Surprised to discover a new bank in gestation here in London with no discussion in the forum. B-social, as it was known until earlier this month (and was up for a British Bank Award this year alongside Monzo) has just become Kroo and is in the process of applying for a UK banking licence.
Kroo seems to be a banking hybrid of Splitwise and Monzo’s bill-splitting tabs feature, with its own debit card built-in.
I think you have to be super die-hard to try all these banks.
I used to use my Lloyds account as my ‘spends’ and Natwest as bills. My boss mentioned Monzo because of the money abroad features, I liked the look of his card, notifications and I gave it a go. Put some money in to test it out and now it’s my full-time bank.
Had my boss had Starling or any of the others, then I’d have probably tried those and be with them instead.
But to try one now is more effort than I’m willing to put in. It would have to have something really good to lure me over and if I put £50 in, what am I going to learn? It’s even more effort to see how it handles direct debits etc. Set up pots or whatever they call them.
I think the point of Kroo is that it’s more social than just single-user in isolation.
I am just interested in the journey to wherever we end up in, say, five years. There will be winners and losers, but it’s interesting to see another company give something unique a try.
I must be getting old. I have a good bunch of friends but I don’t have a “kroo”.
Actually, scrub that. I am getting old. I don’t like emojis in Monzo help chat; don’t understand much beyond smile, wink, and sad face anyway; pretty unlikely to be kroo’s target demographic!
Edit - interesting concept though, and I do enjoy seeing how things are evolving.
I’m a bit fintech fatigued.
I might have been interested a few years ago, but right now I just want Starling/Monzo/Dozens etc to mature into reliable, robust and feature rich platforms that do what they promised: constant product development and iteration.
I’m not sure that I have the energy to go through this all again. 
Maybe that’s the point. Perhaps Kroo have entered the market too late? In any case, opening up just as coronavirus hits might be catastrophic. Perhaps the best it can hope for is to sell its tech to a high street bank?
Ha. Kroo won Best Newcomer this year after being nominated in that category last year? What kinda shit they pulling?
The thing with Kroo I think (having got a card for my collection) is that it does the same thing as Splitwise, but you have to wait for debit cards to turn up, so you can’t really get friends to join up en route to a weekend away etc. And it’s a bigger ask, to get folk to open a proper account, rather than download the Splitwise app.
I have seen promoted Tweets for Kroo on Twitter so they clearly are trying to push themselves to gain more users.
Not long now 
Strong reference to what Starling bank does now 
Only in case you want to help to plant 10 trees each 
No not yet
Just installed and signed up.
Pet peeve - not properly localised for GB. “license” - eugh
Crashes if you don’t give contact access.
The atm limits are not clearly explained during signup
Verification pending, so we shall see.
Is Wirecard still a thing?!?
Kroo will be bought for its banking licence. By Revolut, or maybe N26.
They’ve got to become an actual bank 1st though, still on that journey to get fully licensed, restrictions placed upon them by BoE, just not read what they are yet.
Found the bits I was looking for about the restrictions
Not sure I’ve got the energy to want to open a prepaid debit card account. Won’t be one I’m trying anytime soon I don’t think. Wait and see what the actual current accounts look like when they go live.
(all by one tap in settings)