I went with transferwise. It is a straight forward solution especially as I travel lots.
Out of curiosity - Why do people use the challenger banks?
Don’t get me wrong, I signed up for Monzo in the early “Mondo” days, and have used Curve, Emma etc, so I do like a good FinTech product - But I’m yet to really be convinced in moving everything over from my main 2 legacy banks (one has salary and a few bills, the other a joint account with 90% of the bills).
The legacy banks apps work OK, and their savings accounts have small amounts of interest (better than nothing).
What do people look for when moving over to a Starling/Monzo account?
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I hate being sent to my local branch to sort out things which should be available online or at least by telephone banking(3 times in the last month alone!) with FinTech companies that isn’t a possibility so adequate support/functionality is offered online or using their support team.
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I like knowing straight away via notifications when money enters or exists my bank account. That is why I use Monzo, Starling and Curve.
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I am happy to move everything over to Monese with £ and € accounts and cards, IBAN, incoming and outgoing SEPA credit transfers, BACS Direct Debits and SEPA Direct Debits, PayPoint and Post Office deposits (PayPoint really handy as more locations than Post Office).
I can’t see Monzo or Starling being a suitable candidate as a primary account when they lack the basics of international payment functionality.
Yeah, I can see that POV.
But… what is the advantage of Monese over say, a First Direct (who I’ve found to be really good) - The App is… meh (it works, and is relatively easy to navigate).
You never get any down time, and you have the comfort of it being a huge bank - Despite that comfort possibly being irrelevant.
As for notifications @arthur, I do love a good notification! But I know when my bills come out, so the only other time I’ll get told is when I spend something - Which I don’t need a notification for.
I’d love to use a challenger bank properly - But I’m yet to be fully converted.
personally I love the Monese app as I find it very user intuitive
Also in the past when I applied for a First Direct account they refused for the reason I did not have my own secure front door but a front door off a communal hallway so post was publicly accessible and therefore not secure!
Haha - How comical.
I love the advancement we’ve had with opening bank accounts etc - The Monzo sign up process was great.
But with 99% of my spending going on credit cards (especially now there is no fee), so I can get the “benefits” - Be it cash back or AMEX where possible, all of the positives that the challenger banks are famed for, go out of the window.
Unless you are using your bank as your primary spender (and therefore receive a granular view of the spending with graphs etc), I see no advantage.
But… what is the advantage of Monese over say, a First Direct
The fact that it’s not powered by legacy rust.
As an example, I’ve recently paid off my Capital One credit card by bank transfer and explicitly called them to cancel my Direct Debit due to a previous incident like that. Mentions of direct debits disappeared in their app, but yet, they still took the DD in the end because the rust didn’t properly handle the fact that I’ve already paid off the balance. Had to use the “direct debit guarantee” and ask Monzo to reverse the payment (which they did 15 minutes after I sent the chat message).
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Seconded – I’m also thinking of taking out an account with Starling. They seem to be tracking slightly ahead of Monzo in terms of features, though I’m not leaving here, since I feel that Monzo will ultimately get there.
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Are any of these on Visa? Wouldn’t it be wise to carry 1x Mastercard debit and 1x Visa debit?
I may be wrong, but I think you can order a Visa card with Revolut…
Monese ditched their Visa cards and switched them over to Mastercard.
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personally I would say the only time it is really worth getting a different card is Maestro for Netherlands and Germany, UnionPay for China, and JCB for Japan.
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Looking at Monese and all it offers I’m just a little confused with the charges
Depositing money via the post office incurs charges
In your opinion do you still believe that this option is a good one with all the charges that potentially can be incurred
Just a question and a little concern
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I wouldn’t bother with monese or loot as they have a habit of closing or freezing people’s accounts after they deposit £500 or higher and ignoring emails as to why. I have both but don’t use them like that to have such issues.
I’ve just had a look on their forum and was quite surprised with some of the reoccurring issues around frozen accounts
While I have heard regular problems with frozen accounts at Tide and problems with responses from their customer service, At Monese I have on multiple occassions deposited in and transfered out sums over 500 with no issues whatsoever, plus I find their human customer service great (once you select an option to bypass the chatbot assistant)
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+1 for Monese, i use their free account although they charge for their debit card. The biggest thing that puts me off Monzo is an apparent blindness to any fault. (One example being a post about refusal to accept marriage certificate for name change and reading some of the frankly ignorant responses. Amazing.)
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I wouldn’t risk my money with Monese, they have a history of closing/freezing accounts