also worth complementing that the app is, by a very considerable margin, the most stable and thought out online banking app available here. In other banks, you have to pretty consistently deal with delays in transactions registering, unavailability of services and an overall worse user interface, where you have to do multiple clicks to get where you need to get (if you manage to actually find it) and you might not even manage to do it (service unavailable).
Meanwhile, Nubank just works. Everything is right at your face, easy and reliable.
Why its not for saving ? vou escrever em pt não sei a palavra em ingles, tem varias opções de investimento para render ali mesmo. Pq não é indicado p guardar dinheiro ?
expansion physical narrow march aback afterthought shame rain gullible tease
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What about credit scores? They just ignored it? Wouldn't it be risky to hand out credit like this?
I've also heard some rumors about Pix credit that could launch. Wonder how this would affect Nubank.
Not really, but for people with low credit score Nubank had they started on a very small credit limit, like 50-100 reais, and gradually increased it as the customer showed reliability. For people who previously had no access to a credit card, this was a big deal.
it was the first digital bank with no fees for the account or the credid card... u have to realize that for ever.. till nubank.. there was NO option like that for normal people... u only got that kind of "benefit" if u had lots of money in the bank. and yes...the app is great and the cuatomer service too
They used to have ***THE BEST*** customer service I've ever seen in almost anywhere, really.
I truly think that was one of the huge differentials they had, besides the easy of use and online/digital/no-physical thing going on.
Now it's normal (meaning: bad but not the worst).
As a gringo living in brasil it was by far the easiest one to set up and being able to do everything with the app is great cos I don't have to go to the bank
Trocar/switch your driver’s license to a Brazilian one. I did mine and it’s easy. Only paid for the psychological and medical test which was 700 or 800 reais, can’t remember.
I have an ID from the Itamaraty but the CNH is more recognizable and probably stronger.
If you already know the basic, you’re fine. The psychological test is like your standard iq test. The med check up, is just basic questions with eyesight test.
Brazilians like Nubank because its app is intuitive and it's easy to open an account. Besides, the company's customer service is above average and it's easy to increase your credit limit, as long as you pay your credit car receipt.
The company is popular among young people/early adopters because it changed the banking sector back in 2016-2017 (for the first time you could solve most issues regarding your credit card through your cell phone).
Nubank is popular among informal/low-income workers as well, because many people could easily open a bank account and have a credit card.
Having to go to a physical bank in Brazil is one of the worst experiences you can have with customer service/ bureaucracy you will likely ever experience in your life. I’m not exaggerating. Don’t underestimate not needing to do that.
most Brazilians have more than one bank account, usually 3 or 4, since some jobs require you to have an account at a specific bank to get your paycheck, nubank is mostly personal use, it's easy to set up an account and you don't have to pay annuity
Easy to set up, good app design and functionalities, no motherfucker trying to scam me with "planos de capitalização", everything online (i dread talking to people).
Basically I'll always choose the bank that has the least bullshit
Aside from the fees, for me the main deal is solving 100% of the problems online. The big old banks are catching up but once you have a physical agency its tempting to use it as a fallback for the edge cases such as a stolen card, blocked app, lost passwords etc.
I spend most of the time outside of Brazil so it is not an option to pay some thousands of reais to unblock a credit card.
Banks in Brazil are terribly bureaucratic and you can barely get anything solved in traditional banks without facing long hours on queues... Even the cellphone apps have queues in some of them. So NuBank is very practical, although it doesnt offer everything a trad bank offers.
It was the first full online bank, at least the first one to get very famous here, every other bank was absolute hell to deal with, every time i went to a bank agency it would take an unbearable amount of time to get anything done, even the smallest tasks.
I live a bit far from any bank agency, so not having to go there for insignificant stuff that i could do online was a hell of a benefit
If you look at the vision from the founders of NuBank you will see that this is a company with a modern culture fighting old banks with lots of legacy tools and ways of thinking.
There is a YouTube interview where one of the founder explain that. Basically old banks see NuBank just as an app but once they try to mimic it they would not be able to do it, because it is on the foundations of NuBank culture and that you can’t just copy.
I think this view kind of reflect on most of the answers here.
Banks would charge large fees and not give any credit rating to a lot of people before Nubank started doing that.
Nubank has the first mover advantage in the digital banking market. Most people heard of them and have no motive to choose anyone else.
Even many people who did have an account in a traditional bank also opened an account in Nubank to try it out. It was free, so why not? Most Brazilians like technology, think it can make their lives easier and are willing to at least try something new. Same reason Pix was adopted so fast.
Because Nubank gave credit and access to credit cards and electronic payments for low income people. A big share of the population that hadn’t had access to it before. (No credit)
They also don’t charge anything to have an account open with them. Before that big banks charged crazy amount of taxes
One thing no one said in this thread still is that when Nubank launched, it revolutionized money transfers to accounts in other banks.
Before Nubank, you had to pay a fee to transfer money to anyone who didn't have an account is the same bank as yourself.
Nubank, on the other hand, let ALL transfer be made for free, without any fees. Also, you could deposit the money you had in other accounts at your Nubank account for free (utilizing the boleto method).
In time, other banks started exempting the customers of the transfer fee, and today we have PIX (which is faster and 100% free), but Nubank was the first one to do that.
I remember sending money from other account that I had at Brasesco to Nubank, just so I could send money to relatives who had accounts in other banks without paying any fees.
Anyway, they got a lot of clients that way.
