So Starling Bank is expected to launch soon.
And will probably launch it’s full current account offering before Monzo.
@tom was the CTO of Starling Bank before leaving to set up monzo. And most of the current features of Monzo are expected to be part of the Starling app.
Will you be joining? And what effect (if any) do you think being first to market will have on Monzo’s success and further customer acquisition?
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Being first to market is always an advantage like first horse off in a race but just as the horses behind can catch up and overtake so can Monzo with the right offerings the right app and the right management
On Inauguration Day we should be asking Can Monzo Trump Starling 
For me, being a full bank doesn’t really make a difference. I mean as long as only current accounts are offered, I will be needing a legacy bank for savings, credit card, etc. Accordingly, I will probably leave my incoming pay and DDs at that bank, transferring to Monzo/Starling only an amount corresponding to my monthly day-to-day spending.
As such, for me choosing between Monzo/ Starling/ Loot and the likes will mainly depend on who offers little features such as customisable budgeting, a robust bill splitting mechanism, a transaction feed where I can easily understand what I spent where, Apple Pay and things like that.
I think Starling’s feature set is going to be pretty good, and will have most of the things on it’s first launch that Monzo have on their roadmap for the next 6-9 months.
I can’t base that assumption on any facts though. But is an assumption based on how long it’s been in development and how much money it has raised.
However they have posted images of an apple watch app and the now standard real time push notifications.
I also think the branding of Starling may attract a wider customer base. I like the bank card and think it’s something that my parents would prefer over Monzo.
I’m looking forward to trying it out. 2017 is going to be a good year for challenger banks.
Someone else had posted on this thread, but had later deleted the post.
But the post basically asked since I was a “co-founder” of Tandem bank why I had not mentioned them.
Just incase anyone else scrolls down through my twitter feed and sees this just to be clear being a “co-founder” of Tandem bank just means you sign up to the waiting list to access the Beta. I made no financial investment in Tandem Bank.
But if you want to sign up feel free to use my referral code.
Also I don’t get the impression Tandem will be as big of a competitor.
For me I think it’s going to be Starling vs Monzo.
that was me then I thought couldn’t be bothered with the argument and deleted it
So @anon95680666, having used Monzo since the alpha do you have any interest in other challenger banks?
Personally I think it may be quite interesting to see how Starling’s approach plays out. They’ve kept their cards quite close to their chest with no public beta, or details on their feature set.
A lot of complaints I’ve seen about Monzo are based on the fact it’s a beta. Problems like why can’t I pay my salary directly into the account, where’s apple pay, why is there no android app, why is there such a big waiting list ect.
Im a Crowdcube investor in Monzo, but wasn’t bothered about changing my alpha to crowd cube investor status.
I signed up to Starling about 4 months ago and apart from maybe 3 emails of “we’re launching soon” have had absolutely no other information, of what they are offering in their app, when it will launch etc. Their website shows no indication of what they are offering , all very secretive , not too enticing though
Megan from Starling is a member of Monzo community along with probably quite a few others of their staff and I am sure it will be a very similar offering to what Monzo are now doing because Monzo is being so open with what they are doing and with all the feedback on this forum is like a free focus group for Starling to replicate.
Most of Monzo founders chose to leave Starling for various reasons , along with Starlings next CTO, Mark Hipperson, there must have been some sort of staff conflict in Starling, hopefully it is now all sorted out and not ongoing
I found Starlings little jape of registering a Monzo web name a bit too childish - each to their own I suppose - they seemed to find it very amusing between themselves.
The Starling twitter account seems to regularly tweet but then seems to only have members of staff retweeting or liking the post , and doesnt seem to be getting much traction with followers - whether this is important for market share who knows ?
I agree Starling will be Monzos main competitor and I think Ive already said this on this forum somewhere, only time will tell if they can both succeed in the same market place with presumably the same or very similar offering.
Complaints about Monzo - hmmm - Starling are skipping the Beta phase whether thats sensible or not who knows , they will present their product and people will either like it or not I suppose , Monzos beta is an evolving product which takes their customers views into account wherever possible.
Paying Salary direct into account - Monzo and Starling are, I believe in the same stages (maybe not exactly) in their banking licence application , both have restrictions where they cannot accept more than 50K in deposits. This is going to change presumably for both banks this year so will work through that "complaint"
Do Starling have an Android app , who knows, they don’t have an I phone app that they are showing to anybody else at the moment , Monzo used limited funds to make an I phone app and have repeatedly said their Android app is catching up.
Waiting Lists - big waiting lists are good aren’t they - shows how popular the app is ? - Monzo got an extra £5m from passion to expand their card issuing which have speeded up the waiting list
To be honest, the card and app look good, quite classy in the picture above. I think that eventually a lot of the ‘app’ banks will end up very much alike in app features. I’m sure all will borrow ideas from each other and it will come down to personal choice in the end.
I’m happy with Monzo and prepared to wait to see what they have, all the signs are promising.
That may be true. But the core features of Monzo, IMO, are clearly replicated based off Starling’s feature set. After all a few ex starling staff are now at Monzo so it’s safe to assume some ideas were taken from internal discussions at Starling.
Yeah, same. I thought it was weird. But fair play, they took advantage to gain some free marketing based off an unregistered domain name.
And it’s not the first time a company forgot to register an important domain hotmail.co.uk
It’s in development. I assume they will launch them at the same time to avoid the fragmentation issues Monzo currently has.
yes , not sure how quickly Starling can gain their first 100,000 customers, Monzo is quite close to that now, will they keep them once signed up who knows , I am very happy with my Monzo card , Ive managed to convince maybe 15 friends of all ages to sign up, I like how Monzo take on board ideas and requests from customers from this forum and office meet ups - Starling for me, are a bit too secretive in their operation and as I said the obviously high grade staff that they didn’t manage to keep worries me that there seems to be some sort of conflict in their business coming from somewhere.
For some I guess it depends on what is on offer from the others compared to Monzo.
If it’s great deal then some people will jump ship I’m sure. Monzo’s future is in its own hands.
Starling’s whole plan is to catch a tan in Monzo’s sunshine 
You hope lol. As an investor you have money to lose… so all investors naturally we will be promoting Monzo regardless of the competition and how good they are in my honest opinion
I think for a lot of people it’ll depend on what they are actually offering. At the moment I know it’ll be a current account, that’s about all.
There card Design is poor. But I like purple. & the name doesn’t sound as Silly. I’m still not over losing Mondo for Monzo … for me branding is important. I think Monzo is a stupid name as do most people I talk to . To be honest I do not need an overdraft as I have my own money. The card is great internationally but again I’m with nationwide & there cards are fee free abroad too (subject to status)
One wonders why Tom left and if it was acrimonious? I would love to know the full story.
It’s not Inauguration Day here in the UK…
The first one that offers Apple Pay for payments will be the one that gets my business, whilst the others lie dormant