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

Jlawson118

I've banked with First Direct since 2014. It was a fantastic bank to say it was digital only when I first joined, but it's vastly become very outdated in my opinion.

Their overall selling point has always been that they don't have branches but their overall customer service over the phone beats this. Straight through to a human and they'll deal with your request straight away. Which was the case when I first joined. I once phoned up to close a credit card down with them and something else, address change I think off the top of my head, and finished what I needed, pressed the red button on my phone and the overall call time was about 2 Minutes 30 seconds. I couldn't believe it!

But over the years that service has vastly declined, it's either through to somebody who doesn't know so puts you on hold to someone else, or constantly in a queue to initially speak to someone. This wouldn't bother me if you could do most of what you wanted to do in the app! 

All I feel I can do in the app is view my balances and transfer between accounts. There's more flexibility on the web platform but it's just hard work with the outdated secure key. I can't even make overpayments to my mortgage with them without having to ring, speak to somebody initially about what I want to do, then being transferred for ages to the mortgage team.

I do however, like their sweeper feature. So you can set it up for after all your bills come out, and it'll sweep whatever is left into a savings account. So I get paid on the penultimate Friday of every month, most of my bills come out on the 1st of the month, so I've set it for whatever money is left on the 1st/2nd of the month to then sweep in. But First Direct don't seem to market this very much. I only knew of it because I'd seen a. few discussions about it on here, and dropped it in conversation with one of the agents when I was trying to sort something else out.

I've tried all of those banks you've trialled over the last few years, and found them to all be very similar in terms of being outdated. 

However, my secondary account since 2019 is Monzo which I think is the best thing to happen to the banking industry! I have so much flexibility with my accounts and the interface is just so clean, reliable and modern. I love the idea of pots, and how you can set as many up for whatever you like. This works especially well for me as I figure out my monthly bills, allocate the funds into my 'Bills Pot' and then set the direct debits to come straight out of there. It's just a good way of managing money and knowing how much is left at the end of the month. Or income straight up after bills have been deducted. Customer service seems fantastic, no call centre but a chat where replies tend to be really quick. I had a fraud incident once and straight away refunded me the money with no grumbles.
I've also opened a business account with them, it's a lot better than my first business account with HSBC Kinetic but I feel it falls behind their personal banking.

I tried Starling a couple of years ago but I didn't rate it compared to Monzo. They have the same account flexibility and features and all in seemed a good bank, I think I just preferred Monzo in general and their overall interface.

I've also been trialling Chase since April this year. Impressed with the interest rates and I like their cashback offer but a bit disappointed it only runs for a year, I'm hoping I can extend this for longer next April and it wasn't just a selling point to get the account. I also like their 'Save The Change' style offer. I do this with Monzo but it just sweeps into a pot with no interest, whereas with Chase it builds up and earns just shy of 5%.

But with Chase I find their interface modern but really clunky. Especially when trying to transfer money between savings accounts and other banks, just seems too many clicks and too confusing. Maybe being picky here with that but compared to other banks just needs tidying up a bit. Also transfers in and out of the account seem overly slow.
Also had an incident where it wouldn't let me pay my Amex card and blocked me with fraud suspicions despite the fact I'd made those transactions a number of times prior. I couldn't get through to customer services, and talking on their online chat took four days for my card to be unblocked. 
I think with a bit of investment they could be on par with Monzo and Starling

Rob5342

I prefer the Monzo interface too. Once you have logged in you get a page showing everything and it's just a tap through to what you want. With Sterling you get a page with lots of wasted space and you have to hunt around too funny anything.

Starling does have more professional looking branding though. A nice looking card instead of the.gaudy orange one that Monzo have.

northwalesd

herebeme said:

With Chase you 
- can’t see transactions on a map

Most of my Chase transactions do show a map.

herebeme

northwalesd said:

herebeme said:

With Chase you 
- can’t see transactions on a map

Most of my Chase transactions do show a map.

How do I see that please? 

[edit: Nevermind, I see it now]

Wow I suck at working out this app 😂

SouthLondonUser

Rob5342 said:

I prefer the Monzo interface too. Once you have logged in you get a page showing everything and it's just a tap through to what you want. With Sterling you get a page with lots of wasted space and you have to hunt around too funny anything.