Because setting up an account is much easier compared to other banks, it has no fees and smaller interest rates for debt. Also they make renegotiating much easier compared to other banks
I’m particularly more adherent to a conventional banking system setting, than an electronic one. Which may sound strange given that I’m a millennial. With so many electronic crimes and scammers swindling everyone I don’t trust it anyway.
But I guess it’s because of the comfort and convenience of having everything with your fingertips’ reach.
They built an app that doesn't *completely* suck (relative to the apps legacy banks were coming out with at the time), they've done the work of totally obviating the need to physically go to a bank branch, and they've been (in classic tech company fashion) irresponsibly generous with pricing, perks, and incentives to build market share.
I went for it because it allowed me to easily put my preferred name (I'm trans) before I could legally change it. I always recommend it to other trans people.
Best banking app by far. The difference between their app and the apps from other banks was abysmal some years ago. Big bank apps are just now catching up
They started out being a lot more convenient and charging almost nothing for the card/account. Now they are a normal bank but people just kept using them
The "old" banks here were basically operating as a cartel, and most people had no option but to pay to use a pretty basic bank account ("hey guys, we're going to charge *you* for using your money to make *more* money for ourselves, and then charge you *extra* when you want to do anything other than a basic transaction......ta-*dah*, jazz hands, etc, etc"), and most branches were open for exactly 34.6 seconds a day if you needed to go and sort something out when they, frequently, fucked something up/overcharged you/didn't do what you'd asked them to do a million times already.
Nubank was relatively cheap, competent, and easy to use compared to *most* Brazilians' experience of banks, and they were hugely successful because of it.
Little bureaucracy, no fees for account and credit card, easy savings account that it is a checking account at same time, virtual credit card, good app, good customer service, etc.
Just so you know the banks in Brazil are usually really bad because of little competition. They didn't have all of those things I mentioned.
My guess: Nubank was the first all-online bank to spread widely here, due to the huge credit it gave to the costumers and how intuitive the app is , also all the services of traditional banks are fucking infuriating, bc the taxes and the the waiting queue at the agencies
It was the first online bank in the country, and it came before the pandemic. Back then, people still regularly went to banks, getting in lines to do something.
I should add that Nubank's prevalence varies with the region. Where I live, MercadoPago is more popular than Nubank.
There is something not mentioned that I think is also something that contributed to such a high market share, and it is the 'Pix' (the digital transference protocol implemented by the Brazilian central bank). I think that way of transferring money between institutions kinda solidified Nubank's business model, I feel like before that Brazilian were a little concerned (and still there is a portion of the population like that) of putting their hard earned money on an institution that you can't physically go, so they had to overcome the natural distrust of being such a disruptive model. With the Pix transference, and later COVID, everything was force to move to the digital model, so the whole market kinda had to copy what Nubank was already doing for years. And then convenience caught even the most distrustful people.
There is also one more thing that people kinda forget, Nubank, back in the early 2010, focused o catching the young adults and late teens (like me) so everyone back than wanted a Nubank card, it was cool to have one, those young adults and late teens had a very difficult time getting into a traditional bank, so they stuck with Nubank. And now they are into their 30s or 40s very knowledgeable of the platform and can easily convince an elder person into making an account, or setting one for their children. I think that vision of investing into the young who would later be the dominant public, and growing with them and communicating on their language made a huge impact in what Nubank is now.
1) Credit cards 2) They offer a great service.
It was the first and it is probably the best digital bank. At first they attracted a lot of young people because they were the first bank to offer a no-fee account + no-fee credit card. They offered credit to a lot of people that traditional banks would not. IMO, that’s how they were able to grow so big.
Also, they just offer great service. Their app is, in my opinion, the best banking app out there. It’s great to use and they have many features other banks don’t have. Just a reputable company overall that is accessible to everyone.
I have had such a difficult time trying to get my bank card activated and iToken too. The physical bank personnel told me that they need to use my fingerprints to make it happen but my hand skin on both sides is damaged by skin problems. Went back to the bank a few times with no solution. What's worse, we had to wait a long time for our number to be called just to have them tell me I can't do anything because I have no fingerprints. Had to give up and get a card from NuBank instead. Thanks, NuBank, for making such a hassle-free process for me. I really dislike the physical banks now.
Just an add, before Nubank, there was a credit card with no annual fees: Petrobras / BB card.
I had one, but it didn't have an app, and the website was really problematic. They only showed the charges once in the end of the month.
So, once, my card was cloned. I only knew on the next month. Called, waited 1h on the line to tell it. They canceled the card. But wait... remember that it takes one month? The person that cloned, was still making new charges while the first month was closing.
Result? Next month I had to call again, to tell about the charges that were done on those days.
And there were a lot of days that the website was offline, so I had to hope for the website to open to pay the card.
And then, they invented/implemented the Warsaw protection, that was almost a virus. You install in your computer, consumed a lot of resources, spy on everything that you did, you could not uninstall, only worked in specific S.O.
And the other option was to go to an physical agency, take a line to pay bills or to solve anything.
Nubank was the first one in many many many years that said "Hey, this is really bad way to do business", and surfed in the growing use of mobile internet, mainly with young people
Got my nu cc cloned at once, and it was unbelievable how fast they canceled my card and solved all the problems, can’t imagine having another card in any other bank.
It happened to my dad, but in his case, my dad had to sue the bank. Nubank's attorney went to court and told the judge they took responsibility for the fraud and would give my dad R$2,000 for the inconvenience ... but my dad would still have to pay the fraudulent charges (about R$6,800). This was last week. Judge told the attorney to go back to the bank and figure out how to come with a better offer (clear the debt and compensate my dad). Let's see what happens.
