I had looked at the Sainsbury’s Purchase card as I put through just under £7k with them a year. The app looks like an afterthought, and you can’t do basic things like pay the balance with it. Overall it’s probably on par with NatWest in actual cashback value over a year.
One of the main reasons of looking specifically at the Amex Nectar over the standard one. At least for 1yr before the £25 fee onwards.
Possible both standard Amex and NatWest/Sainsbury’s to cover all bases.
It’s a real shame that NatWest are focusing on Bo when they could be improving their own system. Just having instant notifications rather than every few days would do it for me.
Depending on your preference, the BA Premium Amex card offers unrivalled benefits*
*Assuming you can take advantage of the 2-4-1 reward flight voucher.
I’d be saving over £400 every year, and that’s including the £195 annual fee.
Plus, like others have said, the App is as good as any FinTech (and in fact, for what it’s used for, is far more stable).
Isn’t it Starling who are providing the App and modern services for Bó?
I believe so. Probably using it as a real world test before switching their legacy systems over all goes well. 
they might as well rebrand Starling and call it a day.
Well it was noted in the shareholder letter that Anne signed a contract to “provide payment services to support new initiatives at NatWest” a few weeks ago. Most likely Bo.
I’m not sure that NatWest and Starling’s own ‘accounts’ are that far apart currently - I notice that the Starling sort code 60-83-71 belongs/is part of NatWest’s range of sort codes. I don’t understand how it works but I’m assuming they’ve had some sort of partnership from the start. Starling have their own 04-00 one from (Clearbank?) too but they don’t seem to use it.
The app is probably Starling on the front NatWest in the back. I could be wrong though.
NatWest and Starling are very much 
from Anne history.
I’ve heard that NatWest system has been a real issue maintaining the code to even produce things like pending transactions appearing let alone instant transactions. It doesn’t have the right stack to achieve it at the moment. The app has been made to look pretty, but the chat is a mess (worse than Monzos), the UI/UX is all over the place. If you dig deeper like ask why I can’t remove cancelled DDs they don’t have it built even for staff using the hidden backend. It’s a mess basically.
I don’t know about the use of the sort code range, it might have been a cost thing or a time to get approved? The sort code page on wiki is quite interesting.
The only thing is Tom has gone on record a few times saying he personally really hates them, that Credit isn’t helping people etc
I don’t know if he’s changed his view, or if that matters in the interest of Monzo and what customers want. Especially now Monzo has begun its US invasion where most people use Credit Cards.
Apart from the fact that if he said ‘credit isn’t helping people’ then he’s wrong on that. He’s also gone back on other things he said monzo would never do. So to be honest you never know.
I think it was more around trapping people into hidden charges and breeding a culture of buying things you cant afford.
Well he said similar on loans, and then later said it that was more about making it transparent to see fees and making is easy to pay back without penalty. Which they kinda did but then fucked up the launch with the poor PR and complete lucky dip in who gets what rate/apr.
I can’t find any recent updates in views but I have found out he has skills.
I think Monzo it’s at a different stage now, they must be profitable soon and credit cards would definitely with that.
If they take the same approach used for loans it would be great. It would be great to have a seamless way to have CA and CC in one place.
0.5% cashback with no annual fee, acceptance, and the same forex terms as Monzo (no fees, no markup).
+1 for this. I really like the AMEX app. Has a weirdly similar feel to the old Monzo layout though I must say 
I’m happy with my AMEX, it does the job quite well.
I like how notifications can arrive via Google Pay when using the card online, or in shops.
Plenty of cashback offers on top of the percentage you earn while spending (in the case of the Cashback cards).
It’s such a tough call between NatWest and Amex for me personally.
I’m also torn about whether to literally use Monzo
just for ATMs (which is rare) and buy everything that supports credit card (which seems like everything these days) to earn the cashback.
Or just use the credit card for protection and improving credit report, and just using it for £100+ purchases (which again are fairly rare like a couple a month, and usually things like a restaurant which don’t need protection). But this would mean juggling it with enough largish payments to make sure like 10-20% of the credit is used.
At the moment with few 100+ and already a decent credit report is the cashback worth the fuss.
I can see a credit card useful when booking holidays, but I always get everything separate and flights are covered. I just don’t seem to have many risky large purchases. I quite like using the Monzo app too, even over Starling.
Once Starling bring out there’s (
Xmas) I might have a rethink, it would be ace if they have actually build budgeting in, which is another hesitation of having payments split and needing to keep track.
I can’t imagine a better credit card (well, charge card in my case) than what American Express offer. That isn’t to say it can’t be done, and perhaps Monzo is well placed to do so, but credit cards and current accounts aren’t really comparable, the industry is very different, they have more differences than similarities.
I’ve commented before why I do not use a debit card and suggest that everybody* uses a credit card:
Don’t bother trying to micromanage your utilisation, it’s pointless. All that really matters is you pay off your full balance every month – and that’s mostly because it’s a good habit, not for credit rating reasons, carrying a balance is not going to penalise you.
If I do, i plan to set the DD to pay in full each month. From my basic research a lot seem to suggest using 10-20, some say no more that 30, others 25-50 is best. A lot seem to suggest not going over half the available. Others saying it’s there to be used and fine if you always pay it back.
It does feel like it’s adding an unnecessary complication having to make sure I keep the right amount in a current account to pay but not so I’m losing interest with it not being in savings. Also keeping tabs on monthly spend between debit and credit. Obviously easier if all just credit, and Monzo becomes pointless to me as it’s no longer budgeting and just ATMs which my other accounts do.
I’m no spring chicken, so also think I’ve done without one so far, do I really need the hassle for a bit of cashback. But I do like getting free money for things I’m buying anyway.
I remember commenting about the donut issue.
