I was planning to create a thread about this but I will paste the guts of it here @mrw34 for those who can’t access it. It was an interesting article, the kind of article I thought Monzo would start to get when they were looked at the same critical level as legacy banks.
[…] customers using the Monzo app for their savings get significantly less interest than they would if they had the same account directly with OakNorth.
[…] a six-month fixed-rate bond with OakNorth using Monzo can earn 1.36pc on their cash. Yet by opening the account directly with OakNorth they would receive 1.76pc. This is equivalent to a 26pc gap.
[…] a nine-month savings account a Monzo user would earn 1.46pc rather than 1.81pc, a 21pc penalty. The 1.91pc rate on a one-year account with OakNorth falls to just 1.55pc through Monzo, also a 21pc loss.
[…] Monzo’s instant-access cash Isa has the same discrepancy. Savers can earn 1.14pc by using Monzo but could earn 23pc more, or 1.44pc, by going directly to OakNorth. The only advantage to using Monzo is that it offers a lower minimum balance, £500 versus the £1,000 required by OakNorth.
[…] Rival digital banks do not have such discrepancies. Starling Bank does not offer savings accounts but has investment and pension services available through its app. In each instance its customer is charged the same fees as they would be if they went direct to the underlying provider.
[…] Other aspects of Monzo’s pricing structure have also come under the spotlight. A customer taking out an overdraft of more than £20 with the bank is charged a flat fee of 50p per day. This is expensive compared with both established and digital rivals. A customer dipping £30 into their overdraft for 30 days would be charged £15 by Monzo. At First Direct there would be no charge, while at Starling Bank the cost would be 35p.