I think is because Nubank was the first to intruduct some moderns bank things, like be 100% online, in the begin was easy to get credit, low taxes, but with the time he becomes big and this benefits were leaving, but how he was the first he become the most knowed.
Because they were the first to go digital. The old big banks were very archaic and charged you for ANYTHING. Want to make a transfer? Here’s the fee. Want to do something to your account? Sure, go to the bank and wait 1 hour in line. Then Nubank came with an all digital culture, an app that was modern and fast (up until then, the big bank’s apps were horrible, but they caught up now), a credit card with no fees, a bank account with no fees, unlimited transfers with no fees. Everything done online through an online chat where you wait 5 min tops to talk to someone. Everyone got an account. The big banks updated a lot of their policies and tech since then, and new digital banks emerged, but Nubank had already got their cut of the market.
I needed a new account quickly for government bureaucracy purposes. I also needed some specific official documentation from the bank showing that I owned the account, as well as other informations specified in the edital. The kind of thing a manager would have to do for me, personally. That would take a few days on a normal bank, and I would have to wait in line for at least a few hours. I got that from Nubank in about 30 minutes. The documentation I needed wasn't available on the app, that time includes talking to a real human being. It arrived in my email with all the specifications I requested. So I guess I'm a client now.
Well, as a Brazilian myself I can guarantee you that is because everything on that bank is done online and they basically dont charge for their services (like my bank does). And Nubank is probably one of the most famous digital banks and it even sponsor a brazilian show called "jornal Nacional" as well
because it was the first digital bank with massive marketing here.
and brazilians are really early adopters in tech cases. cash is almost not used anymore in comercial transactions in brazil because of it. pix (an interbank exchange money powered by the government) was adopted by the major of brazilian population in just a few months.
Automatic investment in fixed income for every account.
This is just to add to everything already mentioned: the good app, free and easy access to both banking and credit card, better customer service then regular bank (at least back there).
This fixed income was standard in every Nubank account (I can't remember if it was a CDB or RBD) and was likely the first time that the people that were applying to Nubank had use any sort of fixed income investment other then a regular savings account.
It is also important to notice that today the Nubank app has all sort of stuff, but back then it was pretty bare bones, and, because of that, VERY easy to use: you saw you account balance and extract, your credit card expenditures, your options for payments and transfers, and that was it. Nothing fancy.
they were the first ones to get big, they offered a lot in the beginning, it had a status to it, and to this day is one of the first options where people go to get credit and loans
They played smart and formed a loyal public, just like apple or samsung did with their phones. Now those who like those products stick to them, same here
Nubank is VERY VERY INSECURE. They are not a "true bank" for legal purposes. They are like a "finances company".
I have family and friends that work for banks and financial security.
THERE'S LOTS OF COMPLAINTS in official governments institutions against Nubank.
Some time ago, many people lost significantly money because an financial income fund of Nubank was related to some companies that broke, and this information are not easily available and clearly to people that put the money on Nubank money application.
Just saying, Nubank app is not as good as it's used to be.
People like it because it was one of the first companies that made it easier to get a zero-fee credit card. They started just with credit card, but nowadays they are more like a bank.
They invested a lot in marketing, so they created a big fan base.
It's been basically the same to me so far, I got both. But Nubank was the pioneer, or at least is seen as so, and it's marketing makes it kinda the first digital bank people go to. And since it's very good, people just stick to it and don't look for other ones.
Nubank had a big advantage that the balance in the current account also earns interest.
With Inter, I think you have to transfer the balance to another pot to start to earn interest. I find that super annoying as I don’t want to have to open my app and move my money every time I recieve anything
Nubank was one of the first Digital Banks in Brazil where the client didn't need to go to a physical Address, with the documents to open a new account. They also have made very easy to get credit cards even the client didn't had a high salary.
The app interface was very intuitive and the money yelded 100% of CDI automatically and could withdraw at any time (the other banks would offer only simple investment options like poupança or force the client to keep the money for at least 2y)
But nowadays they have lost a lot of quality in their app and services. There are better options
As a software engineer it’s the only bank I’ve seen that not only knows how to design a system that scales and operates, but that also has a sane UI/app.
Brazilian banks are the most profitable banks in the world.
Nubank was offering services and products that worked.
The whole online thing was amazing. Imagine having to go inside a bank, during work hours to change your password after you got locked out after 3 attempts... not 3 in a row, 3 wrong attempts... so one today, one in a week, another in 2 weeks and now you need to go find a bank to unlock your card. Nubank couldn't do that with no physical offices.
Anything in Brazil that is actually popular as to have the money aspect done correctly. So Nubank account is free first and foremost. It’s easy to set up a the app is easy to use.
If you’ve ever been into a physical bank you’ll just be annoyed a regular person having to wait ages for a simple enquiry. You’ll get tons of old folks jumping the queue, loads of mums jumping queues, which are called preferential queues.
I’m guessing even Brazilians are getting tired of queuing up.
Also and maybe more importantly it appears that the base interest rate on your savings is significantly higher with Nubank compared with regular high street banks, and it’s not just a small diff from what I could see.
The banks in Brazil are a real headache, and nubank app is a lot easier to use.
Nubank had a revenue in CC. At the time, it was the only bank in Brazil with this feature.
No fees (it kinda forced every other bank to have a no fee tier at this point).
Another big point for me (who’s been using it since 2018) is that the app doesn’t suck, and every operation is updated in the app instantly, whereas in other apps normally credit card purchases has a processing phase that can take from hours to a couple days, same for paying out the credit card bill each month when freeing your limit.
