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 
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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.
Here’s some more details on Starling Payment Services which is a division of Starling Bank. Obviously this isn’t of interest to consumers but since the revenue from this part of their business could be used to fund the development of the consumer feature’s & services, it’s worth keeping an eye on.
They now have a showcase page on LinkedIn.
The pitch is:
Starling Payment Services is connected to all the main payment schemes within the UK, which include:
• Access to BACS providing Direct Debit and Direct Credit
• MasterCard Issuance
We’re focused on being open, secure and connected. Our open API means we’re ready for your business and we offer transparent pricing along with excellent customer service. Security is critical to us and we have enhanced technology built to ensure the highest level of security for our clients. Starling Payment Services is your connection to the payments world through Faster Payments, BACS and SEPA and all in real time.
They also have a page on the website -
which reveals that the charges to the businesses that use the service are per-payment.
& some more of the pitch:
- Real-time Faster Payments
- No capital investment to connect to Faster Payments
- Simple Integration to Starling’s API
- Minimum on-boarding costs
- Your own sort-code, making your accounts addressable
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Will take 3+months for Monzo Current Account API to be public:
What are your thoughts?
I think this is fair, everyone wants current accounts so this needs to be prioritised
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