Having been with Monzo from the early days, but never really using it regularly - I decided to sign up to Starling today to see what the difference was…
I have to say, the sign up process was an absolute breeze.
Signed up - ordered card, verified account and added virtual card to Apple Pay, all within 5 minutes.
Very very slick.
This post has been temporarily closed to give everyone some time to cool off.
As the guidelines say please -
Believe what the person is saying & do not attempt to disqualify what they have to say.
& avoid:
Ad hominem attacks (criticising a poster personally, not their post).
Hey all, I’ve now reopened this topic and removed a couple of posts.
Hopefully we can keep the conversation on-topic from now on 
We also have a general Starling Feedback thread for chat that’s less Monzo-related.
Thanks!
Monzo and Starling are direct participants of the faster payments scheme whereas Tide is not a direct participant and either goes via a sponsor bank or a faster payments agency.
Starling experience
I’ve just learnt that onece you switch from Starling you cannot move back for 12 months
Having been with them for six months, and to be perfectly honest I have been very impressed by the app and all it’s functions and so have been using it as my main account. I’m leaving due to the CS experience.
My personal findings is that CS is slow, sometimes not very informative, and you keep getting cut off.
The bank CS is still a long way from proving itself in particular when things go wrong or the customer is dissatisfied.
I was so frustrated in the end that I instigate a closure of the account. What you are not told is that you have no opportunity to move back to Starling if you have changed your mind. That is you cannot open a new account for at least 12 months. Again some Starling fans feel that this is only right. Why? . Surely you would want people to come back with the experience of what they found outside of Starling ?
I also find that if you have something negative to state on the forum you literally are jumped on by dedicated Starling fans.
A good quote is that ones Feedback is mainly subjective and based on
personal views; the bank has done nothing wrong .
I’m hoping that my Monzo experience may be a little more upbeat and lighter
Objective view: You’re costing Starling money if you close and reopen accounts. Why should they accept you as a returning customer? Presumably the act of closing the account was to send Starling some kind of message? Maybe they’re sending some kind of message back?
There’s always an option to keep the account open and dormant if you want to go and bank elsewhere. That would cost Starling considerably less. They’re a business, and this kind of customer affects their bottom line.
It is exactly the same on here.
Any constructive suggestion or genuine feedback is often taken as a criticism or attack by users (not by the staff).
I think it is the same on the 3 UK fintech bank forums I have visited (though less so on a Dutch one - so it perhaps cultural)
You are right but this is not something that I have come across with legacy banks unless you can correct me on this. I’m also not trying to advocate that I simply open and close accounts for the sake of it either
So what you are we saying is that the bank will punish someone for leaving 
or are you stating that the banks should have a right to punish those that choose simply to leave 
Having dormant accounts all over the place becomes a little messy and would mess with stats etc so not really an ideal solution
However I just wanted to make people aware and with that will now be wondering if MONZO or indeed all Fintech banks have that same policy
I know that Barclaycard will decline applications if you have closed an account with them in the previous 6 months.
So it looks like this is just a standard practice across the board
I imagine it’s not standard, but each bank will have different rules/timeframes based on their cost/benefit and risk analysis.
I can imagine that behind the scenes there is a considerable admin burden which we the customer don’t see
There is all the legal obligations on data retention.
Don’t be ridiculous. It has nothing to do with ‘punishment’.
The bank is simply not taking you up on your offer to return as a customer, probably presuming you have found banking facilities elsewhere (something they might have enabled, at a further cost to them, with a Current Account Switch).
What message were you trying to send to Starling by closing your account (something about their terrible Customer Service wasn’t it?) Having sent that message, why should you presume they’d want to have you back? There are very few circumstances a bank is obliged to have anyone as a customer.
As with many things in life as an grown-up decision-making adult, you’ve made your bed, etc. etc.
wow
Thank you
You are not wrong 
You’ve mentioned this a few times without sharing examples. Could you please show us what you’re referring to? There are of course disagreements between users in this community but I don’t recognise what you’re describing.
I can’t speak for @anon44204028, but I do agree that on both the Starling and Monzo forums, anything that is an outright criticism (rather than constructive criticism), is usually responded to in an aggressive manner from the supports of the bank.
This may be in response to the user more than simply “protecting the bank”, but the feeling is there none the less.
I can’t provide examples I’m afraid, and perhaps the tone of the responses doesn’t come across well via the written word - Either way, it’s not a slight on the company, more an observation of the forums.