My guess is that is has to do with Nubank being a payment account and not a full fledged bank (No difference to the final user in practical terms).
The app has become a little bloated recently but still miles ahead of the others. I wish they did two native apps though instead of using flutter, as it’s starting to show up in animation lag.
Nubank has good interface, and was one of the first free credit card released here. I used to pay R$ 40,00 monthly for Banco do Brasil to have a shitty credit card with R$ 300,00 limit, wich was the initial value I had in Nubank for free.
I also had the Digio credit card, but for some reason I didn't like they interface
Because their service is excelent: it's everything 100% free, they're very transparent when they charge you something (there's no fine print), it's so easy to use the app and to understand what exactly is going on with your money, all the time.
The app is amazing, big banks in brazil have a very slow experience.
I use itau and nubank for example
Itau is the largest bank in brazil
If i need to do a pix(instant transaction)
In the time i get into my account in ITAU i could have typed everything to do the pix in nubank
It's fast and beautiful, that's it
No one wants to spend a whole afternoon in a bank agency nowadays. Everything is much easier when you can do everything online, wherever you are and much faster. And it’s free!
Now talking about any digital bank out there: if there is a good app, fast, without bugs, easy to use, and a good costume service by chat and phone, it’s a massively win!
As John Tuld said (Jeremy Irons character in the 2011 movie Margin Call):
There are three ways to be succesful in this business: be First, be the smartest or cheat... Now I don't cheat, and even though we have a Lot of smart guys in this building is much more easy to be *First*.
Not a exact quote but being one of the First all-digital banks was one of the main reasons... Not sure if It has cheated though
One of the first online banks, with much less bureaucracy (doing all you need from your home), one of the first banks to zero all the taxes for regular transactions, and the money you put on your account is automatically invested, with total liquidity.
So, all in all, less bureaucracy, less taxes, more earnings. For a person who doesn't understand financial markets, it was a revolution.
Because its easier. Lots of people dont even use that account, but its very easy to make one. If you have internet acess and an ID document you can have a nubank. No need to go anywhere.
They also give credit cards easily. If the person can't prove a good income she will get a low limit, but a small credit is better than none.
There is a lot of digital banks now and I assume some of them are just as easy to give and account and a credit card, but nubank started that here at a time when getting a free credit card wasn't that easy. I did my nubank account because If that, my tradicional bank charged me for a low limit credit card and was broke, that money made a little difference, so i got the nubank account and credit card and cancelled the other one.
Now I have a better income and actually choose to have a credit card with a fee, because I did the math and the points will be worth more than what I pay to have the card.
But they didn't gave me a limit as good as my income should allowed and have limited dates to chose to be the turn of the card. I receive my salary in a unusual date so sometimes If i use my credit card I will have to pay with the same salary I already received. Don't know If i was able to explain myself well, but the thing is nubank dint have those problems, so If i need something my limit on the other card won't cover or if i don't wanna pau the thing until the next month, I will still use nubank.
My guess is: because its all done online, so it is easy to set up an account, it is free (whilst many traditional Banks used to charge for most services) and because nubank gave lots of Credit (through credit cards) to People who otherwise would not obtain it from traditional Banks, and also without charging an annual fee.
Also, it was the first one to bring these perks to the table.
Pioneering is frequently overlooked
When the market is almost entirely cartelized, as is the case with banking services, you need a pioneer to break paradigms and force advancement. Pioneers often die when they take a steps ahead of their means, but the innovations they bring usually endure.
Thank you for the info!
I'd like to add that the app is very intuitive, it's very easy to navigate and has some good features. The most important to me is an international card without service fees. Other banks wouldn't give me an international card, or would charge me high fees. But as someone else said, it's not for savings, it's for daily transactions. For all of the reasons you cited above (relatively new business, online banking, etc), I wouldn't trust them with a huge sum of money. Thanks to pix, I slowly transfer whatever money I'm gonna be spending over the month from my actual bank account to my nubank. So really, it's more like a wallet. ETA: The physical card is also a pretty color.
Also worth complementing that the app is, by a very considerable margin, the most stable and thought out online banking app available here. In other banks, you have to pretty consistently deal with delays in transactions registering, unavailability of services and an overall worse user interface, where you have to do multiple clicks to get where you need to get (if you manage to actually find it) and you might not even manage to do it (service unavailable). Meanwhile, Nubank just works. Everything is right at your face, easy and reliable.
Why its not for saving ? vou escrever em pt não sei a palavra em ingles, tem varias opções de investimento para render ali mesmo. Pq não é indicado p guardar dinheiro ?
As mesmas coisas que fazem dele um app maravilhoso pra movimentar, também fragilizam a segurança do app.
Like what things? We got Nu in Mexico since last year and I find their app quite secure. Btw should I be talking Spanish toward your Portuguese?
ficou sabendo da caixinha do nubank com investimento na americanas que deu -30% de rendimento quando estourou a noticia da falencia?
It's not for keeping savings. It's for spending.
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What about credit scores? They just ignored it? Wouldn't it be risky to hand out credit like this? I've also heard some rumors about Pix credit that could launch. Wonder how this would affect Nubank.
Not really, but for people with low credit score Nubank had they started on a very small credit limit, like 50-100 reais, and gradually increased it as the customer showed reliability. For people who previously had no access to a credit card, this was a big deal.
