Competitor update

Wow that sounds like a real pie in the sky steaming pile of an idea made from the comfort of being nowhere near operational- like 10k extra police officers for Ā£300k a year :stuck_out_tongue:

It might have been a decent ā€˜faster horseā€™ concept 9 years ago, but thereā€™s no way that is going to reach market in this age!

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i agree with yout comment. I cant see it lasting.

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And another one, coming thick and fast!

https://www.blossomapp.co.uk/

What intrigues me about iambank is this bit

Iā€™d happily give up money knowing there would be profit*

*I am aware of losses etc

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Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group aka B are still trying to find a way to remain relevant, integrating with Amazonā€™s Alexa, among other things, according to this article -

https://www.ft.com/content/dbbe20e4-2f16-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a

Paywall :angry:

Was going to say exactly the same, FT Paywal, of doom :slight_smile:

If you open Incognito Mode and Google the headline ā€œClydesdale and Yorkshire banks on digital servicesā€ and click through from Google you should skip the paywall

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i like this guyā€¦

PiggyPot just launched better saving goals including ISAsā€¦ Looks interesting. Wonder if the money saved goes directly into the ISA productsā€¦ Would be amazing to see something simialr in Monzo at the time.

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Starling have just added a few screenshots of their app to their site.

The Payments options look good to me -

Debit Card options are functional, if a little plain & cluttered (thereā€™s no need to display Lost or Stolen Card until the cardā€™s ā€˜Inactiveā€™) -

But based on these shots (there could be more functionality elsewhere in the app), while everyone loves a slider, theyā€™re nowhere near as clear as what Monzo are planning, when it comes to displaying interest accrued, fees (they use an interest rate, rather pounds & pence) or what youā€™ll pay by the end of the month :thumbsdown:

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Yet still no sign of the beta for the vast majority of people wanting to test, their productā€¦ Think a lot of people are starting to get bored of the lack of communications, and the endless - ā€œyouā€™ll hear from us very soonā€ line they farm out on twitter and facebookā€¦

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apparently "Starling customers can instantly open a checking account through the bankā€™s app (currently available on iOS with Android launching next month) " :slight_smile: in this comparison of 10 challengers

  • Ive just about given up on them having signed up last year - I think they must have lost my application , even though they keep on sending out intermittent emails about it coming soon after emailing me thanking me for my registration in July last year

https://www.abe.ai/blog/what-banks-can-learn-top-10-challenger-banks/?utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=content-marketing&utm_source=quuu

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Iā€™m guessing that this is US only for now but Square are launching a prepaid card, to work alongside their Square Cash app.

It doesnā€™t sound like thereā€™s many features at the moment but the ability to write your name / something else :eyes: on the front of the card is a nice touch -

So Metrobank have been going since July 2010 and are celebrating 1 million customers which I make circa 142,857 people signing up per year (yes I know I divided by 7) anyway we are on what 200k now in 2 years?

How long till we catch up?

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TSB are hinting at some very Monzo style ideas hereā€¦ ā€œThe new mobile app will in future integrate with third party apps and services from Fintech startups, so that it becomes truly integrated with customersā€™ digital lifestyle.ā€

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It looks like Starling are inching into the business banking services space (Iā€™m not sure what the standard term is) here, by enabling businesses to accept payments from customers using Faster Payments & SEPA (later in the year) via their API & charging those businesses a fee for access to those services. This falls under their ā€˜Starling Payments Servicesā€™ offering, which I havenā€™t heard of until now.

Itā€™s obvious that this functionality is needed in order for some apps to work with the open API but less clear (to me, anyway) how this fits their consumer orientated business model, if they are offering this to companies that arenā€™t integrating directly / through Starlingā€™s marketplace :thinking:

Perhaps theyā€™re just doing it because they can & itā€™ll earn them some extra revenue or maybe the business model includes providing business services too?


Edit - Hereā€™s the FTā€™s coverage of the same news, mentioning that -

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, announced plans to improve access last year that would allow companies providing payments services to tap into these systems rather than have to rely on traditional banks.

While this tweet (which Anne - Starlingā€™s CEO - just retweeted) -

suggests to me that this is a move towards Banking As A Platformā€¦

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Iā€™ve signed up to all the fintech banks
Monzo was the first
Atom
Tandem
Starling
I must say that so far I am more impressed with monzo out of all of them
Atom had major login problems and kept locking me out the account
Starling are not as open as I would like and are beginning to remind me of the banks that are already out there
Thereā€™s a total lack of information , Iā€™ve been waiting for a beta invite forever , there is no forum , and Iā€™m about too lose interest
The fact monzo involves the community and we can keep up daily with whatā€™s happening makes me feel so much more comfortable that someone is atleast listening

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Starlingā€™s app is now in the App Store -

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/starling-bank/id956806430?mt=8


Edit - And following @anon44204028ā€™s comment below, the Play Store -

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.starlingbank.android&hl=en


so now users have another way to sign up to the waiting list :wink:

The appā€™s descriptions say this -

which translates into this -

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