Is that mostly based on the app and the customer support?
To be honest Starling letting all those accounts in of sanctioned people multiple time isnt a good look. They also have no credit card type product and a lot of people have been getting rejected joining.
For me, both.
I liked the previous way Monzo was, nothing to do with the fewer options available as some seem to keep seeming to push, but that it had a good balance between being fresh and professional.
Starling was not mentioned for the range of products but merely that a fintech can appear grown up still.
Ask and ye shall receive
Given the whopping difference in size between HSBC (20%) and Monzo (18%) they could do worse
I think the app appearance is less valuable to non fintech followers who want grown up and they would lump starling with all the rest, as a new digital only bank. Grown up for those that value it will be far more likely to prefer a legacy, true old bank over any fintech.
I actually think starling is in a poor state now, its stagnant for those the want Monzo/Rev newness and those that truly value a grown up bank will see legacy real banks as a better option. They provide neither thing as best in class imo.
Then they have the fines for ignoring the sanctions list for years and multiple occasions after being told about it and then you have people saying in public they have a whole question to answer about the covid loans, to be proved to be fair but its not a mature grown up look for a digital only bank if thats its selling point.
They have no credit card (although have teased it for literally years) but if I recall did they buy a morgage book from someone? if thats the case then that could give them the needed push.
Really interesting numbers there! Thank you!
My mention of Starling really was not for any reason other than their appearance and reputation within my circles.
I don’t use them.
Yeah I just dont think Starling will be the one a lot will go to if they were to go. I would suspect legacy banks (RBS/Natwest apps are a lot better now, not class leading though) would be the ones that would pick them up.
I don’t think Starling will be where people go. It will be legacy banks as their apps improve. This is thanks to Monzo and the like of course, but many are now adapting to a fintech feel with a legacy bank reputation and solidity.
Starling is just, as I said, a good fintech that has a serious reputation and clean app.
Yep incredibly sticky, even if they open another bank account people will be lazy and not move over DD and pay. The faster switching has helped but outside of this circle I fear its under used relative to opened accounts per month and discounting people using pay to open offers.
Its a problem that will affect monzo as well, people join but never move DD and pay and just move their money across and use it all the time as effectively their primary bank. I think getting pay and DD does not necessarily make it their primary bank, using the bank account all the time does as that reflects more of mass human nature.
Just be careful here.
Monzo is great and it’s my preferred bank. But I’ve had savings elsewhere, I have other credit cards, the insurances aren’t up to much really and loans.. a few % points can be a huge difference, all for having it in a better looking app can cost you thousands.
There’s a reason there’s a huge financial market for everything.
My mortgage is with NatWest. I couldn’t care less about the app or anything else. I want the lowest rate.
I’ll use Monzo for what suits me/us best and use someone else for what doesn’t.
Very sad news. I picked up on this via the unofficial 
slack (Thanks Em)
Not many people here will know of Steve, but he was fundamental in the early growth of ‘Monzo in the media’
RIP 
As a senior manager from Monzo said at a conference this week, they don’t really care if you use the account for salary, as long as you’re using it.
It’s also worth considering how different banks define their numbers. There are big differences between
I seem to recall if you pay in £500/month Monzo consider you use them as your main account - even if you don’t.
I definitely felt the same for many years. My partner even said “I never thought you’d move from Monzo”.
My opinions on the cluttered app are already noted.
But it was also the lack of parity with the joint accounts (we use Nationwide now) which you won’t have to deal with at your age, and there have been many many changes over the years that I have felt have not had full thought put into them, half baked products, changes to premium levels a few times and not really being competitive in many areas like savings and loan APR’s. There are a myriad of reasons I use Monzo less now, many of which a new customer now may not have faced and be unaware of.
If Monzo stick to something, they do really well in it. I just have been burned a few times where they didn’t.
But this is from the pre paid days or early bank days, where I remember the debate on here about how this format didn’t work.
The app for me isn’t cluttered, I use everything from connected accounts to Mortgages, it well laid out, simple to navigate. Where people have pointed to high street banks with simple apps; they dump the difficult things back on desktop, or have the photocopiers running and just are rip offs of the Monzo ap.
Each to their own; I still find it cluttered/busy/whatever adjective you want to use, and I know plenty (and I actually mean plenty not just one or two) who have used the same words.
Now there’s a good argument that this is due to not using every aspect of it. Perhaps. But first and foremost Monzo is a bank. I want to see my full transactions in a simple manner, not just 3-5 amongst a screen with everything and the kitchen sink on.
There could be far more utilised with the lower screen. Have separate screens for your lending products, for your saving products for example. I don’t need a whole tab for the premium product. No other bank so far as I know does this.
I’m not hating on Monzo in the slightest. I think the concept of a central financial hub is brilliant. I just don’t think they’ve done it in a good way for me.
I’m not suggesting for a second everyone simply must agree with me, I understand people don’t find it cluttered. I just do. I don’t have savings or pots so I just have space where they could be, and I don’t want that at all.
Santander to me is a good balance of a nice looking app with functionality, no upselling or marketing (or none that I have seen), has the products I have only on the main page and other things are all very easily accessible on a menu.
The one thing Monzo did very well was spending analysis but then I dislike Trends and find they started to half do it. Better than any absolutely, but that’s probably the only thing I would say no other bank has come close to.
I use YNAB and I know it’s got a steep learning curve and a love-or-hate reputation but their analysis page is exactly what I would love to see on Monzo, along with a simpler Santander style main page (note: not reducing what is in the app, just the location of it).
I would say mortgages are the only major product missing now.
Most people will use a broker and go to whoever offers the best deal, I never set foot in the high street bank we got our mortgage from and I’ve never been a customer of there’s for other services either.
Small lending limits are another issue for many I reckon. The max starting overdraft with Monzo is 2k, the max starting flex limit is 3k. I don’t know about the loans but their extremely risk adverse credit scoring is an issue for many too. Last I checked Monzo would offer me a flex balance of £500 and a £3000 loan at max - Barclays will offer me a credit card with a 10k limit and a 50k loan no problem. Also none of these lending products are on joint accounts.
It does feel, in this sense, like the type of thing people might progress past as they become older (I’m fine - I don’t borrow any money at all!)
Right but the likes of Barclays still over way higher starting limits to more people. But have edited the post to say ‘starting’