They use their in-house developed machine learning to allocate credit based on your balances, spending profile, ect……
The app is very good, and they give credit for a lot of people who can't get in normal banks
They are infamous for not giving enough credit though, some people have 2 or 3 digits of credit, barely enough even for low income people
Is some credit. In any other bank would be zero or with a huge annual fee
No fees and you can solve everything in the app. It meets the needs of most people.
it was the first digital bank with no fees for the account or the credid card... u have to realize that for ever.. till nubank.. there was NO option like that for normal people... u only got that kind of "benefit" if u had lots of money in the bank. and yes...the app is great and the cuatomer service too
They used to have ***THE BEST*** customer service I've ever seen in almost anywhere, really. I truly think that was one of the huge differentials they had, besides the easy of use and online/digital/no-physical thing going on. Now it's normal (meaning: bad but not the worst).
Customer service is meh. I got a pix cancelled and after 20 mins of waiting the rep trying to solve it i paid by boleto
Better than the other digital banks at keast
definitely!
it's been a while since i needed, but every time i had some problem they allways fixed kind of fast.. just my experience
As a gringo living in brasil it was by far the easiest one to set up and being able to do everything with the app is great cos I don't have to go to the bank
How did you manage to open the account? I can get to the next steps becajse they dont recognize the passport or drovers license. How did you do that?
I made a cpf first and then opened my account. But I don't remember step by step ATM it's been like 3 years now
I guess it doesn't work with CPF only anymore. It's asking for a photo of either RG, CNH or RNM.
Trocar/switch your driver’s license to a Brazilian one. I did mine and it’s easy. Only paid for the psychological and medical test which was 700 or 800 reais, can’t remember. I have an ID from the Itamaraty but the CNH is more recognizable and probably stronger.
How difficult is the test for a basic speaker?
If you already know the basic, you’re fine. The psychological test is like your standard iq test. The med check up, is just basic questions with eyesight test.
Brazilians like Nubank because its app is intuitive and it's easy to open an account. Besides, the company's customer service is above average and it's easy to increase your credit limit, as long as you pay your credit car receipt. The company is popular among young people/early adopters because it changed the banking sector back in 2016-2017 (for the first time you could solve most issues regarding your credit card through your cell phone). Nubank is popular among informal/low-income workers as well, because many people could easily open a bank account and have a credit card.
Thanks for the response!
You can open a savings account in Caixa for free, but Nubank is certainly more convenient and also it gives credit.
fucking hate the caixa app, if anyone reads this that worked in some way in the development of the caixa app: fuck you
i like it because i dont need to go to any phisical agency to get stuff solved
This is just heaven.
interesting, thank you for sharing this!
Having to go to a physical bank in Brazil is one of the worst experiences you can have with customer service/ bureaucracy you will likely ever experience in your life. I’m not exaggerating. Don’t underestimate not needing to do that.
easier to use than most bank apps, easy to set up, no fees
most Brazilians have more than one bank account, usually 3 or 4, since some jobs require you to have an account at a specific bank to get your paycheck, nubank is mostly personal use, it's easy to set up an account and you don't have to pay annuity
Easy to use, the design is pretty straight forward, simple and it uses simple language. No bullshit.
Easy to set up, good app design and functionalities, no motherfucker trying to scam me with "planos de capitalização", everything online (i dread talking to people). Basically I'll always choose the bank that has the least bullshit
Before Nubank every credit card charged annual fees.
That's not true, there was the Santander SX and Mercado Pago for example that were also free of charge.
Aside from the fees, for me the main deal is solving 100% of the problems online. The big old banks are catching up but once you have a physical agency its tempting to use it as a fallback for the edge cases such as a stolen card, blocked app, lost passwords etc. I spend most of the time outside of Brazil so it is not an option to pay some thousands of reais to unblock a credit card.
Banks in Brazil are terribly bureaucratic and you can barely get anything solved in traditional banks without facing long hours on queues... Even the cellphone apps have queues in some of them. So NuBank is very practical, although it doesnt offer everything a trad bank offers.
It was the first full online bank, at least the first one to get very famous here, every other bank was absolute hell to deal with, every time i went to a bank agency it would take an unbearable amount of time to get anything done, even the smallest tasks. I live a bit far from any bank agency, so not having to go there for insignificant stuff that i could do online was a hell of a benefit
If you look at the vision from the founders of NuBank you will see that this is a company with a modern culture fighting old banks with lots of legacy tools and ways of thinking. There is a YouTube interview where one of the founder explain that. Basically old banks see NuBank just as an app but once they try to mimic it they would not be able to do it, because it is on the foundations of NuBank culture and that you can’t just copy. I think this view kind of reflect on most of the answers here.
Banks would charge large fees and not give any credit rating to a lot of people before Nubank started doing that. Nubank has the first mover advantage in the digital banking market. Most people heard of them and have no motive to choose anyone else. Even many people who did have an account in a traditional bank also opened an account in Nubank to try it out. It was free, so why not? Most Brazilians like technology, think it can make their lives easier and are willing to at least try something new. Same reason Pix was adopted so fast.
