Well that was right on cue…
Completely agree with this. In ‘Leslies’ situation it was something not great but for the vast majority of people this wouldn’t be so unusual, especially if they’ve kept a joint account where its made explicitly clear that it belongs to either of you.
Dreadful article. No real data to support the headline. Just anecdotes from about 3 customers.
As per usual ! 
That’s the sort of lack of drama I maybe have been needing really 
50,000 in six months is a pretty good effort
I don’t want yet another post comparing to certain other banks, but does stand up well
Some other banks would really love this rate of signups. Good work Monzo.
You need to go read Starling’s figures from last month.
Now, less than nine months later, we’ve opened…almost 200,000 business accounts for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Don’t ruin my joke man. C’mon!
I don’t think Monzo has really pushed/spent that much on marketing for business though have they? I literally saw the Starling business advert on tv like five times a day for months before and during the lockdown. Business adverts on youtube as well. My understanding is that Monzo have been much more low key with it.
It was less a straight comparison between the relative customer numbers, and more a comment that Starling should somehow desire Monzo’s growth, bearing in mind it has opened four times the number of accounts in just a little longer.
Starling had a government funded advertising campaign to get to that number
I think that is an overstatement. I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere that the government directly funded Starling bank for any reason
They applied for, and got awarded, a fair chunk of cash from the RBS Remedies fund but that is not direct government money. The money was awarded after fair and open competition - something Monzo could’ve applied for
The other reason for their growth, I’m guessing is the Incentivised Switching Scheme. As part of Remedies RBS had to offload some 100000+ SME customers (if articles are to be believed) to other banks and Starling is one of those
You have to remember that Starling offered what is essentially fee-free banking which is a significant advantage over the competition.
Monzo’s is somewhat feature limited compared to Starlings.
Maybe because not every business needs those things?
Didn’t everyone except Starling end up handing back the money they were awarded?
And Monzo did apply for the second round as I recall.
That’s not a reflection on Starling. They got the money rightfully and - as the figures show - used it to improve their offering, customer numbers and to shoot for profitability despite COVID.
Nationwide and Metro handed the money back but not out of the goodness of their heart. The former decided not to do SME banking after all and the latter was discovered to be making major losses
What’s your source for this info?
I would say “government funded” is a bit of a stretch, terminology-wise, but I couldn’t escape Starling advertising for a while after the government-mandated RBS fund that happened to select Starling
I guess someone could twist it that way… Same way someone could suggest that any advertising Mono did immediately after they got welsh government funding was also government funded