Opening a second and a third bank accounts

colsten

I haven't mentioned Monzo or N26, and I don't see what Starling has to do with them, or the fact that Monzo was on BBC. I am going by my own experience with Starling, which is positive overall, and by that of other MSE posters, which again is positive overall. I don't value TrustPilot and other sites which just attract negative comments from people angry that they have been stopped in their "innovative" tracks. Occasionally one of them pops up on MSE, too, but they quickly do a runner when they are asked questions which they can't answer.

Anyway, it is perfectly ok to prefer dealing with bricks & mortar banks. I am just surprised then that you'd actually consider Revolut which is anything but bricks & mortar, doesn't even give you FSCS protection, and isn't listed amongst the MSE top travel cards.

born_again

creeping_future wrote: »

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As regards starling, I read lots of reviews on a review site.

I know, I know that banks don't usually close or freeze bank accounts with no reason. BUT, if there are lots of people saying the same about starling and the others, it can't be lots of "Incidents" or "errors", nor all of them are criminals or whatever.

If even BBC WATCHDOGS made an episode about Monzo freezing accounts overnight again it can't be an isolated case.

As to Monzo.
I work at a bank ( not Monzo). A very large % of our staff have Monzo accounts and love them.

If you watched the small piece on Monzo. You got no details of the people who had accounts frozen, or about how they run their accounts.
Remember these new players are building their customer base far faster than high street banks. Given the ease you can open a account with them.
It clear that they are attracting a higher % of accounts that do need a close look at.

So as long as you are not doing anything stupid like the poster the other day who was asking if it was Ok for a friend to transfer £3.5K from friends business acc, to his personal acc and then to have it transferred back to friends personal acc...
So that could be money laundering & certainly tax evasion... Pretty sure fire way to get a acc frozen.
Yet they will claim I was not doing anything unusual...:rotfl:

Katiehound

Want to build a good credit rating? then use your CC regularly & wisely and pay it off in full every month. That's one thing that is noted

davidwatts

Hoping this is suitably "on topic" to add here.

My current account is with Smile and I'm happy enough to not want to switch elsewhere but slightly peeved I can't get the Everyday Rewards offered by the main Co-op bank brand. (I only switched from them to Smile years ago because the Smile account paid 3% interest at the time.) I'm thinking of opening a Co-op Bank current account and switching from the Smile account, thus enabling me to get the rewards while effectively remaining with the same provider.

I'm also swayed by the logic of having a back-up current account in case the main one experiences system issues etc. Any reason not to consider Starling as a viable option? Should be easy to open and manage, pays a small amount of interest and the debit card is Mastercard which might be useful if it's Visa systems that are down.

Does that seem a reasonable plan to get some rewards and have a back up account?

creeping_future

Thank you for your answers guys

I must say that now I'm even more confused than I was before lol

The metro bank seems good for what I need (I don't think I'm going to travel outside Europe anytime soon) so I am considering that too, as I could use metro bank as a backup account AND when I travel which would be great.

I am not really into savings account, I think I need literally tons of cash in them to make it work (I tried the Metrobank calculator, if I left £2000 in one of their savings account I would have 2030 in 12 months, which is not appealing, in my opinion of course)

@katiehound, I have a DD set up with Capital One, the first payment should happen on 1st Feb, I got the card as they were the only ones that accepted me, so I'm using them to build my credit history.

stehouk

I had a starling account, pretty good app for budgeting, no fees/charges for using abroad, i used it as a spare/donor to switch to lloyds.
I would recommend it,

colsten

creeping_future wrote: »

I am not really into savings account, I think I need literally tons of cash in them to make it work (I tried the Metrobank calculator, if I left £2000 in one of their savings account I would have 2030 in 12 months, which is not appealing, in my opinion of course)

Metrobank aren't known for good savings rates. If, however, you left £2,000 in a Nationwide FlexDirect for a year, you'd make £100. Plus the £100 you could get if you could avail yourself of their switch offer (and no, you wouldn't have to switch your main account). With TSB, you'd get £60, plus also £100 if you can make use of their switch offer.

Metrobank aren't known for good exchange rates either. You get the best exchange rates with the likes of Starling, Revolut and Transferwise.

Nor do Metrobank have a Euro debit card. Starling do.

creeping_future

Ok, I have to admit that I changed my mind, and I'm seriously considering to open an account with Starling Bank

Mossley567

Hello, first post here so apologies if it's in the wrong place but I am in the process of switching my current account to Nationwide for their £200 referral bonus and the advisor mentioned I could also get another £200 for any other current accounts I had. I didn't think I had any other current accounts but just remembered that I set up an online account with Starling last year. I never used the account and have no money or DD's coming out of it (yet anway!) but was just wondering if these online type accounts e.g starling/monzo etc, are suitable for switching to get welcome bonuses with Nationwide ?
Thanks

davidwatts

Quick query re Starling account opening process, having installed the app. I note mention of having to "take a photo of your ID and upload a short video of yourself".

Is this the standard process for all customers or just where they can't verify you electronically? What does the short video entail?