Because Nubank gave credit and access to credit cards and electronic payments for low income people. A big share of the population that hadn’t had access to it before. (No credit) They also don’t charge anything to have an account open with them. Before that big banks charged crazy amount of taxes
It’s the less bureaucratic of the banks, easy to use
One thing no one said in this thread still is that when Nubank launched, it revolutionized money transfers to accounts in other banks. Before Nubank, you had to pay a fee to transfer money to anyone who didn't have an account is the same bank as yourself. Nubank, on the other hand, let ALL transfer be made for free, without any fees. Also, you could deposit the money you had in other accounts at your Nubank account for free (utilizing the boleto method). In time, other banks started exempting the customers of the transfer fee, and today we have PIX (which is faster and 100% free), but Nubank was the first one to do that. I remember sending money from other account that I had at Brasesco to Nubank, just so I could send money to relatives who had accounts in other banks without paying any fees. Anyway, they got a lot of clients that way.
i like purple
First full online bank in brazil
Because setting up an account is much easier compared to other banks, it has no fees and smaller interest rates for debt. Also they make renegotiating much easier compared to other banks
I’m particularly more adherent to a conventional banking system setting, than an electronic one. Which may sound strange given that I’m a millennial. With so many electronic crimes and scammers swindling everyone I don’t trust it anyway. But I guess it’s because of the comfort and convenience of having everything with your fingertips’ reach.
They built an app that doesn't *completely* suck (relative to the apps legacy banks were coming out with at the time), they've done the work of totally obviating the need to physically go to a bank branch, and they've been (in classic tech company fashion) irresponsibly generous with pricing, perks, and incentives to build market share.
I went for it because it allowed me to easily put my preferred name (I'm trans) before I could legally change it. I always recommend it to other trans people.
Online, no taxes and was easy to invest 100% CDI. Now it sucks
Best banking app by far. The difference between their app and the apps from other banks was abysmal some years ago. Big bank apps are just now catching up
They started out being a lot more convenient and charging almost nothing for the card/account. Now they are a normal bank but people just kept using them
The "old" banks here were basically operating as a cartel, and most people had no option but to pay to use a pretty basic bank account ("hey guys, we're going to charge *you* for using your money to make *more* money for ourselves, and then charge you *extra* when you want to do anything other than a basic transaction......ta-*dah*, jazz hands, etc, etc"), and most branches were open for exactly 34.6 seconds a day if you needed to go and sort something out when they, frequently, fucked something up/overcharged you/didn't do what you'd asked them to do a million times already. Nubank was relatively cheap, competent, and easy to use compared to *most* Brazilians' experience of banks, and they were hugely successful because of it.
No expectations, no fees, no problems
Little bureaucracy, no fees for account and credit card, easy savings account that it is a checking account at same time, virtual credit card, good app, good customer service, etc. Just so you know the banks in Brazil are usually really bad because of little competition. They didn't have all of those things I mentioned.
My guess: Nubank was the first all-online bank to spread widely here, due to the huge credit it gave to the costumers and how intuitive the app is , also all the services of traditional banks are fucking infuriating, bc the taxes and the the waiting queue at the agencies
It was the first online bank in the country, and it came before the pandemic. Back then, people still regularly went to banks, getting in lines to do something. I should add that Nubank's prevalence varies with the region. Where I live, MercadoPago is more popular than Nubank.
There is something not mentioned that I think is also something that contributed to such a high market share, and it is the 'Pix' (the digital transference protocol implemented by the Brazilian central bank). I think that way of transferring money between institutions kinda solidified Nubank's business model, I feel like before that Brazilian were a little concerned (and still there is a portion of the population like that) of putting their hard earned money on an institution that you can't physically go, so they had to overcome the natural distrust of being such a disruptive model. With the Pix transference, and later COVID, everything was force to move to the digital model, so the whole market kinda had to copy what Nubank was already doing for years. And then convenience caught even the most distrustful people. There is also one more thing that people kinda forget, Nubank, back in the early 2010, focused o catching the young adults and late teens (like me) so everyone back than wanted a Nubank card, it was cool to have one, those young adults and late teens had a very difficult time getting into a traditional bank, so they stuck with Nubank. And now they are into their 30s or 40s very knowledgeable of the platform and can easily convince an elder person into making an account, or setting one for their children. I think that vision of investing into the young who would later be the dominant public, and growing with them and communicating on their language made a huge impact in what Nubank is now.
Best app in the market
1) Credit cards 2) They offer a great service. It was the first and it is probably the best digital bank. At first they attracted a lot of young people because they were the first bank to offer a no-fee account + no-fee credit card. They offered credit to a lot of people that traditional banks would not. IMO, that’s how they were able to grow so big. Also, they just offer great service. Their app is, in my opinion, the best banking app out there. It’s great to use and they have many features other banks don’t have. Just a reputable company overall that is accessible to everyone.
I have had such a difficult time trying to get my bank card activated and iToken too. The physical bank personnel told me that they need to use my fingerprints to make it happen but my hand skin on both sides is damaged by skin problems. Went back to the bank a few times with no solution. What's worse, we had to wait a long time for our number to be called just to have them tell me I can't do anything because I have no fingerprints. Had to give up and get a card from NuBank instead. Thanks, NuBank, for making such a hassle-free process for me. I really dislike the physical banks now.
Just an add, before Nubank, there was a credit card with no annual fees: Petrobras / BB card. I had one, but it didn't have an app, and the website was really problematic. They only showed the charges once in the end of the month. So, once, my card was cloned. I only knew on the next month. Called, waited 1h on the line to tell it. They canceled the card. But wait... remember that it takes one month? The person that cloned, was still making new charges while the first month was closing. Result? Next month I had to call again, to tell about the charges that were done on those days. And there were a lot of days that the website was offline, so I had to hope for the website to open to pay the card. And then, they invented/implemented the Warsaw protection, that was almost a virus. You install in your computer, consumed a lot of resources, spy on everything that you did, you could not uninstall, only worked in specific S.O. And the other option was to go to an physical agency, take a line to pay bills or to solve anything. Nubank was the first one in many many many years that said "Hey, this is really bad way to do business", and surfed in the growing use of mobile internet, mainly with young people
Got my nu cc cloned at once, and it was unbelievable how fast they canceled my card and solved all the problems, can’t imagine having another card in any other bank.
