I really like Starling’s IOS UI but Monzo’s Android UI beats Starling’s Android app hands down for me. I just don’t understand particularly why they can’t make the Android app like the IOS app when Monzo’s IOS and Android apps are identical.
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I think all the people saying “I don’t like Starling because of N26, and Anne’s digs at Leader Tom, etc” really need to stop manufacturing drama. If Monzo had done the same thing everyone here would be telling the rest of us calm down and get a sense of humour.
To keep this on topic though I quite like their UI but it can be hard to find things some times. I also am not a big fan of getting all the way through an international money transfer only to be told “too late or it’s the weekend”. Just stop me before I start trying to make the payment
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What I fundamentally don’t understand is why this has to become a holy war where you’re either team Monzo or team Starling. They’re just banks. I have accounts with both. 
On the UI front, I’m hoping for a bit of an overhaul. I don’t think it likely, but the Big Green Button on Android is really irritating. And I still find it difficult to find features.
I’ve said before that ultimately my interest in Monzo is more in the financial hub rather than the bank (although that’s not an excuse for not doing the banking fundamentals well). Starling seems to be very much banking focused. If I wanted a standard current account, made frequent use of my overdraft etc then I think it would be the bank for me.
But I don’t. The things that keep me with Monzo are things that I never thought would be useful (pots, Bills Pots, IFTTT, open banking integration). That can all change over time, though, and I’m not yet convinced that I want to pay for Monzo Plus after the first three months. Other providers are looking interesting - Dozens, for example, has a lot of slow-burn potential; Starling is fine as a bank but nothing that really seems to tick all my boxes right now.
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I think it’s just what people do… I mean look at Apple vs Microsoft. People get entrenched in their views and can’t see beyond them.
I agree but then also in that case the new Virgin Money account comes into play as well and I think offer a pretty good alternative to Starling.
I like open banking integration but that’s because I can manage my credit cards from the Lloyds App. I definitely wouldn’t be prepared to pay to have it as a feature but then Starling don’t offer it at all so the fact Monzo have an option for it all is interesting.
I’m on the fence with Dozens, I’ll post my thoughts in the dozens thread though 
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That’s true. But this place is amazing when we put aside our tribes and dispassionately discuss stuff. Less so when things get personal.
What is happening with a Starling credit card, though? I’m keen to see what the offer is there.
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I too am excited about their credit card offering potential.
Given they don’t charge overdraft fees unless you’re overall in debt with them it would be interesting to see if they apply the same lending process to credit cards. A combined credit card overdraft facility could be interesting too. Give you flexibility in how you use your credit
I think Tymit and Jaja had potential but both have completely missed their respective windows. I also like have my credit card with my bank so would opt for a bank issued credit card 1st
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This is the sort of innovative product that I’m here for. A credit line rather than individual products. 
Can I ask why this is? I can understand if it’s a combined offset sort of product, or combined budgeting/insights. But right now I don’t see any of those on the market. Especially with open banking, I’ll just choose the best provider (combination of support, reliability, cost, app, features etc).
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My thoughts exactly.
I have C/C from Aqua, Tymit and Nationwide, and I find myself using the Nationwide one almost exclusively.
My Starling account is used for all things travel, but at the moment, flights, car hire, etc are paid with the Nationwide card with the money being transferred out of Starling to pay the bill.
I have been waiting with great anticipation for a Starling credit card, as it would totally centralise all of my holiday and overseas spending into one account.
Had a Lloyds account the entire time I’ve been in the UK and when I use the account for regular day to day banking they tend to approve things without too much fuss.
I guess it could be purely speculation but I think where the bank has oversight of all your “primary” finances they are in a much better position to lend. I’ve also noticed that some of my lending requirements have been approved without credit searches hitting the CRA’s which I assume is because they do internal eligibility checks
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They’ve hinted a few times at a bill point in the last few weeks so maybe it’s on its way
Can you point us in the direction of said hints?
Last I saw was Anne’s odd video where (aside from expressing a desire to have a subcutaneous payments chip fitted) she said that she thought she had a better solution than a bills pot. Which I think most of us took to simply mean she’d let us open two accounts.
Yeah surely now you can get a connected card for a pot then that isnt too far away.
It’s down to Monzo. Let’s not forget that:
a) Monzo applied to the RBS Remedies Fund but their bid/plans werent as good (or didn’t stand up to scrutiny) as that of Starling, Nationwide and Metro Bank according to the published criteria so they weren’t chosen.
b) Monzo has chosen not to be accredited to issue BBL loans.
c) Public sector contracts are awarded after a public tender process according to the Public Contact Regulations 2015 and are done on merit/cost/value. I suspect Monzo didn’t even think about applying.
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It’s commonly in reply to Facebook comments to be fair, so can’t really point you to those comments as I’m not trawling through Facebook, not like I can just pull up a webpage on those ones 
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I’m glad to see Starling doing well. Over the last few months they’ve really impressed me, enough to switch from Monzo.
Their apps / services seem to be in constant development. They generally offer most table stakes services for free. And their plans to grow revenue look sensible and not based on
- paywalling features
- banking on their fans / users wanting to support them.
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I agree entirely it was down to Monzo , I said so on here at the time of the remedies funding , and was agreed by a Monzo staff member that they had taken their eye of the ball with the development of Business accounts and the timing of application to the RBS funding
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Yes, there’s a shadowy cabal of flaggers on Monzo, informally called the Frequent Flaggers. They have a secret group where they can identify posts to flag for no reason whatsoever. You mustn’t anger them, lest you suffer a Flag Frenzy.
*adjusts tin-foil hat 
*
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I agree that this happens, but it’s counterproductive in my view. I know that whenever I scroll through a long thread of unread posts, the one post I’ll definitely stop to read is the one which has been flagged.
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Flagging is an issue, which is all too common here unfortunately. However, it can be adjusted by the administrators and given the ongoing issues from this, it appears Monzo is happy with the way it’s working.
Let’s avoid getting meta again, please.
If you want to discuss the alleged…
… then by all means start a separate thread. Or message @cookywook or @AlanDoe. Using this thread is ultimately counterproductive.
Now, what were we saying about Starling?