Competitor update

I’m not really fussed just it’s being mentioned a lot on here so was just wondering, also I don’t really fancy having any searches on my credit file just to view something I won’t really use.

i dont think ill bother with starling, monzo covers most of my financial needs. all thats left is direct debit/ standing orders and faster payments!! and thats all coming soon. plus i dont want to many accounts. im trying to make my banking simpler not more akward.

I agree with Alex [quote=“alexs, post:806, topic:5861”]
Depends how badly you want a challenger’s current account & standard account features I guess.
[/quote] which for me was ready to go asap but of course excited for Monzo :monzo: to release the full version too!!

I am enjoying using Starling at the moment everything seems to be working fine for me with no bugs :bug: direct debits work :white_check_mark: (and you get notified when they go which is a good) as well as faster payments. :white_check_mark:

Only thing i am really missing is the Emojis :sob: and tagging and adding receipts but have been advised this is being added soon (but no time frame mentioned) also missing features like map location and merchant logos are hit and miss but again there are in beta so developing all these features.

But apart from those little niggles i am enjoying using a challenger bank account

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Received the email this morning, has a passcode which is to be put into the app.

Well it’s about time, I have waited for however long now!!

Yep, got the email today. Two weeks to go it seems. A question though: When Starling refer to their great currency rates, are they on the same basis as Monzo and Revolut?

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I think Revolut’s deal is a little bit different because they’re working with a third party provider to get to their rates. But it’s the same deal as Monzo -

From Starling Customer Service

Are there any account fees?

There is no fee to have an account.
We do not charge fees for using your card abroad.
We do not charge unauthorised overdraft fees.
We do not charge you for withdrawing money from ATMs.

And from Legal documentation - Starling Bank

MasterCard foreign exchange rates will apply for transactions outside the UK or online in foreign currency.

This is the new normal, the banks & particularly, the travel money card providers, just haven’t accepted it yet.

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Thanks Alex, useful to know.

N26 are parterning with a German start-up to offer savings accounts.

From what i’ve seen, N26 seem to be Monzo’s closest rival in terms of current offering and long-terms aims/goals (Becoming a financial hub). I think i remember seeing an article where Tom spoke very highly of them, going as far as saying that they were the benchmark.

They don’t currently operate in the UK but I’d assume that will change over the next 12-18months.

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I thought they had planned to enter UK but with the brexit vote that was all put on hold

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Arguably Monzo’s closest rival is Starling, as they share Monzo’s business model too & are based in the UK but assuming that N26 move into the UK or Monzo expands into Europe, as they plan to, they will definitely be a competitor.

Having seen some of the issues that I’ve seen reported on Twitter, I’m not sure they’re “the benchmark” but he definitely has said that they’re a year ahead of Monzo.

I don’t know the timescale but I expect you’re right that they’ll enter the UK market at some point.

I wonder what will happen now…

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If it’s anything like the outsourcing to India we tried, I’d recommend selling your RBS shares ASAP!

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Just got my Starling invite code.

I wasn’t able to copy paste my invite code into the field.
The address form was a little confusing.
The initial form submission failed, but resubmission worked. But later said they were unable to verify my details automatically and now waiting for it to be manually approved.

I had the same, with the Terms and Conditions where it failed, and agree the address field is backward, as should be house number / name first then post code…

Not a bad UI and UX to be honest, just needs a few tweaks i feel…

Same for me but managed to get my details verified after a few minutes.

My card will ship on Friday.

EDIT: some first impressions:

  • I don’t like how there is a separate tab to transfer money TO my bank account. I realise it makes using Starling more practical but at the same time makes it feel more like a toy. I would never expect e.g. Barclays mobile banking app to support incoming payments through Apple pay. Acct/Sort is enough since it supports faster payments.
  • Functionality-wise, Monzo is way ahead: no bill splitting (Monzo’s implementation remains quite rudimentary but still…), no budgeting (not that I particularly like Monzo’s implementation).
  • Monzo feels more like a public beta of many features, whereas Starling feels more like a -quite limited for now- bank.

Will post again after I get the card.

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It’s always amusing when these bits of info about the legacy banks get out - Barclay’s systems are still running on Windows XP :see_no_evil:

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damn… thats madness.

Well I should be receiving my card for Starling shortly, I agree that the functionality of their app (android) is definitely behind Monzo… However Monzo’s Android app is way behind iOS so maybe it is the same for Starling but for me there isn’t much to the app.

Sent myself a test payment back and fourth and the detail within the transaction is very basic… Maybe it will tell me more when I can properly test with the card.

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And this:

Quite interesting!

I have monzo on both android and iPhone and there is almost no difference to me. iOS has targets which are handy, but that’s about the only difference I can think of.