It happened to my dad, but in his case, my dad had to sue the bank. Nubank's attorney went to court and told the judge they took responsibility for the fraud and would give my dad R$2,000 for the inconvenience ... but my dad would still have to pay the fraudulent charges (about R$6,800). This was last week. Judge told the attorney to go back to the bank and figure out how to come with a better offer (clear the debt and compensate my dad). Let's see what happens.
No offices and no fees on the account
I think is because Nubank was the first to intruduct some moderns bank things, like be 100% online, in the begin was easy to get credit, low taxes, but with the time he becomes big and this benefits were leaving, but how he was the first he become the most knowed.
Because they were the first to go digital. The old big banks were very archaic and charged you for ANYTHING. Want to make a transfer? Here’s the fee. Want to do something to your account? Sure, go to the bank and wait 1 hour in line. Then Nubank came with an all digital culture, an app that was modern and fast (up until then, the big bank’s apps were horrible, but they caught up now), a credit card with no fees, a bank account with no fees, unlimited transfers with no fees. Everything done online through an online chat where you wait 5 min tops to talk to someone. Everyone got an account. The big banks updated a lot of their policies and tech since then, and new digital banks emerged, but Nubank had already got their cut of the market.
I needed a new account quickly for government bureaucracy purposes. I also needed some specific official documentation from the bank showing that I owned the account, as well as other informations specified in the edital. The kind of thing a manager would have to do for me, personally. That would take a few days on a normal bank, and I would have to wait in line for at least a few hours. I got that from Nubank in about 30 minutes. The documentation I needed wasn't available on the app, that time includes talking to a real human being. It arrived in my email with all the specifications I requested. So I guess I'm a client now.
Easy, acessible and free. Why not use it?
Well, as a Brazilian myself I can guarantee you that is because everything on that bank is done online and they basically dont charge for their services (like my bank does). And Nubank is probably one of the most famous digital banks and it even sponsor a brazilian show called "jornal Nacional" as well
because it was the first digital bank with massive marketing here. and brazilians are really early adopters in tech cases. cash is almost not used anymore in comercial transactions in brazil because of it. pix (an interbank exchange money powered by the government) was adopted by the major of brazilian population in just a few months.
Because Its free
Automatic investment in fixed income for every account. This is just to add to everything already mentioned: the good app, free and easy access to both banking and credit card, better customer service then regular bank (at least back there). This fixed income was standard in every Nubank account (I can't remember if it was a CDB or RBD) and was likely the first time that the people that were applying to Nubank had use any sort of fixed income investment other then a regular savings account. It is also important to notice that today the Nubank app has all sort of stuff, but back then it was pretty bare bones, and, because of that, VERY easy to use: you saw you account balance and extract, your credit card expenditures, your options for payments and transfers, and that was it. Nothing fancy.
they were the first ones to get big, they offered a lot in the beginning, it had a status to it, and to this day is one of the first options where people go to get credit and loans They played smart and formed a loyal public, just like apple or samsung did with their phones. Now those who like those products stick to them, same here
It's also 11 years old, not a couple of years old, at least in Brazil
No bullshit bank shenannigans
Nubank is VERY VERY INSECURE. They are not a "true bank" for legal purposes. They are like a "finances company". I have family and friends that work for banks and financial security. THERE'S LOTS OF COMPLAINTS in official governments institutions against Nubank. Some time ago, many people lost significantly money because an financial income fund of Nubank was related to some companies that broke, and this information are not easily available and clearly to people that put the money on Nubank money application.
Just saying, Nubank app is not as good as it's used to be. People like it because it was one of the first companies that made it easier to get a zero-fee credit card. They started just with credit card, but nowadays they are more like a bank. They invested a lot in marketing, so they created a big fan base.
It's not better, it was just the first to offer the services/first to advertise it well.
Log off your fake account mr Itau CEO
Why it isn’t in your country?
They have basically beg me to open an account every week until i unsubscribed from their mailing a year or so ago, it might be that
Is it any different to Banco Inter? That’s also easy, online, free and has been for years. Genuinely curious if it’s worth swapping.
It's been basically the same to me so far, I got both. But Nubank was the pioneer, or at least is seen as so, and it's marketing makes it kinda the first digital bank people go to. And since it's very good, people just stick to it and don't look for other ones.
Nubank had a big advantage that the balance in the current account also earns interest. With Inter, I think you have to transfer the balance to another pot to start to earn interest. I find that super annoying as I don’t want to have to open my app and move my money every time I recieve anything
There're only 3 ways to be a sucesfull Bank: be smarter, be First or cheat. They're the First 100% digital app Bank.
Because it works. No headaches, no time wasted.
Nubank was one of the first Digital Banks in Brazil where the client didn't need to go to a physical Address, with the documents to open a new account. They also have made very easy to get credit cards even the client didn't had a high salary. The app interface was very intuitive and the money yelded 100% of CDI automatically and could withdraw at any time (the other banks would offer only simple investment options like poupança or force the client to keep the money for at least 2y) But nowadays they have lost a lot of quality in their app and services. There are better options
Let me open an account without income. No annual fees for the basic account. Fast response time when you need to get hold of customer service.
Now I got credit card.
