Are there any other banks/financial services like Monzo and Starling?

Financial Chat
1

I love Monzo and Starling. I have both, as both have features that I want but neither is 100% fulfilling my needs.

I also recently discovered Curve and it’s life-changing. I have a lot of bank accounts, and can never remember any of the pins but sometimes I need a different account when I’m out - so Curve is great to have them all in one card.

Are there any other similar financial services that can help with managing money, budgeting or similar?

1 Like
2

Revolut, TransferWise and Monese come to mind.
Revolut offers multi-currency accounts with prepaid cards linked to it, in addition to other products, like International Transfers and Cryptocurrency support.
TransferWise offers an International Transfer Service, but recently started an invite-only beta for a debit card, which is linked to its borderless (multi-currency) account.
And Monese gives you a UK account, with a Euro IBAN if you need it. It also offers SEPA transfers.
And all three services can be used for non-UK (EU/EEA) residents as well.

5 Likes
3

Footnote to interview with @tom from Dec 2017 (source):

1 Like
4

There’s also Pockit, Loot, Ffrees/U - all prepaid cards with frequently reported customer service issues.

5

I thought we’d agreed online reviews are largely worthless :thinking:

1 Like
6

Pockit and Ffrees/U tend to get loss-of-funds complaints more than others.

Monzo’s tend to be about outages (transparency though) and alleged cult, whereas Starling’s tend to be around lack of transparency and alleged cult, and Monese’s tend to be around comms (their COps have to cover most European languages and cultural expectations). But none of these three has a consistent pattern of reviews saying people lost all their funds (without suggesting an AML issue).

3 Likes
7

Monese is good and have recently started introducing categories on transactions (that can be switched to suit user preference). They have both GBP and EUR accounts with Sort Code, Account Number, and common IBAN on £ account, Individual IBAN on € accounts. £ accounts accept BACS Direct Debits, BACS Credits and SEPA Credit Transfers, € accounts accept SEPA Direct Debits and SEPA Credit Transfers. They also plan to launch an API for open banking at the end of the year.

1 Like
8

Any fans of N26 here?

1 Like
9

Haven’t been able to test their UK version yet, but I’ve signed to be invited for early access. Their transparency seems to be a lot worse than Monzo or even Starling though - the only indicator from was a blog post in November that they would launch in the UK in “early 2018”, if I remember correctly. Not a good sign - but to be honest, Monzo has set the bar quite high in terms of transparency.

3 Likes
10

Emma is pretty good for gaining an overview and tracking your spending across multiple banks

2 Likes
11

yet to launch but www.amaiz.com is in the pipeline

1 Like
12

Looks interesting - and they have a community too.

1 Like
13

their community is as lively as a Dodo.

2 Likes
14

One of their staff perks is “English lessons”. Not setting the bar too high here :thinking:

2 Likes
15

Their team is mostly of Russian origin.

1 Like
16

and I think many of them are based in St. Petersburg.

1 Like
17

They are recruiting a copywriter and are offering English lessons as one of the perks… that sounds unusual. I understand you might not care too much about English proficiency for a developer, but surely a copywriter is a position where perfect English would be required?

2 Likes