Considering moving from Barclays to Starling for current account

flaneurs_lobster

CrickJon said:

Well, my application has been rejected by Starling. No idea why, no explanation. I've never had that before, my credit rating is 999.

Do they get any kind of visibility on accounts I have opened at other banks recently to take advantage of switching?

Would Monzo come to the same conclusion, or is it worth trying?

Forget your credit rating, it's a made up number.

Yes they will have sight of your other bank account openings (together with any other financial transactions involving credit (eg mobile phone contracts) - they are a standard part of a credit report.

CrickJon

Nasqueron said:

CrickJon said:

Well, my application has been rejected by Starling. No idea why, no explanation. I've never had that before, my credit rating is 999.

Do they get any kind of visibility on accounts I have opened at other banks recently to take advantage of switching?

Would Monzo come to the same conclusion, or is it worth trying?

Have you had one before and closed it recently?
Credit rating is never seen by lender, the fake 999 score is for entertainment services only
A credit search may show other accounts yes, they may just not want you as a customer. Monzo is a different brand and will have their own criteria 

No. Never been with them before and was looking to make them my main day to day account. Not sure whether to try Monzo or not.

Ponchos

CrickJon said:

Well, my application has been rejected by Starling. No idea why, no explanation. I've never had that before, my credit rating is 999.

Do they get any kind of visibility on accounts I have opened at other banks recently to take advantage of switching?

Would Monzo come to the same conclusion, or is it worth trying?

Glad to hear your wife managed to get her account open with no problems. Regarding your own account, sometimes it happens that they just reject you for a small reason. I recently did switch bonus offers with both Natwest and Ulster (which use the same system) and both rejected me because the 3rd party verification system they use said that my selfie was fine but the banks themselves said they apparently weren't (furthermore, RBS allowed me an account straight away, and the three of them are the same banking group!). If you contact Startling and politely ask why you were rejected then it might be something simple that is an easy fix. As I said before, their customer service is really good so they should be able to help you out, it seems to me that you're keen to be with Startling rather than any other bank, so it's worth a call or an email in my opinion!

CrickJon

I've asked the question to Starling.

In the end, I looked at Monzo and both myself and the wife opened personal accounts and then a joint one this afternoon. Took all of ten minutes. We have a CASS initiated for a switch from Barclays now in progress for our current account (we have other accounts with Barclays too so not burning our bridges).

Starling's loss!

danco

Again, I don't have Starling, Monzo or Revolut. But I note that Which recommends Starling because the other two, though they have some advantages, do not provide enough consumer protection

Nasqueron

danco said:

Again, I don't have Starling, Monzo or Revolut. But I note that Which recommends Starling because the other two, though they have some advantages, do not provide enough consumer protection

Monzo is only not recommended because they haven't officially signed up for the Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scam Code, they still have FSCS protection. I guess it depends whether you are likely to fall for those sorts of scams or not. Revolut is a bit different because they don't have the same protections

danco

Yes, I agree with you. But I thought this needed to be pointed out.