Its survival of the fittest, and they’re not that at the moment. The ‘nearly’ being a bank model seems something that most are going for.
Monzo and Starling certainly appear to be top of the tree at the minute, but I’m sure others will be challenging soon enough. I guess it just depends on what suits you and what you want from it all.
None have actually produced a full current account, and the race is on. Whilst not necessarily ensuring survival, it’ll be loads of free press for the first to launch.
I’ve been using Starling a few days now having got my card at the end of last week - just wanted to share my thoughts so far. Obviously both are still beta so improvements are ongoing.
+ves
Being a bank has its upsides - faster payments, direct debits, standing orders etc. I need these in day to day life and the process for setting up new payees is super easy compared to any existing bank.
I also really like receiving the notification when cash comes in, whether it be a paycheque or money from a friend who doesn’t use monzo.
-ves
Monzo’s transaction detail is vastly superior currently, with Starling’s transaction data feeling NatWest like.
The pie chart in S doesn’t seem to show any useful insight at this time - Monzo targets again are ahead of the game.
Overall
Great to have a live competitor and I’m looking forward to Monzo offering a full banking service at some point in the summer. If I’ve come across negative about Starling I should add that I think they are the best bank in the market now in terms of providing data and ease of use. I will keep my other accounts open for higher credit interest (Starling gives 0.5%) and cashback on bills for now…
Although did get an email from Atom saying how many customers signed up last week… they where my hope for a current account but cant see that being close…
Cleo helps me get around this for Barclays and Santander, sadly Santander have quite a delay so if you go overdrawn for instance you may find out at the end of th day
Hopes fade for the Co-operative Bank as The Bank Bank of England has placed them under “intensive supervision” in contingency plans to ensure the “orderly failure” of the 150 year old bank.
If or when the bank collapses deposit holders will be protected by the FCSC scheme, but those with deposits in excess of those limits would be prudent to withdraw their excess money now.
Premium is a subscription service that allows people to make unlimited money transfers through the app for a fixed monthly price of £6.99 a month. Subscribers will also get other benefits such as overseas medical insurance and special customer service.
The first 5,000 Premium subscribers will get guaranteed access to Revolut’s upcoming crowdfunding, meaning the startup is in effect asking customers to pay for the privilege of investing. Over 10,000 people expressed interest in investing in Revolut last year.
Special customer service?! I hope it’s better than the customer service I received earlier this week when I closed my Revolut account!
Finally got past ‘Rita’ (their automated support bot) at about 9PM and asked to cancel my account. I was told an agent would be with me in a few minutes. I heard nothing.
I woke up the next morning to see that Revolut had replied at 11:30PM, asked for some details, and at 4PM messaged again to say ‘I am closing this chat due to inactivity’. Well of course I’m going to be inactive if you message me when I’m asleep! So I had to go through the entire process again…wait another 3 hours to see 2 app notifications, however after trying to open the app, it wouldn’t let me log in and appeared they had cancelled my account without asking anything else.
!