Starling does have more professional looking branding though. A nice looking card instead of the.gaudy orange one that Monzo have.

What exactly do you prefer about Monzo?

Unlike Monzo, Starling offers web access, and has an IBAN, meaning you can receive foreign payments directly into your Starling account.

Monzo shows you your recent transactions immediately, whereas with Starling you get your balance and you need to swipe up to see the recent transactions. Other than this, I haven't really found huge differences, nor have I found anything which is much quicker to do in one app than in the other

The main difference for me, and another reason why I'd prefer Starling, is that with Starling you can pre-authorise large payments in advance, like sending a house deposit to a solicitor. Monzo is vague about this, says you can only authorise on the day, suggesting it might be impossible to ensure funds are where they need to be by 9am. Apps and bells and whistles are all well and good, but a bank that doesn't let you handle large payments well isn't much of a bank. To be clear, obviously they need to run checks etc, my gripe is not with running checks, it's with being unable to do it in advance.

The other slight difference is that Starling will show you the category of an expense right below the title (eg. Tesco £50 - groceries) and you need to click on it if you want to see any notes you may have added. Monzo shows you the notes right below the transaction but requires you to click on it to see the category.

Zaul22

The one slightly annoying thing about Starling after a few months using it, the money 'spent' this month display shows absolutely all money going out of the account, not just money actually spent. It needs a way to exclude money transferred to a savings account, which is literally the exact opposite of spending. 

gt94sss2

Alex9384 said:

I would add that Monzo and Starling pay out standing orders on any day. For example, if I decide to set up a new SO today with the first payment going out this Saturday, it will go out on Saturday! Most dinosaur banks will only send it out next Monday.

That is because Monzo and Starling don't actually send standing orders as standing orders - they send them as faster payments instead

Sensory

gt94sss2 said:

Alex9384 said:

I would add that Monzo and Starling pay out standing orders on any day. For example, if I decide to set up a new SO today with the first payment going out this Saturday, it will go out on Saturday! Most dinosaur banks will only send it out next Monday.

That is because Monzo and Starling don't actually send standing orders as standing orders - they send them as faster payments instead

Scheduled Faster Payments are what all Standing Orders should be. Transactions only taking place on working days is so antiquated and causes all sorts of unnecessary irregularities in payment intervals.

SouthLondonUser

Zaul22 said:

The one slightly annoying thing about Starling after a few months using it, the money 'spent' this month display shows absolutely all money going out of the account, not just money actually spent. It needs a way to exclude money transferred to a savings account, which is literally the exact opposite of spending. 

But that's the same with every bank, I think...

You could use a separate budgeting app like MoneyHub or MoneyDashboard, connect it to both Starling and your other account, and, as long as both the money in and the money out are classified into the separate category, they'll net out. Eg you'd see the category "transfers" showing -500 from Starling and +500 from, say, HSBC.
https://support.moneydashboard.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044710451-How-to-handle-inter-account-Transfers-Credit-Card-Repayments

Rob5342

SouthLondonUser said:

Rob5342 said:

I prefer the Monzo interface too. Once you have logged in you get a page showing everything and it's just a tap through to what you want. With Sterling you get a page with lots of wasted space and you have to hunt around too funny anything.

Starling does have more professional looking branding though. A nice looking card instead of the.gaudy orange one that Monzo have.

What exactly do you prefer about Monzo?

I just find the interface that little bit neater. When I log in I can see all my pots at once, and go into the one I want. Starling hardly have anything on their home screen, you have to swipe up to see recent transactions or go into the pots section to see pots. I don't see the value in having a screen of nothing when they could put more there. I've only made one large transfer in my entire life, and Ive never had a transfer from abroad. The Starling web access seems completely pointess to me as you still need a phonr with the app on to get into it. I never use notes or look at the category things have been put in. If Monzo disappeared for any reason I'd be quite happy with Starling, but while I have a choice the neatness of the Monzo app edges it for how I use it.

As well as the Monzo account I also have Starling, Chase and Halifax accounts. I don't use the others much as the moment but I like to keep an eye on the app updates as well as having alternative options should I need them.