Monzo - Should I take the plunge?

DCFC79

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what the fuss is with Monzo.
It's not even that great for overseas usage as it has free £200 ATM limit.

Its ok but I believe Starlings offering is better.

jonnygee2

Starling runs on its own banking platform (which other banks pay to use)

Starling is the only mobile/challenger bank that is a direct member of Faster Payments scheme (and the only bank running with real time access)

Starling still uses GPS - a third party provider - for all of its card payments (I believe, at least it did until it closed its community forum down and I haven't heard an update since then), whereas Monzo has its own infrastructure and is also (despite your erroneous claim) directly connected, in real time, to the Faster Payment scheme.

d123

jonnygee2 wrote: »

Starling still uses GPS - a third party provider - for all of its card payments (I believe, at least it did until it closed its community forum down and I haven't heard an update since then), whereas Monzo has its own infrastructure and is also (despite your erroneous claim) directly connected, in real time, to the Faster Payment scheme.

Good for Monzo if they finally joined, but as of mid 2018;

Julian Sawyer, chief operating officer of Starling Bank, one of the challenger banks, said: “Starling Bank is the only provider of real-time access to faster payments in the UK.

https://ibsintelligence.com/ibs-journal/mastercard-send-launches-into-the-uk-using-starling-bank/



By the way, if you can only dispute one of the statements it shows that Starling is a far better offering.

It only loses on the blind fanaticism of users and it’s not as good at hype and social media.

jonnygee2

By the way, if you can only dispute one of the statements it shows that Starling is a far better offering.

Two of the statements. And I did not say which I preferred, I was just correcting inaccuracies in your post (that quote was wrong when it was made by the way - Monzo had already connected to faster Payments in real time by then).

It only loses on the blind fanaticism of users and it’s not as good at hype and social media

I think both Monzo and Starling are growing successfully. I know Starling was struggling . I don't see them as being a problem to each other, there should be plenty of space in the market for both of them. Their real competitors are the legacy banks.

d123

jonnygee2 wrote: »

Two of the statements. And I did not say which I preferred, I was just correcting inaccuracies in your post (that quote was wrong when it was made by the way - Monzo had already connected to faster Payments in real time by then).

I think both Monzo and Starling are growing successfully. I know Starling was struggling . I don't see them as being a problem to each other, there should be plenty of space in the market for both of them. Their real competitors are the legacy banks.

Does Monzo have something like Starling Payment Services yet?

I see they have government departments (like the DWP) onboard now. Actually claiming “governments” as clients now, I wonder what other governments have signed up to them?

Our Payment Services offers corporates, governments, e-money licence holders and financial institutions real-time access to all the main payment schemes in the UK and Europe.

Real-time access to Faster Payments and direct access to Bacs and Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)

https://www.starlingbank.com/paymentservices/



Is Monzo connected to SWIFT and SEPA or supply customers with an IBAN yet?

SlovakianGuy

Like I said, I had both.

A great thing about Monzo is, it shows you the sort code and full account number from which you received payment! It is the only bank in the UK showing this info. When my friend sent me money, I could just click on the details and send her money back. Really nice.


Starling doesn't update your balance on the main page instantly. My friend sent me money, I just opened the app and it looked like he didn't send anything, simply because the balance shown was not updated. Only when I checked the list of payments, I noticed the money was already there. With Monzo, the balance is updated in a second, every single time.


I hate that Starling always logs you out after 30 seconds while you're checking something else outside the app, then you have to log in again. You can't change that. Monzo never logs you out until you do it yourself.



I personally don't really care about overdraft or ATM withdrawals, and deposits. I don't use cash except at barber and carwash. For deposits and withdrawals I have another bank anyway.


I've read, people had problems to pay with Starling debit card at some places. My friend said he couldn't pay at Asda "pay at pump". Maybe they've already fixed this.


Also, this is subjective, but to me Monzo debit card looks simply amazing. It literally shines among all my other cards that I have right here on the shelf Starling has an interesting design, but I expected much brighter colour when I saw it for the first time online. And I miss the embossing on it. The design is nice, but without embossing it looks like a toy, at least to me. Same like NatWest card.


One more thing.
After I switched my Starling elsewhere (for the switch bonus), the app simply stopped working. Since I switched Monzo (another bonus) I still have the app in my phone and it's still functional. Of course I can't do any transactions, but I can see the whole history, everything I've sent and received, contacts, etc. which may be really useful.


I really like both these banks. Like I said, both have pros and cons. I simply can't agree that Starling is much better, because it's not. It's better in some aspects and worse in some others.


Edit:

I forgot to mention payee management. One of those banks doesn't let you to manage payees, but I'm not sure which one. You can only see the list of accounts to which you already sent some money.


Regarding customer service, I only messaged to both on Facebook and they are very responsive and eager to help. Can't say anything bad about them.

SlovakianGuy

Btw "You can have Starling on 10 devices iirc."

Yeah, but this is useless for most people. How many devices do you usually carry with you? At my work (warehouse) I always leave the phone in my car, because I don't want to crush it. And we have a poor signal there anyway. We have normal PCs which I can use during my break, or before work. App-only bank is simply a bad idea. There is no advantage to that. It just offers you LESS options for managing your money.

d123

SlovakianGuy wrote: »

Btw "You can have Starling on 10 devices iirc."

Yeah, but this is useless for most people. How many devices do you usually carry with you? At my work (warehouse) I always leave the phone in my car, because I don't want to crush it. And we have a poor signal there anyway. We have normal PCs which I can use during my break, or before work. App-only bank is simply a bad idea. There is no advantage to that. It just offers you LESS options for managing your money.

I have a personal phone, a work phone (and my old spare phone) and an iPad, all with the Starling app active.

It’s annoying that Monzo only allow me to have the app working on my iPad and work (Android) phone. If you had an iPhone and iPad you could only have it on one of them (Monzo only allow one Android and one iOS device to be active for some strange reason).

PS

I’ve never noticed a problem with my totals updating in real time in the Starling app.

The payee management problems you mentioned in the previous post were/are with Monzo iirc.