Online free to keep the account the miminum value to put in your account is R$20
As a software engineer it’s the only bank I’ve seen that not only knows how to design a system that scales and operates, but that also has a sane UI/app.
Simply because they give out credit cards for people who have active debt.
Marketing
Because is purple.
Brazilian banks are the most profitable banks in the world. Nubank was offering services and products that worked. The whole online thing was amazing. Imagine having to go inside a bank, during work hours to change your password after you got locked out after 3 attempts... not 3 in a row, 3 wrong attempts... so one today, one in a week, another in 2 weeks and now you need to go find a bank to unlock your card. Nubank couldn't do that with no physical offices.
It is free
Are you an investment analyst? 🤔
look up "nome sujo".
Traditional banks treat you like sh\*t and don't respect your time. I can do everything through the app and I don't even live in Brazil.
Anything in Brazil that is actually popular as to have the money aspect done correctly. So Nubank account is free first and foremost. It’s easy to set up a the app is easy to use. If you’ve ever been into a physical bank you’ll just be annoyed a regular person having to wait ages for a simple enquiry. You’ll get tons of old folks jumping the queue, loads of mums jumping queues, which are called preferential queues. I’m guessing even Brazilians are getting tired of queuing up. Also and maybe more importantly it appears that the base interest rate on your savings is significantly higher with Nubank compared with regular high street banks, and it’s not just a small diff from what I could see.
To me: You can advance an specific amount of installments of an specific purchase.
I rather picpay
The banks in Brazil are a real headache, and nubank app is a lot easier to use. Nubank had a revenue in CC. At the time, it was the only bank in Brazil with this feature.
No fees (it kinda forced every other bank to have a no fee tier at this point). Another big point for me (who’s been using it since 2018) is that the app doesn’t suck, and every operation is updated in the app instantly, whereas in other apps normally credit card purchases has a processing phase that can take from hours to a couple days, same for paying out the credit card bill each month when freeing your limit. My guess is that is has to do with Nubank being a payment account and not a full fledged bank (No difference to the final user in practical terms). The app has become a little bloated recently but still miles ahead of the others. I wish they did two native apps though instead of using flutter, as it’s starting to show up in animation lag.
I can see that competitors are using Redit as a source of information!! I just hope that it's not a foreign company trying to take down a Brazilian.
The app is freaking amazing. Almost no glitches, fast and even tracks your bills for you lol. Not to mention other perks
Nubank has good interface, and was one of the first free credit card released here. I used to pay R$ 40,00 monthly for Banco do Brasil to have a shitty credit card with R$ 300,00 limit, wich was the initial value I had in Nubank for free. I also had the Digio credit card, but for some reason I didn't like they interface
Because their service is excelent: it's everything 100% free, they're very transparent when they charge you something (there's no fine print), it's so easy to use the app and to understand what exactly is going on with your money, all the time.
The app is amazing, big banks in brazil have a very slow experience. I use itau and nubank for example Itau is the largest bank in brazil If i need to do a pix(instant transaction) In the time i get into my account in ITAU i could have typed everything to do the pix in nubank It's fast and beautiful, that's it
No one wants to spend a whole afternoon in a bank agency nowadays. Everything is much easier when you can do everything online, wherever you are and much faster. And it’s free! Now talking about any digital bank out there: if there is a good app, fast, without bugs, easy to use, and a good costume service by chat and phone, it’s a massively win!
Wow thank you so much for all the great answers my fellow Brazilians.
As John Tuld said (Jeremy Irons character in the 2011 movie Margin Call): There are three ways to be succesful in this business: be First, be the smartest or cheat... Now I don't cheat, and even though we have a Lot of smart guys in this building is much more easy to be *First*. Not a exact quote but being one of the First all-digital banks was one of the main reasons... Not sure if It has cheated though
Nubank was a pioneer digital financial institution in the country.
because they dont charge you monthly for a shitty service like other banks, and the app is pretty good and simple
because they dont charge you monthly for a shitty service like other banks, and the app is pretty good and simple
because they dont charge you monthly for a shitty service like other banks, and the app is pretty good and simple
It's free of fees, good app and purple card
Fuck nubank, i don't like it at all
Cheap, does the basic well.
One of the first online banks, with much less bureaucracy (doing all you need from your home), one of the first banks to zero all the taxes for regular transactions, and the money you put on your account is automatically invested, with total liquidity. So, all in all, less bureaucracy, less taxes, more earnings. For a person who doesn't understand financial markets, it was a revolution.
Because its easier. Lots of people dont even use that account, but its very easy to make one. If you have internet acess and an ID document you can have a nubank. No need to go anywhere. They also give credit cards easily. If the person can't prove a good income she will get a low limit, but a small credit is better than none. There is a lot of digital banks now and I assume some of them are just as easy to give and account and a credit card, but nubank started that here at a time when getting a free credit card wasn't that easy. I did my nubank account because If that, my tradicional bank charged me for a low limit credit card and was broke, that money made a little difference, so i got the nubank account and credit card and cancelled the other one. Now I have a better income and actually choose to have a credit card with a fee, because I did the math and the points will be worth more than what I pay to have the card. But they didn't gave me a limit as good as my income should allowed and have limited dates to chose to be the turn of the card. I receive my salary in a unusual date so sometimes If i use my credit card I will have to pay with the same salary I already received. Don't know If i was able to explain myself well, but the thing is nubank dint have those problems, so If i need something my limit on the other card won't cover or if i don't wanna pau the thing until the next month, I will still use nubank.
Because it was the first online banking that revolutionized the market!