I was speaking to some staff from Mettle yesterday and it seems the legacy banks have finally jumped into the challenger market.
It is still early stages, not registered as a bank yet, but has NatWest behind it so can move quickly.
The main point is that it’s completely free, and they’re looking to make it a place you can go to to sign up and get everything you need to trade. Card readers, account, bookkeeping software (NatWest own FreeAgent after all).
Do Monzo know how they might compete with that, or does anyone have any further experience using Mettle?
If I hadn’t just got my Monzo business account opened this week, I’d have probably signed up to give it a go. Though the fact it’s a pre-pay card despite being ‘by Natwest’ is a bit odd, couldn’t they back and allow it to open accounts? I guess they wanted to get the architecture right the Monzo way.
The Mettle account is an e-money account provided by Prepay Solutions (PPS), a trading name of Prepay Technologies Ltd which is an electronic money institution
Not sure about the “By NatWest” part - it might be endorsed/branded/marketed by them but your money is still in the hands of a third-party e-money institution that looks like it has nothing to do with NatWest and has the potential to go bust (and no FSCS protection as it’s not a bank).
I find their homepage misleading - one of their selling points is “You’ll have confidence knowing we’re part of a trusted and regulated bank.” but yet the actual money is held by a third-party that is independent of NatWest.
Also the account features seem very basic and no desktop/web support. While it’s fine for basic banking I would really prefer if the accounting/invoicing features were available on the web so they can be used from a desktop. I didn’t see a mention of FreeAgent anywhere on the website either. No Apple Pay/Google Pay support either.
As it stands I really don’t see why anyone would go with them instead of Starling Bank (which offers a free business account, web access, mobile payments and FSCS protection). Why would they even launch with such a limited feature set?
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Cerberus
(There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.)
5
RBS bought it last year, and this year if you have a Natwest business account you can stop paying for your subscription (you have to contact them though, unless you’re a new user in which case you can sign straight up via Natwest’s online banking). I’m going to keep my Natwest business account open just to make sure I can keep my FA for free.
Cerberus
(There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.)
8
I’m Barclays and use kashflow as that’s what my accountant uses.
I have Starling.
I have the free business account that gives me more time for working, and less time for worrying about the lack of FSCS protection. Oh, and mobile payments too.
Still don’t understand who’s their target market. People who have done zero market research? (which I’d understand for a personal prepaid card, but a business account?)
