My comparison of banking apps (Monzo, Starling, Lloyds, Natwest and others)

SouthLondonUser

I made a table comparing some of the features of the most common banking apps.

It is not an exhaustive list - I did for myself, other people will have different priorities / preferences. I use an Android phone.

1 that's my understanding but I haven't tried myself

2 Lloyds customer support said yes, but when I opened the account notifications didn't work, and they changed their story to: "it will be implemented sometime in the future, but we don't know when"

3 Biometric approvals within the app can now be used instead of the card reader; it is not clear to me if biometric approvals replace the card reader always, or only in certain cases

I started from this MSE article https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/digital-banking/ and asked a few questions here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79563461 because I was interested in a banking app sending instant push notifications for both credit and debit card transactions.

 

I narrowed it down to HSBC, Natwest and Lloyds, then ruled out HSBC because apparently its app is very basic.

 

In summary:

• The Monzo and Starling apps remain miles ahead of the apps of the traditional banks. I haven't tried Chase.
• Between Monzo and Starling I prefer Starling because it has an IBAN to receive foreign payments and because the process to authorise one-off large payments is more efficient. I have heard horror stories of people trying to pay a house deposit from a Monzo account
• Natwest  and Lloyds seem the most advanced apps among those of traditional banks
• Natwest sends app notifications for both debit and credit card; Lloyds only for the debit card.
  
• Natwest groups expenses by category but it's quite clunky: with Monzo you click on a transaction and you see what category it is in (eg Tesco -> groceries). With Starling you see it below the transaction name. With Natwest you have to go to "spending" and it shows you a summary by category. But if you want to find a specific transaction and check if it was classified correctly, it's very clunky: was "Acme ltd" classified as eating out, groceries or other? You have to check each category till you find it. Useless.
• Lloyds' categories are very broad: income, debit card expenses, direct debits, but no 'groceries' or 'eating out' categories.
• Lloyds shows debit (not credit) card transaction on a map, but it's kind of useless. Many transaction in a chain store (Boots, Waterstones etc) show up as "Trafalgar square, London". I have never had that with Monzo or Starling
• I haven't found the app of a traditional bank that lets you add a comment or a receipt for a  transaction. Eg "Boots £40" and you add "sister's birthday present". However, this can be done quite easily with budgeting apps like MoneyDashboard or MoneyHub
• Natwest offers a credit  card with no additional commission for foreign transactions; Lloyds offers a credit card with a good cashback (I think same as Barclaycard and Pulse, which has replaced the Amazon card, up to a certain threshold of expense, then slightly better)
• My expenses are a combination of bank account transactions + credit card transactions. So I don't  care so much about classifying transactions within the banking app, as long as I can do it from one of the budgeting apps like Moneyhub or Money Dashboard. This is also why I haven't tried Chase (not compatible with Open Banking) and why I prefer the Natwest and Lloyds credit cards to the Pulse cashback card.
• I opened the Lloyds account because I was annoyed at Natwest requiring a card reader. After a short while, they introduced biometric authentication via the app (eg take a picture of yourself in a neutral pose then blink to authorise a payment). It is not clear to me if biometrics replace the card reader completely or if in some cases I still need a card reader.
• If Starling launched a credit card I'd switch to Starling as my main account, and maybe keep just one other account as a backup
• It's a shame the First Direct app remained so old fashioned, because customer service was really good
  

I hope this can be useful. Shout if you have any questions.

And please let me know if you have found other banks (not American Express) which send instant app notifications for credit card expenses.

Marchitiello

Good effort but it may be limited to your experience and/or device (would have not inserted Chase at all if you do not have data, some of your “no” are either due to the device or maybe have not figured out how to switch it one. I do get a lot of notification from my FD account for example but I rarely use it now to cross check what these were about). 

Barclays do have notification on iOS, which including Card transactions, you needs to have set them up. For some reason I do not have the Barclaycard notifications coming through since I only use the Barclays app, but when I used the Barclaycard App I believe I use to get them.

Chase is the same, you get notify for every transaction, card, DD, FP etc.

RBS/NatWest eye blink has substituted the card reader in my experience, I have not had to use one in setting up new payment above £1000 for a while. Major bug I have with their app is that I cannot see PDF statement (or I have not been able to figure it out yet) whilst I can do it with virtually all my other app

Many CC company linked to Apple Wallet  will get you the notification via that.

penners324

Starling is my main account. Best I've seen.

Very much like to see DDs due to be paid the following day

SouthLondonUser

@marchitiello ,

I closed my First Direct account about a month ago and switched to Natwest. Before closing it, I asked customer support if there was a way to get notifications on the app and they said no. I used to get text messages summarising weekly balance and for transactions above a certain threshold, but not app notifications. Could I ask you to elaborate, just for curiosity? Are notifications a very new thing? Or are they just for iphones and not for Androids yet?

Thank you for clarifying Barclays and iOS. I don't have an iphone so I have no experience with that. One thing that's annoying about Barclaycard is you cannot add it to google wallet.

I used to have Natwest many moons ago; I thought having a card reader would not have been an issue because how often do I need to make payments to new payees? Yet, by Murphy's law, it turned out that the very few times I needed to make these kinds of payments they were always urgent and I never had the **** card reader with me!

Marchitiello

@SouthLondonUser

re: FD I have only had it for a year, and not using it much. I have tried it to compare it to HSBC Premier which I have and not found it to be worth it TBH, so I am awaiting for a switching bonus to switch it away. I have only used the card once but I do circulate my income through it and get notification of all the transactions, usual iOS app notification that trigger the opening of the app.

Re: RBS /NatWest I know what you mean, was the same for me even not using it as a main account, but the eye blinking feature is a great substitute (albeit I need to remember to remove my glasses some times) 

Rob5342

Thanks this is useful to see as the app functionality is now the most important thing to consider when choosing a bank.

Andy clever cash has done a good comparison on YouTube too. Starling and Monzo were the best as you:d probably expect and Nationwide was absolutely awful.

SouthLondonUser

penners324 said:

Starling is my main account. Best I've seen.

Very much like to see DDs due to be paid the following day

Agreed. Shame they don't have a credit card. I opened Natwest and Lloyds for the convenience of having just one app for both bank account and credit card expenses. I'll keep using them for a few months and, if I don't like them, I'll probably switch to Starling as my main bank account and keep the Natwest and Lloyds credit cards. Having to use 2 apps instead of 1 is very much a first world problem! I might keep both credit  cards because the Lloyds cashback is convenient for UK expenses, and the Natwest one, with zero foreign transaction fees, for when I go abroad.

SouthLondonUser

@rob5342 You're right, I had seen it but then forgot to link it. It was this: https://becleverwithyourcash.com/the-best-bank-mobile-apps/ and his table was this: https://becleverwithyourcash.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Best-Bank-Apps-29-03-21.pdf

He doesn't mention credit cards and 'analyse spending' is very vague. Monzo and Starling were the only ones I found where you see the category of each expense when you click on the transaction, and you can change it.

I had no idea, before trying it, that the Natwest thingy was so clunky it's basically useless. I want to see an expense and check its classification. I don't want to search through all the various categories to find whether 'Bar xyz' was classified as eating out, groceries or what. I had no idea because it never occurred to me that someone could devise such a silly system!

Also, Monzo and Starling do not make a distinction between pending and non-pending transactions.

Martico

You can set notifications on Barclays current account on Android to show any money in and any money out. 

SouthLondonUser

@Martico how? I had never found a way. Too bad I have just closed the Barclays account!

Martico

The "..." [more] button bottom right, then settings, then push notifications